good led spot lens

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miczim

Newly Enlightened
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Feb 5, 2009
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I recently purchased a Luxeon III lambertian emitter and am trying to find a good lens for it. I have tried the L2 Narrow Beam 5° Spot Lens and was a little disappointed with the spot. The spot did not have a distinctive edge and the angle seem a lot wider than 5 degrees. I currently have a diamound led bulb in my 3d maglite and I can get a really tight, bright spot that throws extremly far. I was hoping to find an led lens system that would focus and throw a spot similar to my mag.


Does anybody have a recommendation for an extremely tight, far throwing led lens? I'm not totally set on Luxeon III. Luxeon K2 or even a Cree emitter would be ok.
 
Welcome to CPF, miczim.

This is the thread you posted yesterday. You have just tried to post it again, but I have deleted that copy, as duplicates and cross-posting are not allowed.
 
FYI a current gen LED at the same power will have twice or more output then the Luxeon III at the same power. The Luxeon I, III, K2, V are all previous generation LEDs. The Cree XR-E, MC-E, Seoul P4, P7, Luxeon Rebel, TFFC K2 are all current gen LEDs.

IIRC there was a 2 degree optic for the Luxeon I and III. It fit in the Maglite head.

What size optic are you looking for?

The Maglite reflector with a high power LED throws pretty well as you can tell.

Swapping the LED of your diamond drop-in to a current gen one(not sure how hard that would be) should double or more the output of the light. But for the trouble it might be better to get a new drop-in.

What price range are you looking at?
How much throw?

------------

Is this the drop-in you have?

There are actually quite a lot of lights that are smaller and have more throw then that with a Maglite. Some of those lights can fit in the Maglite. They have a wider beam so the throw is due to the amount of output.

:welcome:
 
Here's the scoop. I need to have a red LED. A red lambertian Luxeon III has a rating of 140 lumens (@1400ma). This is the highest rated output for any red LED.

This light will function as a varmint light for spotting foxes and coyotes at night. My 3D mag with the red diamond LED upgrade works awesome. My maglite reflector creates a very tight hot spot with lots of throw. I can illuminated the eyes of fox out to 600 yards. The only thing I don't like is the large amount of side spill I get from my diamond LED. The side spill is coming directly from the LED and not from the reflector. Normally side spill is a good thing because it provides area illumination. In my case, I don't want side spill. The spill illumates the area around me and make is easier for people (and animals) to see the source of the light. It also silhouettes my form at night.

I was hoping to create a red LED thrower that trims side spill. My inital idea was to take a Luxeon III emitter and put a L2 5degree lens on it. In order to trim the side spill, I was then planning on sinking the emitter/lens far back into a flash light tube .

After I recieved my L2 5degree lens a few days ago, I tested to see what kind of throw I would get from my lens. I made sure the lens was focused properly. I was disappointed that the spot wasn't anywhere close to the tight spot I get on my maglite.

I believe I need to forget the whole "lens" idea and stick with a small flashlight reflector. I will probably buy some Ultrafire relectors and start experimenting.

If anybody has any suggestions for a LED lens that has a really tight spot, I would appreciate it.
 
Try a lens, not an optic. Also the diameter of the optic/reflector has to do with throw. A light can only throw so far with a small reflector or optic. More throw = larger and probably deeper reflector or optic.

The problem with a lens is that you'll loose output since not all the light is hitting the lens. But it should give pretty much all throw and no spill if the inside of the light absorbs the light not hitting the lens.
 
" Try a lens, not an optic."

Will an aspheric lens have the tight hotspot and miminal side spill I'm looing for. Maybe something like this
:ironic:
 
Do you have a link to the optic that you used?

Look at the first beamshots of this thread. There is no visible spill in them. The other lights have quite a bit of spill. The second beamshot shows a bit of spill. Much less then the other light but still some spill. The spill could be from the light reflecting off the lens on to the heatsink. If the heatsink was plack there should be less spill.

There will always be some spill.

Try using a magnifying glass. Place it infront of the LED and move back and forth it till you get the throw you want(depends on the magnifying glass itself, you might not get the throw you want). Then see how much spill you get. If it's still too much, then I don't know what will work(Wide beam laser?). Try it in a dark room to be sure that the spill isn't from another light source.

A Cree XR-E LED could be better with a lens since it projects more of the light forward then sidways compared to a Luxeon.
 
Does the red LED do anything special for spotting varmints? It highlights the blood vessels in their retina? I've heard that different animals' eyes reflect different colors. Do you carry any other colored lights to search for pests?
 
I'd also like to add that I really like your thinking on your setup. I myself use a red Streamlight Stylus with the sharp spot attachment with gives me a nice tight red circle with absolutely no spill. This by no means would work for you, I use it for spotting cats, rabbits and other small animals in my small backyard. Great for spooking people if the cat's dark enough as they'll only see red eyes:devil:
 
greenlight said:
Does the red LED do anything special for spotting varmints? It highlights the blood vessels in their retina? I've heard that different animals' eyes reflect different colors. Do you carry any other colored lights to search for pests?
Click to expand...
A red light will not spook animals very easily. There have been times while calling for fox that I had them run into about 20 yards even though I had the hot spot of my red light shining on them the whole time. Usually fox and coyotes spook when they smell you, not usually from the red light. They eyes of cats, foxes, coyotes, and bobcats reflect very brightly. When you shine on an animal with a pure red light, their eyes will always shine red, but with varying level on intensities. The eyes of opossums and rabbits will have a dim reflection. If you use a white light, you'll notice that the eyes of some animals will reflect different colors. Sometimes they reflect with tints of yellow, green, or blue.
 
greenlight said:
You might consider modding a Pelican Recoil.

I'm awaiting this light:
Ultrafire UF-007 (Recoil Led)
Maybe there is a red cree for that one.
Click to expand...
It looks like the Pelican Recoil has a concave reflector right behind the inverted emitter. I'm guessing this would make the output all throw and no spill. Please let me know how you like your new light.
 
Last edited:
Did you try the magnifying glass yet? If that still gives too much spill then the recoil style thing might work.

The problem with a recoil type setup is complexity. The reflector is parabolic with the LED at the focal point, same with all other reflectors except the focal point is now on the top of the reflector instead of at the bottom. The LED has to be heatsinked while not blocking too much light.

It might be impossible to make a light with no spill.
 
miczim said:
Please let me know how you like your new light.
Click to expand...
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=213419
My new light came today. It is many magnitudes brighter than any other light I own, like my Streamlight PP4AA. The beam is visible on the farthest trees and the hill on the other side of the valley.

There is a small corona around the spot. I think it's an image of the reflector. It is visible up to 5m, but farther than that it's not a factor.

It's an outdoor light. On high it's too bright for inside the house, the spot is blinding.

I'll take mine with a green LED, but this would rock with a RED led, too.

One drawback is the reverse clickie. I prefer to pick a level and use the light in momentary mode.

The light is very well made and has some heft to it. The threads are smooth.
 
Hey "greenlight" thanks for letting me in on your new toy. If you get a chance, I would love to see a beam shot.
 
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