Poll: Do you prefer collimator lens or reflector for your flashlight?

Do you prefer a collimating lens or a reflecor for your flashlights?


  • Total voters
    98
i luv optics, so i voted optics, but i also like reflectors too, i just dont luv them :)
different tool different job, more and more the optics are getting better.
 
One thing that pugs me about optics is it projects the enlarged die image so you get this (esp with Lux V and K2) 4 sqaures with a cross in the middle, kinda ugly if you ask me.
 
65535 said:
One thing that pugs me about optics is it projects the enlarged die image so you get this (esp with Lux V and K2) 4 sqaures with a cross in the middle, kinda ugly if you ask me.

cheap trick to try, take a normal hole punch for paper, and punch out a piece of plastic difusion, push it up into the hole in the optic. everything changes. yet still most of the diffused light lands in the optic to be bent.

some optics have a divet in that hole, a inverted cone (so to speak) that refracts the light into the side of the optics, i assume its purpose is to do the same thing.

Other fun things to do with optics:
try also putting glow powder, or tritium , or reflection behind the optics , around the sides and below on the star thing. any extra spilt out light will do something different then.
 
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I started modding as an optics guy and was satisfied with the results until my first McR. No turning back now,

Larry
 
chevrofreak said:
Reflector. I have yet to see an optic beam that I was impressed with.

try searching for aspherical
you get stuff like this

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=154760&highlight=Aspherical

after YEARS of wading this forum, and after actually have used 2* optics, and asphericals, i really didnt know how MANY people were actually (finnaly) using them.

also, you can CHANGE the focus with them, which (for a start) can turn the auful square into a smooth beam with throw that most reflectors wont/cant even do.
 
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you know how many YEARS it has been that these lenses have been available, and now with the great 27mm optics for the cree and lo-moon and other leds with tuned tight beams.
its not your gradfathers optics anymore :)

And how many YEARS we have been piddling with this junk and STILL they dont have many LED lights that can focus like a MAG?
Yes like a MAG from what 1970, and its 2007 and FOCUS is still a dirty LED word :)

are people AFRAID to focus a LED :) might it complicate the light to much? require to many extra beamshots :)

umm YES we can say throw, we had great throw with 2* optics YEARS ago again, but did anyone notice? Silverons optics threads sank like a sub with screen doors
the led throw threads , drifted off into an oblivion of reflector world, as if optics that could OUT-THROW lots of reflectors were gleaned over.

MAKE the Phase change, observe for mere seconds, the possibility of optics again, the Few the Proud, the lost in the sea of similarity, Bring the world of focus to life. only YOU can prevent Static beams
 
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I'm with what looks like the majority.. prefer reflectors because without a spill beam a light has less utility value....

I like the wall of light effect from lights like the P91, and LuxV based lights. but even tightly focused incans and LEDs have tons of useful spill (un re-FLECTed light) coming out the front. pointing a optically controlled beam off into the woods doesn't tell me much about how many boogie monsters are on either side of my nice cute dot in the woods.

My RR 1.5W with the "ball" on the end gets used less than any other light I own, haven't found any practical use for it other than showing it to people. It's too much light in a tight spot up close, and it's not enough light far out to be useful in any way for me.
 
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