milkyspit
Flashlight Enthusiast
Scotch has a special tape that I've been using for a couple years now to protect the text entry area on my Handspring Visor PDA. It's got a lightly textured surface and the same type of adhesive backing as on Post-It Notes. It never occurred to me to try it for diffusing a flashlight beam, but I recently read a post by another CPFer (sorry, forgot who) talking about using some sort of Scotch tape for exactly that purpose. I don't know if he was referring to this one or one of the other Scotch products, but it got the wheels turning in my head, and...
...tried it on my stock KL1 head with high dome emitter and NX05 optic, and it's terrific! The artifacts in the beam have completely disappeared, and now the hotspot smoothly falls off all the way to the edge of the sidespill. It makes for a terrific close range beam, or short range floodlight. I'm thinking this sort of beam would be great for camping. I can't stress strongly enough how absolutely AMAZED I am at how well this stuff works! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif
In case there's any doubt about which product I'm talking about, I lifted this ad copy from an online seller of the stuff...
(Start of ad copy)
(End of ad copy)
I'm not sure, but thought I read somewhere that this tape is available in widths up to one inch, and heck, for a few dollars' expense, you'll have enough tape to take care of dozens upon dozens of lenses. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
It's not without a downside, of course. Like everything else that gets in the way of the light coming out of the emitter, the tape does block a little bit of the output. I'd estimate that I lose maybe 10-15% of the light output, although it's hard to arrive at an exact number on that. While that may sound like a lot, I found the KL1's output still plenty usable... even downright desirable for indoor and close range outdoor tasks. The Scotch 811 tape makes the beam so clean, and the falloff to the sides so smooth, that it's a pleasure to use. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Highly recommended! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif
...tried it on my stock KL1 head with high dome emitter and NX05 optic, and it's terrific! The artifacts in the beam have completely disappeared, and now the hotspot smoothly falls off all the way to the edge of the sidespill. It makes for a terrific close range beam, or short range floodlight. I'm thinking this sort of beam would be great for camping. I can't stress strongly enough how absolutely AMAZED I am at how well this stuff works! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif
In case there's any doubt about which product I'm talking about, I lifted this ad copy from an online seller of the stuff...
(Start of ad copy)
(End of ad copy)
I'm not sure, but thought I read somewhere that this tape is available in widths up to one inch, and heck, for a few dollars' expense, you'll have enough tape to take care of dozens upon dozens of lenses. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
It's not without a downside, of course. Like everything else that gets in the way of the light coming out of the emitter, the tape does block a little bit of the output. I'd estimate that I lose maybe 10-15% of the light output, although it's hard to arrive at an exact number on that. While that may sound like a lot, I found the KL1's output still plenty usable... even downright desirable for indoor and close range outdoor tasks. The Scotch 811 tape makes the beam so clean, and the falloff to the sides so smooth, that it's a pleasure to use. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Highly recommended! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif