TK40 donut hole at 10' and out?

[litetube]

I am sorry if this has been discussed, I cant seem to find it anywhere in all the TK40 threads out there. Finally got some Nimh AAs to stoke my TK40 with and a bit dissappointed. After all the talk about the wonderful beam and the incredible amount of flood I hit a wall at 10' or more and I have a slight donut hole in my hotspot and the flood isnt flooring me . I know this thing is a bot more of a thrower and it is still daylight here , also I am not a whitewall hunter and can accept things like minor donut holes and such but.... from the threads on here I didnt expect it on this light. I know if you hold it close to a wall you get the die pattern but at distance a donut hole? Is my reflector not adjusted correctly?

Also, I think I have to get out of flashlights for a cpl years. I really thought this thing was gonna stun me and make me weak in the knees. It is brighter than all my 1cell lights and such but I am not terribly impressed. What do you do when 630 lumens doesnt wow you that much and you are still yearning for more? (no I am not getting into HID). I think you have to get out of it and come back when tech has jumped leagues and not just incremental steps.

I will enjoy the long runtimes on high and turbo (if my cells live up to their purported capacity.......)

 

[Ryanrpm]

What do you do when 630 lumens doesnt wow you that much and you are still yearning for more? (no I am not getting into HID).

Here' what you do......

You wait a couple of months until Sunlite releases their quad 80mil light (480FP).....which has the potential for 2000 lumens.

Or.......join the mailing list and try to encourage Cree, Seoul, and others to release the next big thing....because they sure are taking their time.....

 

[alexdiver]

I too was not impressed at first with the turbo output, i did not see that big of a difference between high mode and turbo at first, wait till its really dark outside , and go out on a dry night not when its fogy too really see what it is, and also make sure if your batteries are not LSD that they are fresh charged.

im satisfied now with the light, after a couple days of having it.

 

[optodoofus]

I am surprised that you have a visible donut hole at 10 feet. I can clearly see the cross pattern in the output up to 1 foot. It starts blurring out at greater distance than that and is basically invisible by 2 feet. I don't see any artifacts at all at distances greater than that. Perhpas your emitter is not seated correctly in the reflector (manufacturing issue, maybe).

I find that turbo isn't that much more impressive than high on a white wall, but there is a tremendous difference when you take it outside. The volume of light is discernibly greater in that environment, and turbo does a much better job of filling the space with light.

optodoofus

 

[litetube]

Yeah, I will try it later when the kiddies are asleep.

My emitter is not centered. . But I thought things like donuts were because of the depth of the emitter in the reflector in other words how far it sticks out of the hole in the reflector? I thought offcenter is just a cosmetic issue? At first I thought it was an optical illusion but it is not. Is this something Fenix will deal with? I dont want to have to send the damn thing back and wait a month . If it is cosmetic I dont care. Now the donut is bothersome to me but this is whitewall hunting I havnt tried outside . Its funny it is one of those situations where you catch it more in peripheral vision and this is distracting to me like PWM would be and is also to me.

 

[Sean]

If I look really hard I can see a slight void in my TK40 beam. It's hard to notice even when shown on a white wall, but it is there. In normal use it's not noticeable. It's much better than the M1X donut, but the M1X also throws better.

My emitter is also off center. It doesn't affect the beam so it doesn't concern me.

Overall I really like my TK40 because it uses NIMH rechargeables and costs about the same as other MC-E lights.

 

[litetube]

Thanx for the input all.

Glad to know I am not the only one. Tried it outside. This light is a thrower for sure. I have a baseball field across the street from me. It just barely reaches the tree line on the other side.

I have figured out the "donut" hole is actually the X pattern of the MCE dies.

 

[litetube]

Ok tried frshly charged cells, Its BRITER!!!! Big time. I must have not charged the cells in a bit .

This thing is a beast but just not for me , I have realized I like a floody beam and this thing is a THROWER with a super tight hotspot. Great for outdoors but not and indoor light. I think I will popst on BST and continue the search for the "ultimate" light. Thing is my limited flashlight fund keeps shrinking as I sell the lights acquired in the "quest" at reduced prices to move them out , OH WEll:mecry:

 

[Nake]

From my experience all 4 die emitters will show a slight donut hole. That's just it's nature. You can stipple the hell out of the reflector to get rid of it, but a lot of output is lost.