What about the light escaping under the reflector?

[The Dane]

As the title says?

I'we done @ dozen LED mods from cutting down a 2AA mag to a 3xSSCP7 Mag 3D with battery build.

LED's easy! "Just" slam a reflector on and it'll throw well.

Today I started with a Mag 3D and a 12V 100W bulb, nothing extraordinary there, but:

It seems that when the reflector (Original Mag and for MCE/SSC7) is focused decent then @ ½ the bulb is below the reflector, what a waste of light!

Have I missed the boat, or is there a genre of reflectors I haven't discovered yet?

I mean the "potted" 12V halogens will throw 10 degrees or better with the bulb up there in the glassreflector so the tecnology is there, but I haven's found a decent loose reflector with the same properties.

For the umphteen'th time please enlighten us that still are in the dark

 

[DM51]

Unless you have a frosted bulb, all you need to think about is the positioning of the actual filament. It doesn't matter if some of the glass envelope is below the reflector hole, as long as the filament itself is in the optimum position.

In the case of a Maglite with cam focusing, the tightest spot is achieved when the filament is at the focal point of the parabolic reflector. Obviously, this will be in the reflector, not way back down in the hole.

The hole should be as small as possible for the bulb that will be used. As an incan filament radiates light in every direction, some light will be lost back through the hole into the body, but it will only be a small percentage of the total.

 

[fivemega]

It seems that when the reflector (Original Mag and for MCE/SSC7) is focused decent then @ ½ the bulb is below the reflector, what a waste of light!

Original plastic reflector is designed for fat incand bulb only and not suitable for LEDs.
For LEDs, reflector design should be deeper parabola than what can be used for incands.
You won't even notice total (out the front) light difference in 2 identical flashlights one with 8mm and second with 9mm bulb opening while bulb is 7.5mm. Difference is like 1000 and 1002
Does the difference worth of extra $ ???