Beam width never really discussed

chanamasala

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Messages
215
Location
NJ
I just wanted to note that I wish the diameter of the beam was spoken about more and taken into consideration more by manufacturers. I love my Fenix L1P head with an SSC Ubin and stock Fenix reflector as it gives a wide spill that illuminates a lot in my immediate vicinity which is how I like an EDC to be. I'd say I get maybe 3-4 feet more width at around 15 feet with it than with many other pocketable torches. I can understand why some people prefer narrower beams for better concentration and throw. But especially now with a CREE and OP reflector you can get a bright center spot regardless of beam width. So my point is it just seems like a somewhat neglected design element. I notice some of the cheaper Chinese flashlights end bezels are thick and obstruct the emission of light and it's obvious they just quickly put it in production. Just thought I'd add this so as maybe people with similar concern would comment too some times and maybe manufactures will consider it more in their designs. Like in reviews it would be an informative stat to list the diameter of the beam at say one or two feet from the wall perhaps.
 
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LED_Thrift

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
1,874
Location
Northern NJ, USA
Very good point. The diameter of the beam has a big effect on how useful a light is for a particular situation. How wide the beam is at a standard distance [one meter?] would be easy to measure and would be useful information.
 
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Feb 14, 2006
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This is hard because unlike theatrical spot light, flashlights have varying intensity from edge to center. For photography, this is bad.

Strong center with weak side is ok for walking around.
 
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Feb 14, 2006
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What the heck just happened???
All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:41 PM.
and I just posted (post 3) but post 5 is somehow ahead 22minutes?
 
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selfbuilt

Flashaholic
Joined
May 27, 2006
Messages
7,008
Location
Canada
Excellent point. I used to chart beam profiles of my lights at 0.5 meters with my light meter manually (at 1cm intervals) - but only on my first sets of lights, because it was so time consuming. I was curious about hotspot width as well ... but I agree overall spill beam width would be a very useful thing to more commonly report. Perhaps at 1m would be a good place to standardize?
 
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