Did you know..... Mag lights can be focused!

Well, now I know why things are labeled with the obvious, like "Do Not Use Curling Iron While Sleeping!!"

Last year a female friend of mine complained about the crappy beam on her 3D Mag after I asked her if she wanted a frosted bulb to put in it. Something like, "Mabye it will help with that big hole in the beam, I turn the head and can't seem to get rid of the hole". It turns out she was turning the face cap/bezel and not the head itself. I kind of dismissed it as a one-time thing.

A couple weeks ago I was sitting around the firepit with a neighbor from down the road. His wife was to join us. I hear the gate across the yard rattle and saw what appeared to be someone with a candle. Turned out to be my neighbors' wife with his 2D Mag. I couldn't resist giving her a shot with an ROP to say HI! figured it wouldn't hurt too much at 40 yards.

Later I commented on the poor output from the Mag. My neighbor, being well aware of my hobby, said "Yeah, it sucks but it was a gift from the kids, what am I going to do?". I told him to try some new cells and tighten up the beam. Both just looked at me rather unknowingly. I looked back at them and said "Come on, you do know you can focus it dont you?" Umm, I guess they didn't.

I took the Mag and demonstrated it for them with a great improvement even on poor cells. After I set the reflector for tight focus when screwed down tight, I gave it back still laughing. He's had that light for about three years and suffered with the "Black Hole Syndrome" the entire time.

Now I know......

I work with someone with that similar lack of mechanical aptitude/curiosity. Sometimes it's kind of astounding.

Geoff

Holy crap. That is astounding.

OMG... they didn't read the manual did they?

There was a time, not so long ago, when I thought a flashlight without a variable focus, was not a worthwhile flashlight.

Thats Typical

I'm not surprised at all. Despite the fact that Maglites have been around for decades, many people seem to be happy being perfectly clueless about them ... along with so many other objects in their everyday life.

Most people just don't think about things around them unless they absolutely have to. :shakehead

cammed focusing beam= the reason why I built a dropin for my mom's 2D-so she can focus it with half a turn

amazing.

I think I'm the opposite way. Everytime I handle my brother's MagCharger, I twist the head to try and change the focus. :huh:

Sounds like a typical 12:00 flasher....


All his/her appliances are always flashing 12:00

And on that note - RTFM

The same thing happened to me not a month ago. A guy I work with (he's 40) had a maglite he wanted to upgrade to the led module figured out the focusing feature while changing the bulb out.

To us it may seem like a no-brainer, but there are a surprising number of people without the technical aptitude to understand "simple" things like that... or even recognize that some lights are NOT Maglites?

Interestingly all Mini-Maglite owners understand the concept of focusing, to an extent. For some reason, candle mode appears to be a brag-worthy point for said people as well. :shrug:

Funny stuff.

It's funny becasue before my hobby was know well at work from all my shipments, folks who would see my torches would always ask "ohh it that a police light?" I always found that funny as most police in my area are very weak in lighting!!! LOL

carrot said:

To us it may seem like a no-brainer, but there are a surprising number of people without the technical aptitude to understand "simple" things like that... or even recognize that some lights are NOT Maglites?

Interestingly all Mini-Maglite owners understand the concept of focusing, to an extent. For some reason, candle mode appears to be a brag-worthy point for said people as well. :shrug:

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For me, this is not just about flashlights, it's about all things like this:

The Cars: not idling excessively, checking the oil and other fluids, checking the tire pressures, keeping the windows reasonably clean, not riding the brakes, not knowing where the spare is, or how to get the jack out of its resting place, etc ...

The House: Leaving the lights and appliances on when not in use, leaving the doors and windows open while the HVAC is roaring, seeing missing weather stripping and not doing anything about it (for years).

Tools: Putting them away oil, wet with water or with surface rust on them, not charging a power pack the night before you need to use the power tool, etc ...

So many more silly/stupid things people do without thinking ... I just can't think of them all right now. :ironic:

Niteowl said:

After I set the reflector for tight focus when screwed down tight, I gave it back still laughing.

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Are you saying that there is a way to adjust the focus when the head is screwed down all the way? How?

Hey to some of us, the HDS interface is second nature

cedarcreek said:

Are you saying that there is a way to adjust the focus when the head is screwed down all the way? How?

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You can't adjust the focus while it's screwed all the way down, but with the cammed reflector system, if you loosen the bezel and play with the orientation of the reflector in relation to head, it will change how it's focused when the head is tightened all the way down. Try this: tighten the head all the way down and take a mental note of the focus. Rotate the head until the beam is focused how you want it, and take a mental note of how much of a turn that was clockwise. Remove the head, loosen the bezel, and give the reflector an equivalent turn as what it took to attain your desired focus, and retighten the bezel and reattach the head. Tighten the head all the way back down, and you'll see that the focus had changed, and should be close to what you wanted (unless you adjusted the reflector backwards). With a little work, you'll be able to adjust your head so that when tightened all the way down, the focus is how you most prefer it, which makes it less likely to be bumped and loose focus when in storage, and is much easier to quickly readjust to your favorite focus. And BTW, the full focus range is still there, you just changed the starting point when it's tightened all the way down.

That's awesome. I never thought of that. Thanks.