adjustable focus led torches

carmatic

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hey guys, ive been wanting to be able to control the throwiness and floodiness of my light... Are there any lights with a focusing mechanism, other than maglights?
 

Khaytsus

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hey guys, ive been wanting to be able to control the throwiness and floodiness of my light... Are there any lights with a focusing mechanism, other than maglights?

As Surefire says, there is focused, and there is out of focus. Out of focus, when you consider the phrase when it comes to photography, etc, means that things are not the way they should be.

Ideally one would have a perfectly focused beam and use a diffuser to flood the beam if necessary. It's pretty easy to make a diffuser, and many lights you can purchase one.

An LED is even worse about having a horrid beam pattern when defocusing it, as if an incan wasn't bad enough.
 

Marduke

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Rayovac Highbeam/Sportsman Extreme, Energizer 2xAA 80lumen package sold at Sams Club, some of the Brinkman Mag knockoffs, Dorcy makes a few with a collimator lens. There are a number of "2 in 1" lantern types lights with can be change from an area lantern to a focused light.

These are just a few off the top of my head, there are many others.
 

Garand

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Dorcy makes a small 3AAA light you can buy at Walmart for about $10. It is the only light I have with a focus that really works like it should.

Unlike a Maglight there are no holes in the beam no matter how it is set.
 

DaFABRICATA

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+1 to the Rayovac 3 C cell light. It throwes like crazy and a twist of the head will give more of a flood. I paid 20-25 bucks for mine.
Actually throws VERY FAR for a cheaper LED light.
 

MikeLip

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Wolf Eyes supposedly makes a pretty good focusing LED light called the Fox. I haven't seen anyone comment on it here, so "pretty good" is based on what they were saying about their light. Still it's Wolf Eyes, so I would expect pretty good to be pretty good! :)
 

kramer5150

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BUMP.

I really wish more lights had this feature. I was looking at that Wal-mart Dorcy the other day. Is it very bright overall? How many lumens does it output?
 

Marduke

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BUMP.

I really wish more lights had this feature. I was looking at that Wal-mart Dorcy the other day. Is it very bright overall? How many lumens does it output?

Target has a number of the Dorcy focusable lights, as does Sears. Also saw a Mag style Husky focus light at Home Depot tonight.
 

carmatic

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a diffuser is like, either you have it on or you dont, but a mag-style focusing head lets you adjust the tightness of the beam... still a diffuser would be better than nothing, its very difficult for me to walk around at night when all i have is a blinding bright spot surrounded by darkness, something which covers more of my field of view would be nice

why dont people do more focusing head torches? imho , adjustable brightness is good for saving battery power , or to stop yourself getting blinded by your own light, and thats just about it...the distance at which you have to shine at should not depend on the amount of light output alone... if someone comes up with a 200+ lumen focusing light , i'd pay for it even if it costs abit too much
 

REDLINEVUE

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a diffuser is like, either you have it on or you dont, but a mag-style focusing head lets you adjust the tightness of the beam... still a diffuser would be better than nothing, its very difficult for me to walk around at night when all i have is a blinding bright spot surrounded by darkness, something which covers more of my field of view would be nice

why dont people do more focusing head torches? imho , adjustable brightness is good for saving battery power , or to stop yourself getting blinded by your own light, and thats just about it...the distance at which you have to shine at should not depend on the amount of light output alone... if someone comes up with a 200+ lumen focusing light , i'd pay for it even if it costs abit too much

here it is....
http://blackforce.stores.yahoo.net/jetii.html
 

Gunner12

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The problem with focusing a reflector is that you will end up with holes and rings when you try the get it to flood mode. An optic can have a good transition between flood and throw(No holes) but then you will loose spill.

If we had a morphing reflector...
 

carmatic

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a moded mag with 1000 lumens? is that incandescent? i dont do incans...

a flexible reflector which has a stretching/compressing structure and mechanism behind it might work, it might open up like a parachute or something and the irregularities might smooth out the led's artifacts more than introducing its own....

but seriously tho, forming rings and holes when its defocused to flood is , i think, better than having no flood mode at all...

and is that jet II light really a focusing light? it has alot of brightness modes and strobe, but it doesnt say anything about focusing, it just says the reflectors are meant for maximum throw...
 

Xak

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I have seen several lights that have a high power LED in the center for throw and several 5mm ones around it for flood that switch between the 2. The Streamlight twin task series comes to mind, though they use a Xenon in the center. Pentagon claims to have lights like that as well, but have no pictures or prices for them yet on their website.
 

paulr

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One approach is the Surefire A2's, a two level light with a focused xenon bulb (high level) for throw and three leds (low level) for flood. The forthcoming McLux Lunasol uses a similar approach, with six 3mm leds and a reflectorized Cree.
 

Marduke

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What I would really love to see is a variable lens. They currently make things like shower doors that appear clear, but with the addition of a particular electric signal, they turn semi-opaque (some variety of LCD technology I think, similar to automatic tinting welding goggles). Could you imagine a reasonably clear lens (at least as good transmission as your basic glass lens used today), but with the flip of a switch, instant diffuser.
 

Mockingbird

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What I would really love to see is a variable lens. They currently make things like shower doors that appear clear, but with the addition of a particular electric signal, they turn semi-opaque (some variety of LCD technology I think, similar to automatic tinting welding goggles). Could you imagine a reasonably clear lens (at least as good transmission as your basic glass lens used today), but with the flip of a switch, instant diffuser.

Or, maybe someone who has 2 polarizing camera filters could play around with them on a flashlight. I used to have 2 and if I remember correctly, you can rotate one in relation to the other and get varying levels of blocking out light and various patterns too. Here's a link to a focusing light:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/184819
 

Marduke

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Or, maybe someone who has 2 polarizing camera filters could play around with them on a flashlight. I used to have 2 and if I remember correctly, you can rotate one in relation to the other and get varying levels of blocking out light and various patterns too. Here's a link to a focusing light:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/184819

But a polarizing filter, even when aligned, blocks massive amounts of light.
 

carmatic

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hmm the led lenser has an interesting focusing system... what is the brightest torch that they do?
i remember my old terralux luxeon minimag bulb replacement, aside from having the led sink below the reflector when you try to get it to flood, it had a pretty reasonable beam throughout its focus, i dont ever remember getting bothered by any patterns or artifacts...
 
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