which light has the most "aesthetically pleasing" beam to you?

knowing that aesthetics are subjective, whats your favorite flashlight with the best looking beam? the angle, the flood, the spill, the tint, the rings or lack thereof etc. reflector plays a big role i know, but you know what im sayin...

im not hardcore like yall, but i do have a decent set of lights and have had a number of others pass through my hands. so out of all those, my fave is from my HA natural Nautilus (and is what inspired this thread). i love the beam shape, with nice tight center and perfectly defined cone around that. sounds perverted when i read it. anyways. and the tint (definitely subjective), the smooth gradation between rings. i love blowing smoke into the beam (dont smoke kids, its nasty for real!) just to see the definition.

whats your sexiest beam?

Aesthetically, my L4 modded with SSC P4 emitter gets the nod. It has a big, hotspot that fades gradually into the spill area.

A close second is a MzGizmo Aleph A-2 with a 700mA LE and a SSC P4 emitter.

Both lights have narrow, shallow orange peel reflector that shapes the beam into one that pleases my eyes more satisfactorily than any of my other lights.

Hello HoopleHead,

My favorite is the SureFire 8NX, followed by the Regulated TigerLight, the Pink Panther, and the Tomahawk MC. I think those are some of the bests.

One notch down, but still very good are the SureFire A2 L7, U2, L4, G2L, Kroma, and E1e running with a LF lamp and a R-CR123, the X990, the Hyperlux V, the Wolf Eyes M300, the Peak Rainier, the LionHeart, McGizmo Aleph 3 and HD 45, and the ARC LSH-P.

Also very good is the ZebraLight, and I have several modified Safe-Lights, one of which has a Rebel LED in it, and others have the Quickar 4 die 5 mm LED in them. Very nice beams.

Tom

My 2007 reflector version Inova T1 and T2 have the most pleasing beams. They have a great mix of throw and spill with a minimum (if any) artifacts.

I had to try a few different samples until I found the tint I liked.

As for smaller lights, the Peak P4 Caribbean and one of my Arc AAA-P CS have excellent beams. The HDS EDC Basic 42XRGT was exemplary, too.

I'm all about the ML-1 smoothie and the 120P, both have nice gradual shift from hotspot to spill beam.

between a Novatac 120P and the Malkoff M60 drop-in in a 6P. Come to think of it the Malkoff's optic is spectacular for the application, intense hot spot with plenty of well-managed side spill.

My favorite is the LiteFlux LF2 SSC. Another is the VB-16 SSC... great combination of smooth beam, bright spill, and good throw.

270winchester said:

between a Novatac 120P and the Malkoff M60 drop-in in a 6P. Come to think of it the Malkoff's optic is spectacular for the application, intense hot spot with plenty of well-managed side spill.

Click to expand...

+1 on the Malkoff M60. I don't have a lot of lights but I've seen some good beam shots. and for me my favorite is the M60 drop in. Big hot spot that blends really well into spill.

Ra's Maxablaster? I don't have one of those.

FiveMega smooth reflector pushing a Welch Allyn 01166. Heavily artifacted horizontally. A superspot, hot spot, symmetric filament coil projections, two fish tails and a big flood. Beautiful.

Alternatively, FiveMega 2" deep reflector pushing a Welch Allyn 01185. Tiny hotspot with steadily degrading lux from spot to corona. It's a little chunk of light science. I think almost any LED would look good in it. Sold it though.

Every McReflector of any size seems to produce a really nice beam even the little McR10 in the Draco.

HDS B42XRGT. Perfect white tint and a completely flawless beam. Large clearly defined spill, well defined spot surrounded by a subtle corona, no artifacts anywhere, and those four little half circles at the edges from the cutouts in the bezel nut for character. I don't know how many times I've turned that light on and just stopped to admire the perfection of that beam.

Some winners for me:
- Surefire L5 (mine has warm tint and no donut hole)
- Surefire G2L
- Inova T1 & T3 (2007 versions)
- KL1 modded with McR20 reflector and UCL

outdoor? 27mm McG
indoor? 20mm McG
mix? 19mm McG

Would that be for actual use or for staring at like a junky?
Because for the latter, I'll grab my maxabeam or green laser and drive to a dark meadow away from light pollution. =P

For actual use indoors, I'd rather have a mule... Well I don't have a mule so I simply use a reflectorless mag with a cree. I can't call it a donkey either; that name is also taken so I call it the "*******". Not as catchy eh? ah well.

In all seriousness though, the nautilus' beam is one of the most usable I've seen to date for all around purposes.
The surefire M4 lola's beam has also quite surprisingly one of the most pleasing pattern outdoors with a wide, bright and round spot making it very pleasing to work with.
The old Lux3 with Pelican 27mm reflector match made a perfectly round spot that was really fun to play with outside but frankly was painful to use closeup.
And then of course, my favorite is the surefire A2 with the strion bulb, makes the second whitest incan I have seem like a mag3d with decade-old zinc carbon batteries. It's not really that much more useful but dang, it looks good.
I'm gonna go turn it on for a few minutes...

Surefire L4
Gerber Infinity Ultra

For actual use indoors, my current favorite is:



(this may surprise you . . . . )



My TerraLux LightStar3 LED TLF-3L2AA with Rebel emitter.


Costs only 30 Bucks !


This is my first (and currently ONLY) Rebel flashlight,

and has a truly beautiful beam. :thumbsup:



BTW, as of this moment, it is the ONLY flashlight i've purchased in 2008.



I feel that i've made a good choice.


_

For overall use, I'm liking the new L1 which works in most applications, but is not the best at any one.

The VIP BH had a killer reflector in there that produced a nice spot that gradually faded out into a very nice corona. Great midrange light.

Anything with a McR20 in it is also very nice.

# 1 SF Titan - pure white hotspot that melts into a wide spill

# 2 Liteflux LF2 - warm wide beam

# 3 Tiablo MA1 - white hotspot and a nice spill


:wave:

Hi Mott,

Most aesthetically pleasing?

Any pre-war fisheye.

McLuxIII PD-S, SSC P4 with McGizmo reflector. Just Beautiful.

I'd have to go with my McLuxIII PD.