Diffuser

I just ordered a wonderful Regalight WT1 @ lighthound.com.

This will be my first "real" LED-flashlight, so i'm not quite familiar with that business yet.

To make this light a little bit more usefull, I'm looking for a diffuser.

What opportunites are out there to deffuse the light?
Would be great, if the diffuser was easily de-/attachable.

tobbi KLEIN said:

I just ordered a wonderful Regalight WT1 @ lighthound.com.

This will be my first "real" LED-flashlight, so i'm not quite familiar with that business yet.

To make this light a little bit more usefull, I'm looking for a diffuser.

What opportunites are out there to deffuse the light?
Would be great, if the diffuser was easily de-/attachable.

Click to expand...

Try a white water bottle (or similar) cap. The old 35 mm film storage cans also work well (just not the black ones).

Theatre Booth Guy said:

Try a white water bottle (or similar) cap. The old 35 mm film storage cans also work well (just not the black ones).

Click to expand...

good idea, but how do you attach it? :thinking:
tape?! :shakehead

Does nobody else use a diffuser on his flashlight?

Come on - Please show me your diffusers! ;-)

i use the fenix one, i see kaidomain has a ultrafire version of it now, a finger from a latex glove works wonders also.

but what about "clip-on-diffuser-filters"?

tobbi KLEIN said:

good idea, but how do you attach it? :thinking:
tape?! :shakehead

Click to expand...

It takes some searching to find a white cap that is the proper size.

Ive been looking for 1 for my solarforce L2 with dereelight 3SD with smooth reflector in it. I tried holding a surefire F04 beam diffuser infront of it and the long throwy beam becomes a complete wall of light. I like the form factor of the F04 but its too small to fit on the solarforce and the surefire FM34 is the right size but it looks abit too bulky to me and also the price seems a bit high as well

is there nothing like a filter or texture, which i could put on it that changes my spotty beam to a wall of light?

I don't have a diffuser but I just wanted to say that the Regalight WT1 is a great light.

And Lighthound only have the Naturals left (I have a black).

You are a great purchase there!!!!

hmmmm, wondering whether to get a spare Natural too......

you're right, it's a great light. although mine seems to have some issues.
the light disrupts from time to time and it's unpossible to switch it on again. even with fresh batteries. sometimes unscreawing the batterie-tale a little bit helps. i have no clue why it is not working correct.
but i think it might be the protected (ultrafire) rcr123a-batteries, which are not working correct.

I have a large sheet of photographer's diffusion material. It's a frosty material about .015" thick so it's reasonably stiff and nice to handle but flexible as well so it won't break when you cut it with an Exacto knife or scissors.

On my lights that have easily removeable bezels, I just cut a round piece the correct size and put it on top of the flashlight lens between the lenz and the bezel. That way, the diffuser acts as a protector for the lens.

On other lights that don't have easily removeable lenses, I cut an EXACT size piece of the diffuser and just press it into the bezel on top of the lens. This works best on all my Surefire 1" lights (E1L, etc.) because you don't have to have that big "knob" of a F04 slip-on up front.
When I say exact, I really mean exact. I cut the diffuser material a .001" or two larger than the inside diameter of the bezel so when I press it in, the friction between the bezel and the diffuser material is enough to keep it in place even if dropped (ask me how I know that).
To remove it, it's easy to catch an edge of the diffuser with the tip of an Exacto knife and lift it right off.

The diffusor material I have is virtually identical in diffusion to the Surefire F04 which I also have.
The stuff I use is sold as "See Temp", and it's often used for making templates (which is why I buy it), but I realized right away what a great diffuser it would make for my flashlights.

Go to the link here and read about it at the "Modeling" link, and see what it looks like at the "Pattern Making" link.
http://www.seetemp.com/

Waynejitsu on CPFMP sells diffuser material in the non lights section. I bought a used Lumapower M1 from him that had this material and night/day difference in beam quality. I took the diffuser material off and the beam was just a tight spot with a smooth reflector. After reapplying, the vinyl-like material which is reusuable without adhesive, the beam was as floody as my Huntlight FT01 with at nice hotspot. This material might be worth a try. I think another member named FASTCAR used to sell something like that too, but I think he is in anther forum selling his stuff now.

Homemade diffuser cut to fit from office supply *non-glare* sheet protector gives fantastic results.

The Waynejitsu diffuser is Fellows writeright B&W PDA protector. It offers a very mild diffusion kind of like a light orange peel.

Fastcar had some stuff he called 5-layer and 10-layer, which is no longer available. He never revealed what it was but I suspect he had a very large markup on the stuff. The 5 layer was a nice med diffusion that retained a hotspot. The 10 layer was a heavy diffuser and very similar to the surefire F04.

Flashlightlens.com sells lenses with diffuser material permanently attached.

Lighthound sells a medium diffuser similar to the 5-layer specifically cut for the HDS series light. It might work on other 1" diameter lights or could be cut smaller.

Some people use scotch tape or Glad Press and seal wrap.

Awhile back I tested output of a light with and without a Surefire diffuser, using bounce with a lightmeter. I lost the data, but seem to remember that it was about a 30+% loss in light output using the diffuser. Something to consider, though when you need a diffused light source it may be worth the lumen losses.

Bill