LD01 Cree Rings Is this normal

My wife purchased a LD01 from the Fenix Store in December and have never been happy with it. Its extremly ringy I have a LD10 premium Q5 and a E0 and they are almost prefect with no rings. I emailed Fenix Store and they said this was normal and occures with all Cree LED's .

Enclosed is a picture
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp279/sbdwag/Creerings.jpg

Is this Normal

Regards
Dennis Waggoner

What you show is not "cree rings", but is perfectly normal for all lights.

Yes, it's normal, caused by reflection of the dome on the extreme edge of the reflector.

Things called Cree rings are normally more like the ones shown below:

Looks just like the beam from my S2 made by Fenix so going to say it is normal. Your tint does not look all that bad too. I would keep it.

Thanks for the comments My LD10 has a textured reflector and there is no seperate outer ring like the one shown here. Yes Im a wall person because I use my lights mostly indoors in low light situations at work and home so the ring stands out just after having such a smooth beam on the LD10 and my E0 I had to ask.

Thanks
sbdwag

All my lights do it to some degree- your LD01 is a bit worse, but here's a short of my L2D for comparisons sake. I had to overexpose this a bit to get the necessary view.

I thought LD01's had smooth reflectors, but I only have the LD01 SS. Do other LD01's have textured reflectors?

My LD01 SS with a smooth reflector has rings in the beam, but it doesn't bother me.

Wow. Have we really all become this snobbish over flashlights. I just pointed my LD01 at a wall a couple of feet away and saw the same thing as the OP's picture. For a second I thought WTF. Then I pointed it outside and no doubt its a pint size powerhouse. Come on now. Up until a few years ago the best we had was maglites with their psychedelic beam patterns.

Holepuncher said:

Wow. Have we really all become this snobbish over flashlights. I just pointed my LD01 at a wall a couple of feet away and saw the same thing as the OP's picture. For a second I thought WTF. Then I pointed it outside and no doubt its a pint size powerhouse. Come on now. Up until a few years ago the best we had was maglites with their psychedelic beam patterns.

Click to expand...

Thats very true but up until a few months ago I never paid more that 6.00US for a flashlight.

The thing is My LD10 and E0 are very pleasing to look at. I sure that Flashlight mfg's shudder whenever there is a post like this being so critical. Im not being that critical but based on the two other Fenix lights I own I was surprised by the beam of this one. Is this just quality control or is it a manufacturing limitation of the components used?

Regards
Sbdwag

Unless you overexposed the original pic or had the light about 1ft away from the wall, you are getting a much better beam than mine. Here's what my LD01 SS looks like on the medium setting. The beamshot is actually underexposed a little vs. what my eyes are seeing so this is a slight overexageration...still close to what I see though, just dimmer in this pic. The light is about 4ft from the wall:



In normal conditions (70% indoor use 30% outdoor) I don't notice how ringy it is. I don't have any other AAA lights to compare it to so I can't comment on whether this is normal...it definitely wouldn't be normal for a larger light but IMO it's acceptable for this one. For it's size to output to cost ratio, I still think this light is a winner :thumbsup:. That's just me though...

I would say that the beam quality is due to the size limitations but that's just a guess having not seen any others to compare to.

:wave: WadeF-> You helped me out on my first attempt at beamshots (here) thanks! Hopefully they're at a point where they're becoming useful?? Still can't believe I messed up so bad with the WB :laughing:!!

gsegelk..Thats exactly how my SS LD01 looks on a white wall, my newest L0D Q4 look like that too, they both got the silverbacked LED.

I also got a older L0D Q4 with the yellow back, it has a much more blurry hotspot, I dont really care which one I use, you will not notice it, unless youre a white wall hunter.

sbdwag said:

Thats very true but up until a few months ago I never paid more that 6.00US for a flashlight.

The thing is My LD10 and E0 are very pleasing to look at. I sure that Flashlight mfg's shudder whenever there is a post like this being so critical. Im not being that critical but based on the two other Fenix lights I own I was surprised by the beam of this one. Is this just quality control or is it a manufacturing limitation of the components used?

Regards
Sbdwag

Click to expand...

I think this is legit, I really do. Now that we can have beautiful beams (both in shape and color) I think we should be able to get them whenever possible. Or at least strive for them. The brightness wars are stable/continuing but becoming less relevant--I mean, will everyone even want a 1,000 lumen pocket light? (Okay--don't answer that, but we're all ****oo!:lolsign:) but the next big thing (in part at least) is making that bright, efficient beam beautiful to look at. So light makers: start shuddering and get cracking!

Wow! I think this beam looks great. You should see some real Cree rings. Fenix has done an excellent job with the LD01.