Roy,
Anything photons encounter will likely absorb some, be it a lens material or reflective surface. You are right about the lens on the LED as well as the goop inside and the phosphor coating and the die itself; all take their cut in photons. Currently, I think the figure is somewhere between 5 and 15% of the photons created even get out of the die. From there on, the attrition adds on. This is why SF will take a Luxeon that has a luminous output of say 110 lumens and make a claim of 80 lumens of output from one of their lights. I guess photons are like sperm; it takes a heap a lot of them for just one to get where it needs to go! Yeah, it doesn't pay to dwell on lofty implications of this as it may relate to flashaholism and our need to throw......... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
BTW, true statement on the 3 and 5 mm LED's.
- Don