Is it possible?

About a year ago I built myself an aspherical mag and while it is fairly bright I am thinking that I must have done something wrong since it just does not seem to throw as far or be as bright as the asphericals that I see on here.

So I was thinking about what I might be able to do to make it brighter and I had the thought of trying to use a MC-E to give me the throw that I have now but the brightness of a MC-E.

Now I know that the problem with using a MC-E with a aspherical is the "four dice" beam that you get but would it be possible to install a secend smaller lens of some sort that is slighty out of focus and will focus the beam but also smooth out the "four dice" and then try to focus that with the big aspherical lens that I am using now?

Or instead of making the smaller lens out of focus maybe just frost it?

Or am I just wanting to much of my light? (aren't we all lol)


So what say the experts?



Thanks,
Mike.

MikeV said:

Or instead of making the smaller lens of focus maybe just frost it?

Click to expand...

Well Mike if you are looking for more throw the MC-E is not the way to go. If you want a broader beam than you can certainly use the MC-E and I would suggest using both a smaller lens in front of the LED and etching the glass dome of the MC-E. I have good success with that setup.

Thanks for the info saabluster, do you happen to have any recommendations as to size and type of lens I would need to use?

If i remember right this is the lens I am using now.

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/pl1032.html

I am not sure if I need to use a smaller aspherical or if I will need to use some sort of convex or bi-convex lens.


Thanks again,
Mike.

MikeV said:

Thanks for the info saabluster, do you happen to have any recommendations as to size and type of lens I would need to use?

If i remember right this is the lens I am using now.

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/pl1032.html

I am not sure if I need to use a smaller aspherical or if I will need to use some sort of convex or bi-convex lens.


Thanks again,
Mike.

Click to expand...

You want a small plano-convex with a relatively long focal length.

Thanks for the info.

I will try to get a lens ordered in the next fews days and then see what kind of results I can get with a MC-E.



Mike.

Just a thought on frosting. You can try Magic Tape as a temporary means to see if you like the results of frosting. It's pretty coarse. It would simulate as a guess 320 or 400 grit sanding. But it's also reversible. Keep us posted on the results of the small lens.