Spill vs Flood?
- Thread starter redliner
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HKJ
Flashaholic
Here you have to different beams, the left one is a hotspot will spill around it, the right one is a flood beam:
I.e. spill implies that there must be a hotspot the light can spill from.
A flood can also contain a hotspoot, but it will be a rather wide hotspoot. Also note that flood includes both hotspoot and spill.
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carrot
Flashaholic
Nice pics, HKJ
DimeRazorback
Flashlight Enthusiast
Couldn't of said it better myself!
Cosmo7809
Enlightened
Nothing to add but welcome to CPF! :twothumbs
kramer5150
Flashaholic
I have also seen the term "spill" used as an adjective to describe the lost light that illuminates the inside walls of a flashlight bezel. I don't think this is correct terminology though.
bsly
Newly Enlightened
Great question redliner and thanks HKJ for providing the pictures to show the difference. I was confused by the terms spill and flood until I read this post.
I'm new to world of flashlight collecting. Been using lights on the job for the past 14 years, but I have always just used the lights supplied at work, now I am interested finding smaller and brighter alternatives of my own.
If I understand correctly, a smooth reflector translates best for throw and a textured (or orange peel reflector) is best for flood. My primary interest is in lights that offer both a good throw and a good spill in one light, so which reflector type is typically associated to such lights?
One last question, does the shape of the reflector affect spill light or is it primarily a result of the high power of the LED itself that generates the spill?
I'm new to world of flashlight collecting. Been using lights on the job for the past 14 years, but I have always just used the lights supplied at work, now I am interested finding smaller and brighter alternatives of my own.
If I understand correctly, a smooth reflector translates best for throw and a textured (or orange peel reflector) is best for flood. My primary interest is in lights that offer both a good throw and a good spill in one light, so which reflector type is typically associated to such lights?
One last question, does the shape of the reflector affect spill light or is it primarily a result of the high power of the LED itself that generates the spill?
NutSAK
Flashlight Enthusiast
The shape of the reflector will affect the diameter of the spill. The narrower the open end of the reflector is, or the deeper the reflector is, the smaller the spill diameter will be. A more open and/or shallow reflector will have a wider spill diameter.
The spill area is made up, mostly*, of light that is exiting the emitter and not reflecting off the reflector. Most of the light that is reflected off the reflector will be collimated, and that is what produces the "spot" in the beam.
*I say "mostly" because, the more texture the reflector has, the more reflected light will be scattered in to the spill area of the beam. A perfectly smooth and focused reflector will collimate all reflected light into the spot.
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Love the "creepy field" HKJ nice shots. There was recently another thread about the exact same thing maybe we could combine the two with HKJ post with picture. I'll see if i can find it.
Spill vs. Flood seems to a common misunderstanding so I think its a good topic I learned the difference just recently myself.
EDIT: Here is the earlier thread https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3193937
Spill vs. Flood seems to a common misunderstanding so I think its a good topic I learned the difference just recently myself.
EDIT: Here is the earlier thread https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3193937
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