tigerlight new bulb and reflector better???

I have the new Tigerlight bulb and reflector and I still get a figure 8 type beam on it's side. The round double portions of the 8 reflects two hot spots. Does anyone who has gotten the new reflector only see one hot spot and not a double overlapping hot spot like the number 8 on it's side?
My new Tigerlight reflector/bulb combo is tighter than it was before but is as I described and think that it could be much better.

Keithhr,

I bought some of the TL LAs that flashlightlens.com was selling about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I see no figure 8 pattern. The beam is very smooth but not a lot of throw.

What I have is the testurized reflector. Do you?

Paul

The new style LA is better, but not as good as I would like. I'll charge my TL up tonight and try to get three beamshots of the different lamps.

Mark

I'm getting confused. What is the new style? Where does one get it?

Mark,

Thanks for offering the beamshots. I look forward to seeing them.

Paul

As I understand it, and I haven't really been paying all that much attention, the first generation lamps got yellow too fast, the second generation had bat wings (figure 8), and the third generation is supposed to be the good lamps.

I bought two 8" TL's and I guess they both had first generation's in them. They did turn yellow quickly. I was ready to go back to using my MagCharger at work.

Both lights came with letters for free replacement third generation lamps. When they finally arrived two were nice and bright and one was a bat wing.

I had been using one of the lamps from flashlightlens.com up until yesterday when I put in one of the third generation lamps in. It too had gotten yellow. I guess the first offering of lamps by flashlightlens.com were from TL's old first generation stock of lamps. I don't know which generation lamp flashlightlens.com is offering now. I have some, but haven't used them yet.

Hopefully this third generation lamp I just put in will stay white for a long while.

My original TL assembly had the [Batwing] figure 8 beam, but after buying and installing the textured LA and UCL lens from flashlightlens.com I now get a beautiful beam.

It looks much more like a Surefire beam now. The hotspot is pretty small, but still usefull in my opinion, and it also has a very nice flood effect all around the hotspot.

It is true that the throw isn't as good, and some people do not like the textured TL LA for that reason.

I'm looking forward to seeing the beamshots too.

I'm looking at a TA LA I got from F.lens.com and I think the cause of the figure 8 pattern is the filament itself. It is pretty long. In a non-texturized reflector, the length of the filament puts the two ends well off the focal point of the reflector, resulting in basically two secondary lobes off the sides of the main hotspot. I don't think there is any way around this. I compared several bulbs I have in house, from a Mag 2Cell krypton to the gigantic Carley 999 bulb. The figure eight secondary lobes are almost an exact correlation to the size of the filament. The Mag 2C bulb has a very small filament and as a result, throws (although not very far or very bright) a microscopic spot with no lobes. The 999 basically throws two lobes with no discernible central hotspot. All this was done in a stock Mag reflector.

Without texturizing to blend the reflected light, a cylindrically symmetrical reflector will present a two lobed spot and will do this in proportion to the size of the bulb filament.

Wilkey

Note: If the latest TA LAs have a nice single spot, I'd ask someone to compare the size of the filament with previous versions.

Wilkey

It feels like I'm wallowing in a bog of information when I read all the posts. I think we're all using different terminologies, and the term "new" is not defined. I'll summarize what I glom on to when I read the posts. My apologies if I misinterpret.

Keithhr, the father of this thread, speaks of the "new" LA as having defined hot spots and a figure-8 pattern. Evidently his reflector is not textured.

Minjin doesn't specify what his new reflector is, but perhaps he'll post some beamshots which will answer that question and help me a great deal.

Ksbman speaks of "third generation" lamps. I don't know what that means. His larger concern seems to be with the yellowing of the beam.

FlashlightOCD has a texturized reflector, which he likes despite its lack of throw.

Wilkey has a non-textured reflector from F.lens.com. It has a fairly wide filament causing a hotspot with two lobes. I believe this is an older style.

My TL LA is texturized. I ordered it on 9 June from F.lens.com, when the term "textured" was being used in the advertisement. My filament looks fairly narrow (hard to measure, but I would guess 1/8 inch). The spot is roughly circular, although not well defined. There's lots of spill.

I don't know if mine is the newest. Trying to pursue the meaning of what "new" is seems pointless to me. I would rather know what is available and where to get it. I know that F.lens.com offers lamps that are heavily textured. I would then ask:
<ul type="square">[*]Where non-textured LAs being sold?
[*]Are there available any LAs with only partial or slight texturing?
[*]What does Tigerlight sell? Does anyone have their "Lamp Module with PolyLens," # 007-021-TLGS?
[*]What does anyone else sell?
[/list]
Anyone have any answers or ideas . . . or objections? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Paul

Paul, nice,
my reflector is not textured, and I have a single hot spot that looks like a l (lower case L) with a semi cirle of light looking like a C on the left and a backward C on the right, it's very strange. Maybe I can take a digital photo, e:mail it to someone to post. This is the replacement reflector recently sent out by Tigerlight for those who had the replacement letter. I'm not sure what the hot spot is supposed to look like, it's certainly not surfiresque as described in a previous post.

The textured lamps come from flashlightlens.com. He bought some factory seconds from TL and applied his texturing modifications to them. The non-textured lamps come from TigerLight.

Flashlightlens.com was able to obtain a second batch of second generation lamps from TL to modify and that is what he is selling now.

TigerLight knew their second generation lamps sucked so with each light sold there was a letter for for a free replacement lamp when they became available. These would become the third generation of lamps. Their letter states "a slight aberration in the contour of the reflector causing some abnormalities in the beam pattern" as the cause of the batwings .

Here Randy from TL talks a little about the first generation lamps.

It's still a little confusing as to which lamp is from which generation. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Paul, nice summary. I wish someone would just contact TigerLight and get the straight poop from them but I suspect they won't be so forthcoming.

As for the filament being small, 1/8" is pretty large. The filament in my 2C bulb is no more than 1/16". I mean 1/8" is large relative to the point source for which garden variety reflectors are designed. I seem to think that displacement up and down the optical axis as opposed to across (as most bulb filaments run) creates less of a problem in terms of relfected beam artifacts. I say this because Ushio makes a metal halide lamp and they tout a very tight focus because the entire filament is oriented axially, that is, if you look down the axis of the bulb, you're looking right down the coil/filament. It is the only bulb I'm aware of that has the filament oriented in this way.

Keithr,
You can send me the file if you want.

Wilkey

My first Tigerlight lamp had bat wings but was still impressive. My 2nd lamp had no bat wings, a fairly well defined central spot with amorphous corona, and was very impressive in terms of brightness, throw and total useful beam diameter.

Randy Teig's evident goal was to combine the features of a very bright, long throw, wide-beamed light in a relatively small and light weight body. He succeeded, up to a point, but problems gradually surfaced: inconsistant performance from lamp to lamp, premature yellowing, varying beam patterns. Supposedly the problems lay with manufacturing rather than with design, and Tigerlight was having problems maintaining adequate quality control. At least this is my impression from reading posts from Randy along with comments on CPF.

The situation remains confused and has never been clarified to most people's satisfaction. Tigerlight was pushing the envelope with this light and IMO a quick resolution of these issues is not assured.

At its best the Tigerlight is a remarkable, even unique light. My hope is that the company will eventually achieve the consistancy necessary to satisfy old customers and inspire confidence in new ones.

Brightnorm

Wilkey, thanks
I just took two pictures using my Olympus camera but all I get is a hot spot on the wall with none of what I see with my eyes. I guess I don't know what camera setting to use to be able to refine the picture to see in the lens what my eyes see. I could e:mail you the photo but it would just look like a gorgeous hot spot.
Keith

Try decreasing the exposure. You want it pretty dark so you can see the details in the spot. It has to look pretty dark in the viewfinder to register details.

wilkey

Thanks to all for clarifying this for me.

Ksbman, your response is particularly helpful. From what I read in your references, in mid-March the third generation LAs were expected in 5 to 7 weeks. It appears that this is what Tigerlight is now selling and what you now have in hand and are placing your hopes in. As I understand, it is non-textured and has good throw, but your concern now is how long it will remain bright. When you say "premature yellowing," do you mean over the life of the bulb or over the life of the batteries before recharging is needed?

Wilkey -- just a touch OT -- I saw an axial filament about a week ago. Sears was selling, for its Craftsman work light, a 20 watt enclosed reflector and lamp assembly. I grabbed it for $9.00 and took it home, only to find out that its beam is wider than the textured TL and it has multiple artifacts from the flat facets. Too bad. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif I returned it.

Paul

Are these bulbs halogen bulbs? I would guess from the nipple at the apex of the capsule that these are halogen/HPR type bulbs. I'm not sure what that means in terms of he lilfe of the bulb. The Welch Allyn website talks about decline in output (lumens) but makes no reference to change in color temperature with aging. I guess it's possible that a decline in output could appear as a drop in color temperature (yellowing).

PaulW,
Interesting about the axial filament. Too bad the execution left something to be desired. Are you saying it was like an MR16 in form factor?

Wilkey

Alright, I took a couple of beamshots. They're not great, but they'll give an idea. Perhaps one of these days, I'll learn how to operate this camera. I tried some beamshots against my wooden island because some people have been whining about white wall beamshots. The reflection made them fairly worthless.

http://www.minnstech.com/pics/flashlights/tigerlight/

The pictures are fairly self explanatory. TL had a fresh charge and the P90 was running off of new batteries. All comparison shots were taking with the camera in auto mode. The individual beam shots were taken in what I think was manual mode. No alterations other than resizing have been done to the pictures. If anyone wants fullsize pics, let me know. I can't afford the bandwidth to put them online.

Any questions, ask away...

Mark

I just ordered two new Tigerlight lamps. I hope my reservations prove to be unfounded.

Brightnorm

Wilkey -- Sorry, I don't know what a MR-16 form factor is. If you're asking if a reflector AND lens are included as part of the LA, yes. The Sears (actually, a Dorcy) was a sealed unit.

Mark -- Thanks. Good pictures. In the pictures of three LAs, are these generation 1, 2, & 3? One had white material at the base of the LA. Which LA is that?

Brightnorm -- Good luck with your purchase. Where did you go to order them?

Paul