Anyone Willing To Test Mag Diffusion Lens?

7/19/03: A sufficient number of people have offered to test these lenses. Thank you.

I'd like to get some other opinions on a Mag diffusion lens that I made from Acrylite FF P-99 non-glare acrylic sheet. The link describes the attributes of this material.

I would be happy to send a lens to someone who would subjectively (or objectively) compare it to both the stock Mag lens and a lens with WriteRIGHT applied, then post a review.

This lens seems to diffuse just enough to take the gnarliness out of the beam from a Mag reflector without sacrificing brightness, and might make a low cost alternative to a stochastic Mag reflector.

Please post here if you're interested. I'll select somebody and then contact via direct private email for address information. Thanks.

I am willing to do it, but I think there are much better candidates here.

I don't have a digital camera, or a lens with WriteRight to compare it to.

I do have a Megaclops SE, and an Inretech Super6 to test it in though.

I'm game.

MR Bulk: Thanks, Charlie. I know you have access to a light meter, and I'm particularly interested in how well this lens lets light pass through. It's no UCL. I'll get some in the mail to you on Monday.

shankus: I'll send some to you also. Please send your shipping address to me dia direct email. I tried it with a Trilight and there was almost no difference. It's mainly good for taking out small dark spots, irregularities, and filament images in the beam.

Anyone specialize in high lumen incandescent Mag mods?

Shankus and Mr Bulk, email me your address and I will send you some writeright to put on it for testing if you need any.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif

Well I don't specialize in them, but I have a 2C mag running a big carley bulb on 3 123ls with some writeright on the lense that I keep next to my bed. I would be glad to throw one of these lens in it and make some beamshots.

revolvergeek: You qualify! Please send me your shipping address via direct email.

With that, I think there are sufficient testers for both LED and incandescent mods. Thanks for the responses. I'll get these lenses out on Monday.

Thanks Paul!

Otokoyama & revolvergeek, emails sent...

I think a friend of mine may have a digital camera that I could borrow. I need to get some beamshots. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

Lemme know if anyone needs space to host a writeup - got plenty o' room on OWLI. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif (See sig for URL.)

oO

If you should decide that you could use another evaluator, I'd be happy to test your lens and provide a photo-detailed write up. I do a fair amount of work in optimizing beams and have all the necessary equipment to test new ideas.

Some beamshots at 15' (1/15 sec F2.5) on white target over off-white wall all using stock Mag reflector adjusted to tightest possible focus at 15'. Target shoulders are 9" across. Exposure is set to avoid overexposing any part of beam. By eye, spill light is much more apparent.

Upper left: Stock Mag lens showing typical Mag uneven pattern due to filament and slightly off center bulb. Upper right: Stock Mag lens with WriteRIGHT. Note: "+" pattern. Lower left: Acrylite diffuser lens. Lower right: Very diffuse lens made from R40 CFL diffuser; if you change brightness levels in an image editor you can see that there's really something there.



Below are same four images converted to gray scale and posterized to 10 shades with false color to help delineate brightness regions.

I'm very interested in the hands-on opinions of the reviewers. Thanks.

And to think that this is virtually the same stuff that covers the writing surface of my desk. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif

Dan

Otokoyama, is it a safe assumption that in the posterized version of the photo, the same color roughly represents the same brightness?

If so, it seems that the diffusion lens still permits very near the same brilliance, just in a smaller spot, while smoothing the beam appreciably.

I am anxious to see it's effect on the Megaclops SE. It is a great light, but the beam is not artifact free. For one, the die leads can be seen in the beam.

I think this lens will render that effect un-noticeable.

If the acrylite is texturized only on one side, you might try flipping it around. Although not exactly like a fresnel lens, you still might see some directional effects.

Wilkey

My that looks very nice. I have learned to live with the 'plus-sign' effect, but that arcylite lens looks very nice, almost, dare I say it, surefire-ish????

Thanks again, an I will be sure to post some pics and impressions once I get the lens and have a chance to play with it. This lens will work in my Magcharger also, correct?

shankus: I combined the raw images--which were taken at the same fixed setting--before posterizing, so I believe the same posterized color represents the same brightess "bucket" in all images. I left white balance on "auto" though.

I like this material because it does seem to remove artifacts without greatly affecting the overall beam, though like any diffuser there's an obvious reduction in throw.

Did I mention this material works especially well with the TigerLight? The new TigerLight light assemblies come just about as close as possible to an incandescent bulb perfectly centered within a smooth reflector, but there are still obvious filament artifacts which this material removes. I don't know how it would stand up to heat over a long period.

I got to thinking about shankus's question, and realized why there were only a handful of "brightness" levels when there should have been 16. I then realized that without converting to gray first (as I usually do), the slightly different colors had formed posterized "buckets", which doesn't accurately show the relative brightness. I replaced the posterized image with one posterized after converting to gray.

How thick is this material and could you describe its general "hardness" - from the perspective of resisting damage it used as an external lens.

Also, is this material available in a "super-thin" version that mighht be used in conjunction with a 1mm mineral glass front lens?