Emitters: Throw and Flood

I was thinking lately how much I really liked my P100A2 and how far it threw for a 2AA in its class. I really like the R2 emitter.

I've owned:
-Quark Turbo R5 2XCR123 / Turbo 2XAA S2 / 2XAA Mini
-Lumintop TD-15X
-Fenix PD-31 / TK-45 / LD-10 R5
-Eagletac P20A2 Mark I R2 / P100A2 R2
-Surefire G2X
-Energizer 2AA Lithium
-Inova X2

I think this is enough to say I like the R2 emitter the best. All I have left of these is my P100A2. I like the balance it has for flood and throw and does not have a massive reflector.

Well, I guess what I was thinking was why are the emitters getting bigger and bigger but not putting out as much throw as the R2?

Tre's response here is what sparked my thoughts on this.

Why don't they/are there currently: Any plans to make the emitters brighter at smaller size such as that of the R2? Or will they continue to just grow and make the reflectors larger to throw farther?

I like the R2 because it doesn't seem to need a bahemoth reflector to throw(P100A2 for example/Quark Turbo 2XAA). And the flood is still great. On some of my lights I owned, the flood is so much that there really isn't allot lux on the hotspot(Less throw) yet the overall output on the spill is not that noticeably lighter and to me has be negligible. I'd rather have it focused in the beam then see it be a little bit brighter in the spill. Maybe possible 1 day the emitter the size of the R2 have the power of the XM-L or even the SST-90 someday through technology advancement.

I had a similar thread on this. I just want to get some takes on this. I hope it's not too unclear I apologize if I am a bit vague.

I'm assuming by R2 you mean the XR-E R2?

Here's a good read

"More" is what sells a product. In the case of flashlights it's more lumens. Bigger emitters make more lumens, therefore sell more product.

In the emitter manufacturers case, more lumens means more sales in more applications.

Manufacturing a specific emitter with a tiny die for ultra high surface brightness has limited applications. There's no money in limited applications.

Ok thanks for the link and explanation my brain can rest on this better a bit. The link kept me up an extra 30 minutes. Lots of red eye research.

Edit: Noted on bin number rating and emitter model. I didn't know the xp-e's best bin was R3. Didn't see many lights with xp-e/xr-e emitters from the R3 bin.

I completely understand why manufactures make light with the bigger emitters for more lumens, but I'm with you animalmother, with loving the XP-E such as you have in your ET P100A2. I too wish more manufactures would make lights like this, but I'm not holding my breath as they don't seem to sell as well.
I too may have to just break down and get the P100A2.
Wish there were more of us like this with this opinion!
Shad

You wont regret it.
It's simple and can throw extremely far in it's class.
This light seems to out throw most of the lights in my list in my OP.

EP-E
EX-R

They are my favorite emitter for this reason. What's the brightest they can get?
They even have a R3 bin for them but I don't know of any lights that use the binned R3 EP/XR-E's.

Only light I know with R3 EP-E.
http://www.batteryjunction.com/nextorch-mytorch-2aa-r3.html

Only light I know with R3 EP-E.
http://www.batteryjunction.com/nextorch-mytorch-2aa-r3.html[/QUOTE]

Never seen this light before. Weird, you can use a computer to adjust the levels? Not sure I want to try anthing where I have to use a computer to adjust the levels. Didn't have any reviews either.
Hey, you tried right!

When you have one little die producing a lot of light, there is relatively low efficiency and significant heat at the die, reducing it's life.

For LED's, it's more efficient to produce a certain amount of light from 3 emitters than it is 1. Hence, the ongoing popularity of Triple-emitter lights.

When you go with emitters which have a large die, you're effectively doing the same thing as going with more emitters, but with less significant complexity and cost. Plus you can throw better because you have one reflector.

Up until recently, flashlights have been a thrown spot and very little spill. I don't find that very useful. I want both, and I get it handily with the latest bigger-die Cree emitters. Namely, Cree XP-G, and especially Cree XM-L. Luminus is OK, but Cree rocks.

EngrPaul said:

When you have one little die producing a lot of light, there is relatively low efficiency and significant heat at the die, reducing it's life.

For LED's, it's more efficient to produce a certain amount of light from 3 emitters than it is 1. Hence, the ongoing popularity of Triple-emitter lights.

When you go with emitters which have a large die, you're effectively doing the same thing as going with more emitters, but with less significant complexity and cost. Plus you can throw better because you have one reflector.

Up until recently, flashlights have been a thrown spot and very little spill. I don't find that very useful. I want both, and I get it handily with the latest bigger-die Cree emitters. Namely, Cree XP-G, and especially Cree XM-L. Luminus is OK, but Cree rocks.

Click to expand...

This perfectly answered my thread.
Fulfillment. I can lay this to rest in my mind now.

Thanks again.