Glossary/Dictionary of terms... (can we sticky this?)

can someone explain the differences between this stuff?

cold/warm/hot beams

smooth vs orange peel vs any other kind of reflectors (asking what the difference is in the beam)

i'm sure theres more lingo that i have no clue about so we'll make this a thread to get answers to newbie questions... add what you wanna know and hopefully someone will reply!

- Cool/warm beam refers to the color temperature of the light; cool leans towards blue and is like midday overcast, warm leans towards orange and is like sunrise/set. We measure color temperature in Kelvin:



- A smooth reflector is polished and smooth, and will plainly reveal any unevenness in how the light source emits light. An orange peel reflector is somewhat rough and will smooth out how a beam projects. There is also a stippled reflector which is very rough and usually only found with light sources that project very poorly.

StarHalo said:

- A smooth reflector is polished and smooth, and will plainly reveal any unevenness in how the light source emits light. An orange peel reflector is somewhat rough and will smooth out how a beam projects. There is also a stippled reflector which is very rough and usually only found with light sources that project very poorly.

Click to expand...

Thanks man!

so like in my Maglite where theres a big hole in the beam when you open it up a orange peel will get rid of that?

redswr said:

so like in my Maglite where theres a big hole in the beam when you open it up a orange peel will get rid of that?

Click to expand...

It would make the transitions where the beam is brighter/dimmer a bit smoother, but the hole is due to the focusing mechanism. The best way to improve the beam on a Maglite is to replace the stock bulb/reflector assembly with a drop-in; the most popular drop-ins are made by Malkoff.

I am kind of confused about flood and spill.

Is spill the "corona" around the hotspot? and flood the the light that's not been reflected from the reflector? or are they the same?

The hotspot is the bright center of the beam, the spill is the dimmer region surrounding it; the corona is the area where the two meet.

StarHalo said:

It would make the transitions where the beam is brighter/dimmer a bit smoother, but the hole is due to the focusing mechanism. The best way to improve the beam on a Maglite is to replace the stock bulb/reflector assembly with a drop-in; the most popular drop-ins are made by Malkoff.

Click to expand...

it's on its way already with 3 AA to D converts

redswr said:

it's on its way already with 3 AA to D converts

Click to expand...

Be aware that the drop-in has a maximum voltage rating of 9 volts; if you're using 3AA/D adapters, a 2D Mag is the largest size you can use.

So what is flood?

I would just add since it was directly addressed above that flood and spot are what the reflector does for you and spill is that light that does hit the reflector.

You can have a reflector that focuses the light into a narrow range (spot) or a broader range (flood). Any light not hitting the reflector is spill.

StarHalo said:

Be aware that the drop-in has a maximum voltage rating of 9 volts; if you're using 3AA/D adapters, a 2D Mag is the largest size you can use.

Click to expand...

sorry (3) 2AA to D adaptors

yliu said:

So what is flood?

Click to expand...

That's just a general term for light that covers a broad area, like a floodlight.

gcbryan said:

spill is that light that does hit the reflector.

Any light not hitting the reflector is spill.

Click to expand...

Light that hits the reflector focuses into the hotspot, the spill is the light coming straight out of the emitter, unreflected.