Surefire Invictus: Discolored ring inside the lens?

If anyone owns one of these lights could you please tell me if you have seen this? It seems to be on the inside about 3/4 of the way out from the center. It only shows when the light is on but if I pay $700 for a light I think there should be any defects at all. Is this normal or is it a defect??

Maybe You just see Newton's rings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_rings

They are a normal phenomenon of some kinds of optics.

Maybe but this is one ring a few millimeters wide, not like the one pictured. But there may be differences in the newton's rings from one light to the next.

Can you get a photo of it?

I'll see if I can get it to show up. It'll be early tomorrow morning since I'm at work til 4:30am.

How is the beam in use? I've seem some things that don't look right that aren't really noticable in use. If the beam is whacked right out, return it.

The beam is fine. I took a pic with my iPhone at work. This is the same pic with one being the HDR version.

No opinions here? I posted pics as requested.

Hey Bully,

I dont have one of these lights. My opinion is probably worthless. But, when I turn my lights on high, whether its a Surefire with UCL or a Malkoff MD2 with lexan window or whatever, when I hold it at an angle or look at the business end at the same view angle as you have displayed above, I always see a cloudy like light ring many times with a slightly yellowish tint on the window. At first I thought it was a dirty window or something and I kept cleaning the windows inside and out and yet it was always there. I am looking at my MD2 right now and its there about 2/3 of the way towards the center of the window just like yours. None of my lights have that cool tiros type lens under the glass but I have always had similar rings on my lights. when I hold the light at other angles or look straight on there is nothing evident at all. I have just accepted it on high output lights

Does it go away at other angles? is it visible when the light is off? Unfortunately you cant take the head apart either. I think its the glass not the optiqs though and I dont know what causes it. something with the coatings for antiglare maybe?

sorry this probably wont help at all.

Probably simply the edges of the LED.

My UB3T has exactly the same Coke bottle green ring and I've also wondered about it. To me it appears to correspond to the internal boundary between the center Fresnel area of the optic and the outer TIR reflector surface. There is a flat mild diffuser surface in front of the optic that the green ring and the Fresnel rings project onto as an image. The XM-L emitter is known to put out a lot of unsavory greenish brown light on the edges of the die as others have reported.

The scale of the distance between surfaces in the UB3T head is way too large for Newton's rings in my estimation.

Thanks for the help guys! Maybe it's normal after all.

I have a SF Invictus and it has the same ring. The beam is not affected at all. It's had the ring since new. I would guess it is an artifact of the TIR lens and the LED.

HotWire said:

I have a SF Invictus and it has the same ring. The beam is not affected at all. It's had the ring since new. I would guess it is an artifact of the TIR lens and the LED.

Click to expand...

I agree. I just got mine yesterday and it has the same artifact but it's no issue in use.