Hybrid Reflector Head ???

I just happened to notice that the head on my Streamlight Stinger LED is half orange peel, and half smooth (Lower half near the LED is orange peel, and the outer half near the glass is smooth). It seems like a hybrid reflector head. In theory it seems like you would get the best of both worlds.

In light of all of the throw versus flood wars, I am surprised that more manufacturers are not doing this to get a good "all purpose" balance of throw/flood from their lights and LED's. Any thoughts on this?

It costs more to make those reflectors. First you have to experiment to find the best cutoff point for each emitter, and then you have to mask part of each reflector you make during the sputtering process that produces the rough "orange peel" copper coating underneath the aluminum reflective coating. It's a lot easier to produce a reflector that focuses all emitters with a Lambertian radiation pattern reasonably well, and let the user choose between a smooth or a sputtered reflector.

I, for one, have never needed so much throw that I couldn't get a beam I wanted with a light-orange-peel reflector.

My Olight T20 is like this. Plenty of spill and good throw no doubt aided by the selection of the CREE XR-E LED. Unfortunately there are some ring artifacts located in the beam. Also it has a nasty cool white tint. :sick2:

One thing to note is that these hybrid Streamlight reflectors are made of plastic. Aluminum reflectors generally aren't used often in mass production lights because of weight and cost (polymer body lights usually use aluminum reflectors as a heatsink).

The hybrid reflector creates an interesting effect, but you may still get artifacts (as with the Stinger LED). An artifact-free example would be the Strion LED, but that light has much less throw than the Stinger LED.

I was mentioning this for use with the XM-L or SST-50 LED made for a P-60 type drop in. I would think this would be beneficial for all users to get the best benefits of flood and throw.

Any other flashlight manufacturers use this type of reflector head?

Bump TTT