Why no multi-emitter flood to throw lights?

A lot of people seem to like Zoom lights, but there are some built in limitations.

While emitters have gotten brighter, they also have gotten a lot fatter! Thus, Zoom lights with latest emitters is kind of counterproductive, as they won't throw nearly as well as the smaller emitters, even though their flood is better.

So I was thinking... why not make some lights similar to the TK45 that simply use multiple emitters?
A triple-barrel XR-E with a fairly cheap aspheric and linked zoom mechanism ought to be pretty cheap to produce. You dont even need 3 barrels, just 3 emitters with 1 linked zoom with 3 small aspheric lens.

This would increase brightness significantly without having to use a lot of expensive tricks to max out the throw.

there probably isn't enough demand to justify a full production model. the only multi-emitter flood/throw lights that i can think of are specialty items - either expensive caving headlamps like the Scurion or super expensive limited run lights like the Spy Tri-V.

a lot of CPF members want more neutral lights, but some manufacturers have come out and said that neutrals just don't sell that well overall. i get the feeling that the same would be true of multi-emitter flood/throw lights as well, CPFers might want them, but overall demand just might not be there. at least not yet.

*Edit* - LOL! i totally mis-read the original post, didn't i. *shakes head*

I dont think youll gain any throw. It's the same with reflectors, tk45 vs tk41. A big lense can prob focus tighter than 3 small ones.

There's Led Lenser X21 and X21R at least.

I think it would be more like flood to floodier.

jorn said:

I dont think youll gain any throw. It's the same with reflectors, tk45 vs tk41. A big lense can prob focus tighter than 3 small ones.

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unless they are all pointed to one spot at a certain distance like at 100M they all meet at the center but they will have to be farther apart on the light

I agree with jorn. There really is no point building a multi-emiter flood to throw light when a smaller, cheaper, simpler, single LED one will throw just as far.

Done properly, I would love such a light.

It is probably just a case of production cost vs demand.

multi-emitter flood/throw is best done by the Fenix TK70 and the single emitter Olight SR90, they are the "tweener units" next up is incand and HID spotlights.

We have multi-emitters for flooding.
I understand from the opening post that we are wondering why multi-emitters aren't used for maximum throw?
A very good question.

Probably only Dr Jones and Saabluster etc could really answer this question, if they read this thread.

However, if I had to make an educated guess, I postulate the following.
We already know that the larger the reflector diameter, the more light is collected, and then concentrated to form the hot spot to maximise throw.
Thus, multi-emitters are probably not used to maximise throw, because the surface area of three overlapping circles in a triple emitter is smaller than the surface area in one single large circular reflector.

With more surface area, one single large reflector collects more light, more photons, and it focuses it into the hot spot to maximise the brightness, and hence the throw.

But you never know - may be triple emitters can be used to maximise throw as well???
Only an expert could answer this question...

What about the A2L?

Juan334 said:

unless they are all pointed to one spot at a certain distance like at 100M they all meet at the center but they will have to be farther apart on the light

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What happens at 150-200 m when the beams have crossed eachother and spreads out again?

The short answer is that you would get three spots.

Looks like multi-emitters can only produce three hots spots for more flood?
Seems that they can't get the three hot spots to join into one very bright single hot spot for greater throw?

my friend,you know ,may be it's not a easy things.but if you want,may be china factory can do it,have a try.

gcbryan said:

The short answer is that you would get three spots.

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Yep, three dimmer ones compared with the single led in a huge lense.
I love the triple setup in a floody light.

When a triple XM-L beam is photographed one meter away from the wall or at too short a distance, we can see three distinct hot spots.
However, when triple XM-L's like the Fenix TK70 is photographed 100 meters away, it seems to have a normal enough single hot spot???

Multiple emitters WILL increase the throw of the light. Just not the same way as bigger reflector/optic would (making the beam tighter). Multiple emitters will simply make the light brighter, and increase the throw that way.

Example here, LL P7 (single emitter) vs LL X21 (7x similar emitters with a bit smaller optics).

jupello said:

Multiple emitters WILL increase the throw of the light. Just not the same way as bigger reflector/optic would (making the beam tighter). Multiple emitters will simply make the light brighter, and increase the throw that way.

Example here, LL P7 (single emitter) vs LL X21 (7x similar emitters with a bit smaller optics).

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Yes it will, but compare to what? Compare it with a single led with a huuge head, just as big as the x21, and youll see that you don't gain any edge throw wise. Size matters when trying to collaminate light to max out throw.

Flydragon/Feilong CSM 360 (4x SST90) with aspheric lens is a multi-emitter thrower.



The 4 separate beams never converge.