Lens: Plastic vs. Glass / What's Your Preference?

Ultra-clear glass lenses let the most light out while Borofloats are great for high-temp incan setups.
Plastic is seen as being highly unfashionable, and it was certainly not my preference.
However, this evening my bias may have been swayed in the other direction.

Came home today tired and with sore knees, and threw my keys/lanyard on the hook, inadvertently knocking over my Mag Charger triple LED XM-L2 setup. I watched in slow motion as it hit the tiled foyer at a steep angle, bezel down, and watched glass go everywhere. Spent the next hour vacuuming up shards of glass from the carpet mat, the stairs, the shoes/hiking boots/sandals...royal pain in the behind. The three little reflectors popped off and I scooped them up off the floor for later re-adhesion. Now that I had an instant mule, I used it to see as many shiny little fragments of glass as I could find.

I'll borrow a plastic lens from one of my other Mags and figure out a way to glue the reflectors back on.

To say I am now soured on using a glass lens for the heavier lights in my collection is an understatement.

So, fellow members, which do you prefer?

I am not talking about super high temperature hotwires where you don't have a choice, but, if you could use either a UCL or plastic lens, which would you use? Is the higher light transmittance of glass, the risk, worth it to you?

I am adding a poll to this thread.

I am 80% sure I got all the little shards up, but will be scared for several weeks about finding a "present" in my shoe or embedded in the sole of my foot.

I prefer glass, and if possible get a lens that is thicker.

I voted for glass. Plastic gets scratched up way to quickly. Makes me think back to the MagLite AA days where the plastic lens would end up terribly scratched over time. Don't think it impacted the beam that much but looked quite unsightly.

Can I vote for sapphire ... ?

I prefer glass, but I don't mind plastic as long as it's user serviceable.

glass.

ive had a few surefires where the plastic lens was so scratched up, that i couldnt stand the beam. had to replace them with glass lens.

all the lights i use have smallish bezels, and lens. less risk of the glass lens breaking when being dropped. and if i do break the lens, i can easily replace it on most my lights (surefires).

i had a quark turbo, and my biggest complaint about it was that its lens seemed very vulnerable. it was wide, thin, and had very little bezel to protect it.
i ended up selling it and the main reason was because i wasnt confident that the lens would survive a drop. so i kind of know how you feel.

about a month ago while cooking, a glass lid for a 15 inch frying pan fell, and the shattered glass was spread all across the kitchen floor, as well as knocking over a bottle of olive oil on its way to the ground, spilling oil. fortunately, the glass bottle didnt break. all the while have food cooking over the stoves.
lets just stay there was an outburst of cursing and swearing when it all happened....

I agree that plastic (any plastic lens I've owned in a light) scratches way too easily. On my 18650 lights, it is a non-issue, as there simply isn't enough mass to shatter the lens unless you drop it in a very unfortunate manner. I am speaking specifically of larger lights.

A Mag Charger host + Massive heatsink for three XM-L2 LEDs + 26650 cell + Spacer = HEAVY

Hey people up in Corning, when are we gonna get our Gorilla Glass flashlight lenses...?

archimedes said:

Can I vote for sapphire ... ?

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I assumed glass covered Borofloat, UCL, mineral, sapphire, etc so I think you are covered there.

Yes, that is correct:

Genus = Glass

Species = Borofloat, UCL, mineral, sapphire, etc...

Prefer glass.

I use borofloat lenses on some of my lights because of the scratch resistance and toughness, but I know this costs a little on the output side; anything other than thin and relatively fragile UCL-type glass absorbs appreciably more light than humble polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is cheap, lightweight, and spares Should™ be readily available for next to nothing for when the lens inevitably gets scratched up to the point that it starts to hurt performance ... but the market does not always provide.

archimedes said:

Can I vote for sapphire ... ?

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Sure, as long as you're not GT Advanced Technologies. http://www.wsj.com/articles/gt-advanced-technologies-files-for-bankruptcy-1412607074

idleprocess said:

...anything other than thin and relatively fragile UCL-type glass absorbs appreciably more light than humble polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is cheap, lightweight, and spares Should™ be readily available for next to nothing for when the lens inevitably gets scratched up to the point that it starts to hurt performance ... but the market does not always provide.

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I checked e-Bay for Mag-size polycarbonate lenses, and all I could find was this absurd listing.

Anything weird about this description?

ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond said:

I voted for glass. Plastic gets scratched up way to quickly.

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I prefer the glass for the same reason.

FlashKat said:

I prefer glass, and if possible get a lens that is thicker.

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It is better.

It has been reported that ZebraLight uses Gorilla Glass on some of their flashlights. Schott glass is said to be used on other (older?) ZL's. I use shockcord lanyards and slightly modified Nite-Ize headstraps on all of my lights, even the large glass lens NiteCore TM36, to lessen the chance of dropping. I could see for hard-use shop-flashlights, polycarbonate may be the way to go; otherwise, glass is the choice.


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I wonder which one CPF likes better, glass or plastic?


:duh2:

So far the folks who have voted in the poll like glass!

LEDAdd1ct said:

I checked e-Bay for Mag-size polycarbonate lenses, and all I could find was this absurd listing.

Anything weird about this description?

Click to expand...

It was written by someone that never misses their 4:20 appointment?

Nope!

Read the caption under the blue title and above the price...

I do prefer glass but the last thing i'd want is for the glass to shatter, especially in a bad location. Even though i chose glass over plastic, plastic isn't as dangerous. But the only reason why i'd want glass over plastic is that the plastic easily scratches. It looks bad, flashlights could use a better coating plastic that is scratch resistant. Glass doesn't have that problem only i would have to make sure i won't drop a flashlight with a glass lens.