Design of reflector/lens to separately control flood & throw?

I don't think anything implements my thought exactly... Imagine a light with a central LED for throw, and the central part of the lens optimized for throw. Then circumferential LEDs for flood.

Looking at beamshots today I noticed that a light had excellent illumination of the foreground and a good flood angle. But to get more light in the far central zone, a lot of light was wasted over-illuminating the close/flood zone. Which makes it harder to discern the far zone as well.

So this light would have separate buttons for low/med/high in the two zones.

It might even have two separate reflectors -- the deep thrower, and another "ring" reflector with a dozen LEDs around it. You could have a threaded ring outside of that reflector, to adjust fore & aft to control the flood angle.

Don't have a Fenix TK 51 but I think it has a throwy beam and a floody beam that you can adjust individually in output.
Not really what you describe but similar function, I'll guess.

The Streamlight Twin Task series is very close to what you are looking for. The original series had an incandescent bulb in the center for throw, and either three or six small leds around the edge for flood. The current series is all LED, but keeps the same arrangement of lights. Like all Streamlights it was built well and worked well, but I just never got into the UI. It was 1,2,3,off,1,2,3,off. I got really tired of having to go all the way around to get back to the level I wanted.

I have an old Princeton headlamp that uses 1 LED centred in the reflector for throw and 3 LEDs off-centre for flood. Similar to the Fenix TK32 but only has white LEDs.

Timothybil said:

The Streamlight Twin Task series is very close to what you are looking for. The original series had an incandescent bulb in the center for throw, and either three or six small leds around the edge for flood. The current series is all LED, but keeps the same arrangement of lights. Like all Streamlights it was built well and worked well, but I just never got into the UI. It was 1,2,3,off,1,2,3,off. I got really tired of having to go all the way around to get back to the level I wanted.

Click to expand...

Have one of those as well and you're correct in how annoying the clicking around got to be. Battery life was an issue for me as well as a beam that I couldn't seem to adjust to my liking. Wanted to like it, one of my first quality flashlights, but now just rattles in a drawer.

I don't think anything exists with independent controls for flood & throw. I might want zero flood and high throw, or vice versa.

Fenix TK76. Has three leds. One throw and two flood leds. One of those floods is a NW led. Independent control over each led.

Timothybil said:

The Streamlight Twin Task series is very close to what you are looking for. The original series had an incandescent bulb in the center for throw, and either three or six small leds around the edge for flood. The current series is all LED, but keeps the same arrangement of lights. Like all Streamlights it was built well and worked well, but I just never got into the UI. It was 1,2,3,off,1,2,3,off. I got really tired of having to go all the way around to get back to the level I wanted.

Click to expand...

This one came to mind when I saw the thread title.

When searching for streamlight multi ops it shows up a lot.

Now the multi ops 3aaa model has a uv that makes a decent close up (read 20'+/-) on uv then the led is an amazing thrower for 50 lumens.
And you have the option of an LED laser combo.
Body mounted switch makes mode changes a breeze.

Single mode tail mounted clicky operates based on where the switch is and it has a raised area for feel of where the switch is in darkness.


^^ yep..50 lumens does that


^^ about 25' to the rear of the closet in daytime

kj2 said:

Fenix TK76. Has three leds. One throw and two flood leds. One of those floods is a NW led. Independent control over each led.

Click to expand...

Yea but huge & clunky with the floods hanging off the bottom. Like to see a 1 x 18660

Also I've seen the description for a bike light that takes upwards angled light and redirects it sideways & with a more Euro-headlight "flat top" profile forwards. That would be useful, as long as you are not also looking into the treetops.