Surefire

GODOFWAR

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I noticed recently my Surefire lumamax lx2 has multi light rings now It has 3 rings + the hotspot in the center so what does that mean ??
 

Brasso

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If it hasn't been taken apart then Im going to say they have always been there and you just haven't noticed them before. It's rare to get a Surefire with an optic that doesn't have some rings.
 

GODOFWAR

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If it hasn't been taken apart then Im going to say they have always been there and you just haven't noticed them before. It's rare to get a Surefire with an optic that doesn't have some rings.

So what should I do about it cuz I hate these rings
 

Brasso

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If you don't need the throw you could put diffuser film over the optic and make it a semi flood light.
 

Vox Clamatis in Deserto

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So what should I do about it cuz I hate these rings

I feel your pain. Some of those old SF lights with the (Fraen?) optic and XR-E emitter have a beam that looks like a polar view of Saturn.

You might like the SureFire EB2. It's about the same size, is brighter and has fewer artifacts in the beam. The tactical switch version of the EB2 seems to be discontinued but a few are still for sale new on the internet.
 

archimedes

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Most flashlights set up for throw tend to have more optical artifacts.

Most of the common methods to get a more attractive beam also tend to reduce throw and increase flood, such as diffusers, orange peel texturing, etc.

It is simpler to convert throw to flood, than vice versa.
 
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bykfixer

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Flashlight lens .com sells a polycarbonate lens he calls "acrylite" which is a slightly diffused lens that really cleans up the uglies while hardly affecting throw.

Left light has one.
It really cleans up the beam of some incans and Maglites I own without orange peel-ing the reflector.
 

Vox Clamatis in Deserto

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There is no conventional paraboloid reflector for orange peel in the SureFire LX2, EB1 or EB2. They use an optic and TIR, total internal reflection, to give good throw with a small diameter.

However, one of my early EB1's definitely seems to have a weak diffuser layer under the glass lens.

Maybe just luck of the draw, but another later EB1 I have projects a beautiful razor sharp spotlight beam, reminds me of a less powerful Inova light with a convex lens I bought years ago.
 

RobertMM

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My LX2 is ringy as well, and so was my L1. Both use XRE LEDs and seemingly identical optics.

My new E1DL has a much better beam, with a much wider hotspot than those two and has two barely noticeable rings at the corona and spill.

All three have factory diffusion film under the glass, in front of the optic.

Surefire TIR just gets better and better, IMHO.
 

Vox Clamatis in Deserto

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My LX2 is ringy as well, and so was my L1. Both use XRE LEDs and seemingly identical optics.

My new E1DL has a much better beam, with a much wider hotspot than those two and has two barely noticeable rings at the corona and spill.

All three have factory diffusion film under the glass, in front of the optic.

Surefire TIR just gets better and better, IMHO.

I agree that the later SF TIR's are better and I would think that the smaller die sizes of the new emitters in the recent lights help as well.

I've got a TIR Gen 6 L1 on the desk, it does not seem to have the diffuser film. I believe Brasso told me years ago about using an RCR123 in the Gen 6 L1. It appears to be very close in throw to my late model 200 lumen EB1 with the higher voltage RCR cell.

Possibly the worst TIR beam I have with a SureFire is on an early gen L1 with a blue LED. It is very ringy and projects a square image of the emitter die when white wall hunting. Many of those monochromatic LED's don't have a phosphor layer so they are kinda like a clear incandescent bulb imaging the filament I suppose.
 

RobertMM

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I agree that the later SF TIR's are better and I would think that the smaller die sizes of the new emitters in the recent lights help as well.

I've got a TIR Gen 6 L1 on the desk, it does not seem to have the diffuser film. I believe Brasso told me years ago about using an RCR123 in the Gen 6 L1. It appears to be very close in throw to my late model 200 lumen EB1 with the higher voltage RCR cell.

Possibly the worst TIR beam I have with a SureFire is on an early gen L1 with a blue LED. It is very ringy and projects a square image of the emitter die when white wall hunting. Many of those monochromatic LED's don't have a phosphor layer so they are kinda like a clear incandescent bulb imaging the filament I suppose.

I used my gen6 L1 with an IMR 16340 right until it was stolen(it had a XPG2 5000K I swapped in for the Cree XRE, so man I was bummed!). With the Cree throw was close to, but not equal to my LX2 on primaries. With the XPG2 throw was reduced but ceiling bounce with a multimeter revealed it put out more lumens than the LX2.
You have to look at the optic at a certain angle to see the film, sort of like, you look at the reflection of a nearby window on the light's glass, and then you see the fine texture of the film.
 

GODOFWAR

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I feel your pain. Some of those old SF lights with the (Fraen?) optic and XR-E emitter have a beam that looks like a polar view of Saturn.

You might like the SureFire EB2. It's about the same size, is brighter and has fewer artifacts in the beam. The tactical switch version of the EB2 seems to be discontinued but a few are still for sale new on the internet.

Yeah U R right I feel devastated cuz It is my first Surefire and my first real flashlight in my life I bought it back in 2012 and I love it and I still love it cuz it is the most beautiful flashlight from Surefire ever and looks and feels perfect It's my friend
 

Kestrel

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[...] Possibly the worst TIR beam I have with a SureFire is on an early gen L1 with a blue LED. It is very ringy and projects a square image of the emitter die when white wall hunting.
Yup, sounds like a Gen4 - classic aspheric lens attributes, not technically TIR like the Gen5 optics. The Gen3's (0.5W LuxeonI) had a sort of Lambertian (?) configuration and didn't exhibit this, IIRC.
The Gen4's advantage was epic low-output runtime, but that's a topic for another thread I'd guess. :)

(I confess to being rusty on the L1 generation numbers, someone feel free to correct me if wrong. :eek:)
 
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Vox Clamatis in Deserto

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Yup, sounds like a Gen4 - classic aspheric lens attributes, not technically TIR like the Gen5 optics.

I dug around in a drawer and found that blue LED L1 light. It definitely has that aspheric lens you describe and projects an image of the die on the wall with four stripes in the square. But, the sides of the light's body are rounded, like a Gen 5 L1. I've also got two green L1's with the aspheric lens, one with what looks like a Gen 4 body with flat sides, another with the Gen 5 body. I've never seen a Gen 6 L1 with a color LED by the way.

An early attempt at CPF L1 taxonomy is in this post:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...L1-Evolution&p=1842150&viewfull=1#post1842150

I'm about to go for a long walk down a dark road this evening. I'll take a SF T1A Titan for a low visual signature on this moonless night. And an EB1, arguably a successor to the mighty L1, to throw a spotlight on any deer or other wildlife in the nearby fields. And, to alert a rare passing car to my presence on this quiet country road.
 
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