Surefire L1 beam question...

Howdy...

I tried searching about this, but didn't see anything about it. Before I begin, this is not a slam at Surefire...just a simple question. A buddy at work bought a Surefire L1 (blue LED) and I noticed that the beam looks a bit strange...it looks like there are four distinct (darker) parallel lines in the beam. It's especially noticible at the high-beam setting.

Is this normal? What would cause this? Are they all like this? It's not particularly disturbing, it just looks a little odd. I was just wondering if others have had similar experiences to this. My first thought was it could have been the leads in the LED itself showing up, but I've never seen that before.

Any thoughts?

JM-99

Colored LED's have lots of artifacts, such as the lines you mention. They don't cast a smooth beam like white LED's do.

None of my Surefire L1s have a smooth beam. They all have artifacts. Furthermore, every flashlight I have that uses optics tend to MAGNIFY any artifacts.

If you want a smooth beam, your better off getting a flashlight with a textured reflector (all incadescent Surefires plus Surefire L2, L4, L5 and L6).

i just got my L1 the other day. It doesn't have a perfectly round beam like an L4 or an E2E. but this light is basically an emergency light. long run time on low. pretty decent output on high. I'ts goign to be a camping/fishing outdoors/emergency type light for me

The lines you are seeing are the LED die. White emitters don't show these because the phosphor layer covering the die smooths them out. I think these lines aren't visible (or at least take a different form) in red and amber Luxeons because their die is constructed differently. Here's a closeup of a blue and a red emitter to show you what I'm talking about:

[larger image]

[larger image]

I think people are getting a bit carried away saying that reflectors are always better than optics and implying the NX05 beam is bad.

Certainly the new SF LED lights with reflectors are top notch, but the NX05 isn't shabby at all. Consider how may lights with reflectors have downright shoddy beams. I'd venture it is most of them. At least for those that don't have a super tight spot (which I don't like in general). Surefire stands out as an exception in reflectored lights, not the rule.

Shine the NX05 on a white wall and you get a smooth even beam with a slight, but even, corona. Shine it outside and you can't see any imperfections at all. Shine it as a task light, ditto.

I'd rather have a cheapo NX05 than a cheapo reflector any day. Most of the inexpensive LS lights these days are using reflectors. And most of them give a worse beam than the NX05 IMO.

Now, if you are willing to put in the serious engineering to get a good result with a reflector, go for it! The better the beam, the better!

Oh, and my L1 is by far my most used light. With the dual stage you almost always can get the right amount of light. And the beam is just fine!

-john

My <font color="green"> green LED</font> L1 had these.

My Arc LS with <font color="orange"> amber LED </font> which I bought from Brock with a McFlood installed doesn't.

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Optics will tend to magnify these LED die artifacts, while reflectors will mix the light up, hiding the artifacts.

[ QUOTE ]
tylerdurden said:
The lines you are seeing are the LED die. White emitters don't show these because the phosphor layer covering the die smooths them out. I think these lines aren't visible (or at least take a different form) in red and amber Luxeons because their die is constructed differently. Here's a closeup of a blue and a red emitter to show you what I'm talking about:

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the replies from all and especially these pics...very descriptive and informative!!! That's it exactly, of course...the pics say it all.

Thanks again...

JM-99