Nitecore EC23 - Spot at Center of Beam

I received the new Nitecore EC23 today. The beam has a noticeable round, dark spot at the center. Attached is a photo, it is much more noticeable in person. Has anyone run into this before? Is this a defect in the light, or just the way the reflector projects the light?

A picture of the EC23 with his friends:

Left to right: Acebeam L16, Nitecore EC23, Nitecore MH20, Emisar D4, Nitecore EC11

My XT2CR Klarus received recently, also have this. This remember my old MT1A and MT1C of Nitecore with XP-G R5 :wink: , in any case, this is only noticiable for make a pic to a white wall, in normal use is not relevant (at least for me).

It’s probably due to the combination of the swallow reflector and the big surface area of the XHP35.
You could try sending an email at Nitecore to see what they have to say about it.

Does te dark spot disappear at a dstance ? If so, it means that Nitecore did a good at focusing the LED for max throw but at the price of a dark spot in close range use

The fence in my yard is at 50 yards, and you can still see the spot at that distance.

I just sent an email to Nitecore, I will see what they say.

Same issue here, but mine does not shows on longer distance or at least I did not notice...

my picture has been enhanced so it can show the spot better...mine is less presentable than the picture in person...

i asked about that exact question here.

Yeah i expected this since the spec is quite similar to Nitecore Concept One which i have and i dont like the black hole with cross in the middle also the green on the corona is also ugly but not noticeable on longer distance. Despite it’s ugly beam i quite like the Concept One fits nice in hand.

I still have my Nitecore EC23 on the way probably next week.

This is the beamshot from Nitecore Concept 1, it looks like the EC23 has bigger black hole compared to Concept 1, concept one also has green cross in the middle.

I noticed a hole in the center of the hotspot on my Acebeam H15 XHP70.2 NW version but didn’t see it in the CW version. I’m thinking of putting on some DC-Fix to diffuse it. But the flood on this thing is already insane compared to other headlamps the the Wizard and Olight H2R Nova so not sure if DC-Fix will make it overly floody.

I don't notice it outdoors. I'm told DC-fix, emitter swap to XHP35 HI, or OP reflector helps. I'm not sure it can be avoided with XHP35 HD and a SMO reflector that size.

All are 18650 lights except for the Acebeam L30

Acebeam
L16 has the hole
L30 has a purple circle with a yellow dot in it

Nitecore
EC23 has yellow circle
EC23 has hole (like yours)
P10GT has yellow circle
P10GT has yellow circle
MH20GT has yellow circle
MH12GT has yellow circle with hole in it
Concept 1 has hole in it
Concept 1 has purple circle

Klarus
XT2CR has hole
XT11GT has yellow circle
XT11S has yellow circle
XT12GT has yellow circle

Astrolux
S2 has hole

Zanflare
F1 has yellow circle

Sofirn
SP31 has purple circle

My Nitecore MH23 has the same issue as you can read here:

The donut hole seems like the least of the light’s beam’s problems.

Add Manker MK41 HD CW to the list, mine has dark spot as well.

What’s with the single post accounts that just copy one of the older posts and add a link?

Spam, and I just marked another as such.

Another ploy is “What a wonderfully informative post, thank you. [retarded link to some garbage-site here]”.

Or the link’s buried in the signature.

Either way, just flag ’em as spam when you see ’em.

My xhp 35 hi also has hole in it

Hmm, just looked back through the entire thread and didn’t see that I answered the OP.

I’ve seen that plenty of times, and it’s rather “normal” for very-well-focused lights, especially with bigger reflectors.

In the GTmini or -micro thread, I pointed it out, and someone said it might be bad, but nope, I’ve seen that in other lights as well.

Most times, the hotspot is yellowish, and the “hole” is actually slightly blue.

Only thing I can say is that it’s most pronounced in larger reflectors with small LEDs and definitely SMO and not OP.

Kinda makes sense, though, in that the hotspot is made by light thrown off the sides of the LED (straight-out is spill), so if perfectly perfectly focused, you’ll get what’s essentially a doughnut-hole in the middle.

The bigger the LED, the more off-axis light hits the reflector and blurs the hotspot, covering up the hole.

So… P30, GTmini/-micro, etc., yeah, par for the course. Nowhere near as objectionable as a big angry corona around the hotspot, and often it’s actually hard to see unless you jiggle the light, so I don’t mind. In fact, I take it as a sign that it’s perfectly focused and -centered.