Zooming Model List (2018 Updated) Tell us about your newest zoomie!

I like the looks of this one
At around $10 I wouldn’t expect much from it, I just like the way it looks :smiley:

Whoa, I could be OB1 Kenobi with that thingy! :laughing:

OB1 Kenobi would use one with 18650 cell :slight_smile:

Big head Xanes x915 P10 at Bangood

That's bigger than a 1504, and with a side switch that's hopefully an e-switch. Interesting...

Also available (for less ;-) money) in AliExpress:

  1. @ Lighting Market
  2. @ Claite Warm Lighting

The car will not be bad if it is pressed…

In specifications it reads:

Switch mode | 4 mode: 100% - 75% - 50% - flash :facepalm:

Looks good but replacing the driver could be a challenge. Nothing is said of the emitter but guess most people here don't really care. :-D

Interesting host. I wonder what that 7 die LED is. :slight_smile:

More comments:
BG site shows it’s a powerbank but the Ali shops don’t. These may be different variants.
It’s unclear whether 80 mm is the diameter of the head or of the lens.
Twisty action. :confused:
At this size they could really fit a battery larger than 18650.

The 1504 is listed as 71 mm head diam, and the HL35 as 72 mm. So at 80 mm for the head diam, it's the biggest aspheric I know of, but hard to say how much diameter of the lens is lost compared to a 1504. The 1540 has a glass lens, this one is plastic but plastic isn't necessarily a bad thing. For $40, it's probably worth it to check it out. Appears to have a large pill area cavity. The single 18650 is a bit disappointing though, but still, using a VTC5D would probably be a good option for a SBT90.2,if it can take a larger MCPCB.

Hhmm. After looking at the 1504, the lens is fairly wide set in there. This light loses with the bezel flaring out, and a retaining ring, but it's not grossly reduced, but reduced some.

Well if someone waited for suitable candela breaking host for wavien collar this host could be the winner…

With white flat this could do around 700 kcd. With RA about 1.3 MCD?

Since I am big fan of old school lights all I can tell about seen light that I don’t like it…

Now that you said it, I paid attention and true, soo stupid “emergency attack lamp head”. :-|

Well, how about elaborating a list of design requirements for a well done big head zoom/aspheric flashlight?

Could we get more light out without a recycling collar? I think the answer is yes. Some cheap optical systems employ reflector plus aspheric lens:

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/44mm-Lens-Reflector-Collimator-Fixed-bracket-For-10w-high-power-LED-chip/251462657198

I'd be more interested in a SBT90.2 for this light. The e-switch is an advantage for high amps, 20+, though a white flat would be another option for sure.

The best way to improve efficiency is a pre-collimator. Or pre-collimator+collar. :wink:
A reflector will add a wide ring around the main beam while a pre-collimator will increase spot size. I guess these cheap optics simply don’t focus fully so both beams blend.

I purchased this cheap zoomie below with intent on modding it later, just for fun and experience.
After it arrived and tested, it is clear the led is on the fake side. But it has potential to play with.
I will dissect it later and see if any heat sink mods can be added and go from there with led and driver upgrades.

XANES® 1282 XHP70 LED 3 Modes USB Rechargeable Telescopic Zoom LED

I’m interested in your findings. :slight_smile:

But that is with a parabolic reflector, isn't it? I just said reflector, I didn't specify which shape. Shape matters.

Initially I thought no. But remembering how I’ve seen some light using a conical reflector I decided to ray trace it.
And the answer is….I’m not sure.

Adding an aspheric lens on top of a conventional reflector DOES add a giant ugly ring around the spot.

This ring is actually a projection of the surface detail of the reflector. If you use a smooth reflector with no defects, the ring may be large, but isn’t ugly. But if you use an orange peel reflector the ring looks hideous… every single crinkle on that reflector will show up in sharp detail in the ring around the beam.

This is why modders who convert conventional lights with reflectors into aspherics often paint the reflector black. The black paint absorbs the reflected light and gets rid of the ring.

Note also that the reflector underneath an aspheric with the LED at the focal point does not increase throw at all. All it does is give you extra “spill” in the form of the beam image of the reflector on the outside of the hotspot.

I did some mental ray tracing of a reflector. And it seems to me that regardless of reflector shape, if the reflector opening is larger than the die, there will be some hole in the fully-focused beam. A reflector placed right at the die, with opening that’s not larger than the die should work well. But doesn’t seem very practical. Thought there’s a question - maybe it would be worthwhile to put the lens slightly out of focus to cancel any artifacts and gain afficiency? I have a hunch it wouldn’t but I’m not sure.

Correct. You get hole between the ring and the spot because of the gap between the reflector edge and the die. This can be hard to remove since the dome tends to be wider than the die.

Leaving the beam from a zoomie slightly out of focus does not increase efficiency in any way. It will actually produce slightly less throw than allowing the image to come completely into focus.

That said, sometimes setting the max bezel travel of a zoomie to just below full focus can be worth it. The beam pattern may be a lot a prettier since it will blur out artifacts. And the difference in throw is negligible.

Some zoomies, like the Wowtac A3S, purposely set the max bezel travel to leave the die slightly out-of-focus for this reason.