Well. They are in and looking fine, but PMs will be delayed until I figure out shipping.
They came in a single box, stacked in one another like cups with plastic wrapped around each one. Doesnt look like it affected anything……Shipping on my end may be tricky though, I will see what I can do.
A box in a box doesnt sound cost effective. With a small box price will be dependent on weight……
Brainstorming. What if you use a flat piece of cardboard that is 5 - 6 inches square and tape the reflector face down onto it? I’m not concerned with the back of the reflector. I just want it to hold its shape and keep the reflecting finish intact. Then put in a box for shipping without any padding. I guess big bubble bubble wrap would probably be better than just air.
Received my reflector today. I should have researched this reflector more. I assumed 95 mm was the diameter of the reflective cone, not the over all diameter. I was expecting it to be 3mm larger than my Defiant Spot Light’s reflector, but it is significantly smaller instead. The Defiant is advertized as 92mm, but it’s overall diameter is about 105mm. I only blame myself for not researching more thoroughly.
Never the less, I’m still excited about using this reflector in something. Thanks again TrakTuned for organizing and executing this group buy.
No problem, thanks for the participation I wouldnt have bought them without partners :bigsmile: . I hadnt actually measured the applicable size upon recieving them. They do look strangely small though.
Well, I dont know what it will now go in as I dont like the beam pattern with MTG-2 but havent tried focusing it better so we shall see. Its just not as throwy as I hoped.
I ended up with two as Someone backed out but no biggie. Maybe I will make some camping lights, or spotties for the car!
If it was after you placed the order, that’s not cool that someone back out. Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully, we can get these babies to sing and someone else will buy that extra one from you.
Thanks for the preliminary report on the MGT2 in this reflector. How would you compare what you saw to a SRK?
I ordered the KD reflector a couple weeks ago. I think it shipped on the 17th. When I get it, I’ll try to take some good pictures of it and report back. I don’t that DX reflector to compare beam pattern to though.
I’m getting it to try with an MG-T2, but I will try to rig something up to see how it looks with xml.
If you decide to sell the extra reflector, you will have no problem at all. I finally tried out the reflector last night with an MG-T2 at 3.65 amps. It’s very aaaawsome! It has to be the most usable smoothest beam pattern I have ever seen. I’m looking forward to having the focus finalized and much more current flowing.
The atmosphere was bad for judging throw (It’s been raining regularly here for some time now), but it looked quite promising. Doesn’t throw like the Defiant Spot Light I modded, but it does something very special that will make it my go to light for most situations. At first glance, you get the impression that the SRK floods better. That is on account of it huge hot spot in the near field. But then, you start noticing that whole spill area is brighter, the throw is much better, the consistency of the beam is much better, color rendition is better, and just something subjective that is hard to put a finger on is better. Everything seems just a little bit more real and 3 dimensional.
The best I can describe the beam pattern is SRK on steroids with tons of throw. It lights up everything in the beam quite well. I’ve never had a flashlight displace so much dark. You really see everything clearly. I could even see all kinds of spider webs. I don’t know why, but I usually don’t see them and walk right into them most of the time. I would say overall it floods about 10 to 15% better than the SRK. Throw is going to be even more percentage wise, but I need to find a place, decent conditions, and time to compare.
The usable beam diameter is wider than the SRK. The SRK beam is just as big in diameter if you count the faint feathering area in the outer part of the spill. But that area is too faint to really count. The spill is much brighter then my the SRK (my SRK pulls over 7 amps at tail). The beam smoothly intensifies as it gets to the center. You can pan the light around and not get blinded by the hot spot hitting close objects (not counting white structures). It’s almost like the reflector is sending light out at different angles from within the reflector, because things don’t seem like they are just being lit up from a single point. Maybe that is what the interesting facets are doing. The furthest open spot I had was around 600 feet. The illuminated that area nicely.
I found the focus best when the reflector bottom rested on the MCPCB. Due to my temporary wiring being in the way, I couldn’t get the reflector lower than that.
From this thread, I really like the beam profile of the DX with XML. But of course, bigger is often better.
The idea is to overdrive a single XM-L2 to around 5A to power a custom bikelight build with large remote lico pack. Id like moderate spill with a great hotspot. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with on the XML rig!
Techjunkie reported: Outdoor shots were 60ft from light to target (fence), 72ft from camera to target. Outdoor camera settings were F/3.5, 1/3 sec, ISO-200, white balance = 5200K, focal length 24mm.
DX 73mm SST90 reflector, cool white T6, 5.0A
I just discovered that a BTU a/r lens (93mm) should fit that big KD reflector, so I hope it plays nicely for you!
I’ll do my best to replicate the above shot. I’m curious too. I have to warn you that I have had bad luck with taking beam shots, but I’m going to borrow a decent camera. Thanks for providing the camera settings. Hopefully, we will have some drier weather conditions. All the moisture in the air currently really sucks up the light. Its more like lighting up air right now, instead of objects.
Thanks again for doing this for me/us. It will be interesting to see how things turn out. The best advice I can give you is to under-expose. Make sure both the camera and flashlight are mounted to something solid and take several of the same shot. Keep only the best ones. I think my biggest worry is that the reflector might not have a high luster finish (as shown in the KD photo) and that it wont focus an XML properly. We hardly ever get high humidity in my area so Ive been very lucky in that regard.
Will do. Yeah, I’m concerned about that too after seeing your photos. I’m hoping its photo water mark artifacts we are seeing combined with lousy lighting. For the price I paid, it better be good quality.
Based on this group-buy one I have, the reflectors at Illumination Machines seem to be some of the best available. They are range from $4 to $9 not counting shipping. To bad the min order quantity is 5.