What in the world is this reflector/led?

I was doing some budget light investigating and

came across this cheep light on ebay and wondered -- What is this?

Here is the picture and here's the link to the item. Any Ideas?

http://cgi.ebay.com/TACTICAL-5W-LED-HAND-TORCH-LAMP-FLASHLIGHT-LIGHT-BRIGHT-/270688295127?pt=US_Flashlights&hash=item3f064798d7

It's a collimator lens, also called a TIR lens (stands for total internal reflection). Like aspherics and reflectors, it's just another way to help get the light out the front of the torch in a reasonably straight line. If the TIR lens is properly mated to the led, they're awesome.

Thanks for the information. At .99 cents plus a few $$ shipping it might be worth a try for someone. I have always liked this particular light. Is it the same as what your talking about?

Next

No, that works differently. That one has a rearwards facing LED firing into the reflector.

This is what a TIR optic looks like when removed from the light. From the front

From the side

From the rear

These sit on top of the LED and usually give a fairly large hotspot and relatively less spill - but they are not usually aimed at ultimate throw like the light from Focalprice above. This one came from a Mr.Lite J4

Thanks all for the nice pictures and telling me what the lens is called. Now I can easily do research and learn a thing or two. Anyway, here is a link to some more info if anyone is interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collimator

While technically a collimating-type lens, in flashlight jargon the lens posted is called a TIR or total internal reflection optic. As to the emitter, who knows. Likely a hard-driven generic from one of the many chinese LED factories.

buy from focal price at your own risk thay tell lies

How do you like it overall? How does the beamshot look? It looks cool to me except that it's 3xAAA which I'm not too fond of.

How do I like it?
Sorry, I cannot answer that as I do not own the light in question. I thought that it was pretty interesting for the price ($.99) but I too am not to fond of lights that take 3aaa's.
Thanks also to scruffy dog for the advice to steer clear of focalprice. I had no intention of buying that particular light and was merely using it as an example for a recoil thrower which (at the time) I confused with a total internal reflection optic. If I were to buy a recoil type flashlight it might be this one from DX:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafire-wf-008-recoil-thrower-cree-q5-wc-230-lumen-led-flashlight-1-18650-2-cr123a-22934


If any one has an opinion on how well this particular model is now's the time to fess-up.

I've owned one for a couple of years, and use it as a weapon mounted light. For that sort of use it is excellent having a tight hot spot and practically no spill.

I recently bought this light http://www.dealextreme.com/p/sipik-ck361-cree-q3-wc-3-mode-180-lumen-white-led-flashlight-with-strap-1-18650-50104 . It has identical works to the UF-008, but is a bit cheaper. There's a few comments here http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/1033 and some beamshots here http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/1079

Talking Generically here, I'm curious of what other people have to say.

What is the primary function of a recoil light in a torchlight. Functionally its the reverse of a reflector light. Recoil uses the central emitted light as its primary light source. Reflectors use the side emission for throw, and the frontal central light for direct spill. The Main difference aside from that is that it is Alot easier to achieve a light with absolutely no spill light. (and better than aspheric too)

I have always felt that very well designed reflectors provide far better usable light, with (if properly designed) a similar hotspot, but fundamentally with the excess light being used as spill light. Better use of the energy comming out of the LED. Recoil/Aspherics tend to waste alot of light into the body, unless the emitter:reflector ratio is favourable (i.e massive reflectors)

The only application I've ever had for such a light with no spill is for my headlamp, where I have to illuminate a small area brightly, but not illuminate anything around it to prevent significant glare. I use this headlight with optics, so the light spot has to be smaller than what I can see with the optics. When I go outdoors with such a light, I find it very hard to use as a general torch because it doesnt light up the surrounding, creating a severe tunnel vision effect. Maybe after reading the last post, in hunting, I can see this being useful if your looking down the scope, and you dont want to create glare anywhere else other than what you see down the scope.

Theres also the thermal consideration too, with the LED at the wrong end of the heatsink.