Are flashlights next ?
Judging by the video, when car and bike are side by side, this light is still going to blind oncoming traffic...
The idea of a beam being better because it has two hot spots is ridiculous. The goal should be to have a shaped beam pattern with greater intensity where it’s needed. On a road bike, you’d want a narrow beam pattern that spills enough light near the bike to identify hazards you’re about to hit, but not so much intensity that it washes out the further areas of the beam pattern.
I’m drawing a blank now, but there’s a name for this type of reflector. Basically, there are many points on the reflector that are digitally engineered to send light to a specific location. This allows a beam pattern that serves transportation applications much better than a simple round or simple flood beam pattern.
I believe the only way to make that type of reflector is with a reflector made with a mold with an aluminum deposition coating for reflectivity.
A very complicated version of this is used in some televisions and projectors. That is, it has many small motorized mirrors to send light where it’s needed.
Interesting. Actually, the beam pattern is similar to what I try to achieve manually with two torches on my bar - one a flood for close up and the other a thrower for down the road. I don't know as I've seen a light with anything exactly like this, but there have been a few lights with flattened out beams, mainly for commuters or to meet regulatory requirements in Germany and other EU countries, such as here or with the Philips Saferide.
Most of your standard bike lights and those coming out of China make no attempt at beam shaping - they are usually adapted flashlight reflectors. At least Fenix is attempting to do something different than the norm and I'm sure it will be made with their typical high quality. Downside will be very high price I'm sure, perhaps not as bad as Lupine, but hey, there's always room for high end stuff in the marketplace.
After I sputtered the reflector on my XinTD V3 , the near flood is perfect for biking , while the beam still throwy ...
Sputtered? Do tell, Jack. Pictures would be even better. I have enough bike torches and a bike light on the way, so I'm open for some experimentation.
I simply sprayed the reflector with some clear polyurethane like so ...
And ended up with a smoother beam profile with a better hotspot / corona transition and more spill ...
It seems to be quite an ordinary reflector… The “magic” is done by the upper part of the lens, not easy to see. It has some prism-like structurs on it, refracting part of the light down towards the road directly in front of your bike.
Nice. Is that the method Old Lumens uses? I'm going to try it on my Apex ST6. Love the light, but the SMO has a very ringy beam. I've also used diffusion film, but that seems to cut output.
I wonder if a small piece of Fresnel lens with the correct FL affixed to the lens of a standard torch would have a similar effect...
I tried attaching a small aspheric lens to the front upper-portion of a light to a fairly good outcome...I believe an optically clear adhesive such as Norland would have yielded a better result.
I came in here hoping to see a light with a cutoff to not blind cars……I so dissappointed
A diffused mirror should do the trick; small enough to cover only a small segment at the top of the light, fixed in an angle of about 60° to the lens. Even aluminium foil on a card board, fixed with some adhesive tape, could be a budget DIY alternative (“it isn’t proper modding if duct tape isn’t involved”).