In a conventional reflector light like the BLF GT the spot consists of the light that bounces off the reflector. It emits straight forward from the reflector and is parallel to the direction you point the light.
In contrast, the spill consists of the light that does not hit the reflector. It emits in a cone directly from the emitter.
If you put a grid of slats over the front of the lens that absorbs light not parallel to the reflector you should be able to virtually eliminate the spill. There will be some loss of spot from the spot beam hitting the side edges of the slats, but I figure that shouldn’t be more than 10% of the beam if you use narrow enough slats.
The idea is very similar to anti-reflection devices mounted on rifle-scopes. Except instead of blocking sun reflections off the lens, you would block spillbeam emissions coming out of the LED at an angle. It still probably wouldn’t get rid of all of the spillbeam. But you could probably get rid of enough of it that it would not interfere with your distance vision.
Truth is, I don’t think there is a perfect light for his wants. All of the laser lights will have a pencil beam which he doesn’t want. All of the leds will have some spill without a pencil beam. I think he will need to sacrifice in one area or another.
Actually instead of using slats, you could just slide a 1 meter long black plastic pipe the same diamater as the bezel on the front of your BLF GT.
Sure it would look ridiculous… like you’re holding some kind of old artillery piece. But the pipe would absorb most of the spill without affecting the long distance spot beam at all.
Ah, slats. I misunderstood that. Yeah, looks like something that would work.
I wonder if we could convince some flashlight manufacturer to produce this kind of accessory for this or some future light…
They W30 and M1X (2020) probably have a very similar Beam. The M2S has the same output as M1X and W30 but a bigger hotspot. Thus M1X and W30 throw further but with a smaller (and more intense hotspot). M2S hotspot is bigger but less intense as the same output is spread over a bigger area.
I have the W30 4000K, also known as the yellow one.
I’ve watched most of the videos available on YouTube with the W30. Some do show multi-story buildings out past a half a mile. At one mile the beam is going to be fairly large, I’m not sure how large. I’ve played very little with it in various weather conditions at night and only at 1/4 mile distances. I am convinced that the yellow beam is best if there is any moisture in the air at all. I have not seen any real comparisons between the three different tints. The cool white came out first and most people jumped on that.