Discussed on reddit , with a claim that there’s “no moving parts” and “only one LED”. I’m not sure how this could work if both of those statements are true.
That makes it sound like there’s an LCD between the optic and the front glass, which controls which parts of the beam leave the light. Or even just diffuses the output.
Smart glass that diffuses the beam?
Variable shape lens?
Both seem too expensive to be worthwhile so I guess it’s something different.
I’m mildly interested with such teasers.
Show us the tech and then we’ll be able to tell whether we like it.
BTW, I can’t see the vids. Neither on FF nor on Chromium.
That’s what I was thinking - perhaps a type of “smart glass” lens like polymer-dispersed LCDs. Technically that would be diffusing like DC-Fix, not zooming.
I don’t know what the transmission efficiency would be, but if that is how it works, once these lights are on the market, I’m sure someone could test one in a homemade integrating box while zoomed, diffused, and with the lens removed to find out.
Very interested in seeing how their focusing mechanism works.
Years ago I saw a video of a prototype flashlight that used a deformable lens. It was a promo video for the company that made the lens. From their video it looked like a pretty neat concept. It appeared with it you could make a flashlight that was basically a normal reflector light, but with the added benefit that the lens could be deformed to produce a different beam. But since then I’ve seen nothing. I wonder if this new Manker uses something similar.
However, I note from the first video in this thread, the Manker appears to have the zoom controlled by buttons. That makes me wonder if this is just a motorized zoom light, just with the moving parts on the inside.
If that’s the case, I’m much less impressed. Flashlights are already bulky enough without having to carry around a motor you don’t really need. And if the manker is a conventional zoom light inside, then the light will be even more bulky since the casing must have enough room to hold all the parts at both flood and spot positions. There would be a lot of empty space inside the light.
This would make it much bulkier even than a similar conventional zoom flashlight, which can collapse down into a compact form when throw is not needed.
On the upside, the Manker’s beam from the video looks pretty nice. And zoom lights are a market sorely lacking in quality manufacture and creativity. I’m looking forward to seeing how Manker did this.
The only way to have no moving parts would be using that smart glass or some sort of dlp to change how the light scatters.
Even then there is still technically something moving, it’s just very very small.