Any chance of making a zoomie version of that 14500 light?
A small 14500 size light is ideal for pocket EDC. But that said, many people prefer to only have to carry one EDC around. A LEP without zoom is worthless for this purpose since it can’t be used for anything up close.
LEPs are optimized for maximum throw. A LEP zoomie in flood mode obviously wouldn’t be great for close up use. It might be only 200 lumens or so of cool white low-CRI light.
But even if the output in flood looks a lot like a 10-year-old Sipik 68, it is still be far better than nothing.
It shouldn’t be too hard to redesign the head of that LEP light to make it into a zoomie. External styling can be kept the same and the same lens can be used. All that’s needed is to make the bezel holding the lens slide back and forth. The parts needed would be (1) redesigned head and bezel, and (2) bezel and lens retaining rings. The same general mechanics as used for typical cheap zoomies would work fine.
From the user perspective, the only thing lost would be some water resistance (and maybe not even that if they use double o-rings and and a threaded rather than sliding bezel).
A true zoomie LEP light does not exist, especially in pocket EDC size. Lumintop could probably charge a premium to be the first.
NOTES:
Making a zoomie LEP would be a lot easier if the LEP used is of the type where the laser is mounted behind the phosphor and there is no mirror glued to the lens. The lens would have the clearance to retract close to the phosphor for wider flood.
A zoomie LEP using the older style where the laser shines forward into a mirror mounted on the lens and then reflects back into a phosphor mounted next to the lens is less practical since the mirror might preclude getting a really wide beam. It’s also less safe if the user is able to remove the bezel and have an exposed high-output laser shining forward.
I may get one, though it doesn’t tick the budget box. I would like a 14500 LEP zoomie as well. If Lumintop makes one I’m sure it will be fine eventually. My experience so far is that not all LEP’s are rock solid out of the gate.
Freeme, does the 14500 LEP flashlight have a glass lens or a plastic lens?
If it is plastic (I expect that) then it needs a glass protection lens in front of it. Being EDC-sized, this light will likely sit in pockets so that lens will surely damage like that and over time the throw will be ruined.
I have two LEP lights and one of them (“Neal’s” LEP light) has a (nicely AR-coated) protective glass lens before the plastic projection lens so I can toss it wherever I want, the other (4Tool L10) has no protection before its plastic lens so I need to handle it with care and I made a cap for it, this is annoying and in my opinion a design failure.
14500 LEP doesn’t even look that tiny to make it worth the output loss compared with the Thor 2, for me. I also think it looks like a cheap $10 “tactical” light. The big boi, though? I want to see more of that. I’m waiting to buy another LEP until something can properly outclass the Thor2, and I wouldn’t mind something with more life and distance like that.
What makes the 14500 light look attractive is that it looks as small as a typical EDC light. Very pocketable… much more so than the bigger LEPs. And it would be very impressive if that tiny little light can produce 90 or 100k lux.
I mainly only use pocketable EDC-size lights. I haven’t purchased any LEPs yet, because all of the currently available crop are too large.
I only have one LEP, so what do I know. It has been my understanding that the bigger the aperture, the bigger and brighter the beam. I’m basing my assessment of the 14500 version on comparisons between the thor 1 and 2, where the thor 1 lacks in performance. That said, maybe thor 1 performance out of a much smaller size would be good.
In general, The wider the aperture, the narrower and more intense the beam. Lumens might be the same, but a wider head should give more lux.
But owning a powerful light with miles of throw means nothing if you did not bring it with you because it is too big.
This is where the little 14500 light comes in. It’s small and portable, but will likely have less throw than all other LEPs. My guess is maybe 200 lumens and 80-100k Lux.
If the lens is what I estimate 16mm diameter, and if the LEP module is driven at the same current as bigger lights, throw should be as much as 150-200 kcd.
