Not sure if I should have put this here or in the modification subsection.
I am looking for either a complete flashlight, I can strip apart or a head unit, reflector/pill assembly. Ideally small form factor, so singe cell 18650 max body size with a really tight pencil beam, with ideally no spill.
I WAS after a quality zoom lamp, but they don’t exist as I want one, but I don’t actually need a zoom, I need a pencil beam and an ultra wide flood. Something like the SureFire A2 Aviator, which I may well buy anyway…but still want to try building my own, with a tighter beam and also a wider flood, but in white, not red like the Aviator and at a low moonlight level.
I guess I’ll need two drivers and switches but ig I have to make my own host then that is not an issue
For tight spot with wide spill, may be you can try XinTD C8 with XP-G2 from RMM (out of stock for now) or Int’l Outdoor, don’t know if this is suitable enough or not.
Here is link about comparison. from http://www.taschenlampen-forum.de
It is No Spill at all that I want from the pencil beam. I want to be able to shine out a window with minimum splash back . A tight beam is best for this from my experience
Sounds more like you need a laser with a focuser on it, to widen the beam a little. Most aspherics don't give a pencil beam. The aspheric beam tends to get larger, the farther out it goes. You can always try one of the 18650 aspheric zoomies, but I bet it won't fit your needs.
You are after a Crelant 7G6CS with ashpheric head and i have one id sell if you want. I dont need the ashperic head anymore but like the light itself. If you want both i can build a replacement for myself
I am not sure.. What kind of distances are you looking at out that window? And what size targets are you searching for? Windmills, boats, cattle, cats? I have a few in mind but unsure about the circumstances this will have to work under.
I would suggest modding the Convoy S2+ or the likes that have shorter reflector. Just change the reflector for a narrow spot or plain tight TIR optic from Carclo. Look for 20mm 10XXX series with the highest Cd/lm number for the led in question.
Add link to better illustrate my suggestion: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/26270
Maybe by using insulation/centering gasket on the led we can alleviate the square beam problem of Carclo optics.
Maybe the most suitable choice in stock form is the Olight javelot or Maxtoch 2X. For a budget option: Courui big head, XP-G C8.
And the surefire aviator does not produce a pencil beam, it has little spill because of the low output. It will not give you a pencil beam nor a acceptable output even for 2009 standards. A $15 cheapo C8 will perform better, I guarantee it.
The narrowest I know of is the cheap zoomy I put a stage lighting Fresnel lens on. The new head is just a cone of paper and epoxy, but it is strong enough for light use. I took off the sliding part as it obstructed the light and the new focal length is too long for the original travel to have done much good. It has colored fringes, but these would not be as bad if I had focused it better. Colored fringes are characteristic of very large lenses, but depend also on the lens material.
It also has very high optical efficiency due to the large ratio of diameter to focal length of this particular lens. That is, it is a segmented version of a thick aspheric.
