Making the optic narrower isn’t going to make the beam narrower…just less bright.
A lip is just going to result in a distracting ring.
I'm just saying, I think if they redo the optic and REMOVE / change the aforementioned lip, they wouldn't have lost as much throw. It obviously loses some throw compared to the LL P7 due to the fact that the center convex lens is now responsible for the "spill" in spot mode, you can see that the spot itself is substantially wider. If they would narrow the beam a bit somehow, their throw-performance wouldn't suffer as much, AND the spill would still be there, in the same amount, at the same angle, just with a tighter spot and still with no "distracting rings". I still really like this light, and am pleased that the PWM on low mode is at least faster than human reaction time in hz so as not to be too noticeable.
Then again, perhaps they're trying to follow a *certain* other company's logic with the wider beamspot being more practical in close-to-medium range "applications", whoever thinks this can of course click the "The optic is perfect as it is" choice lol. Like I said I like this light, I just wish there could have been more throw on the far end of the spot focus, as it is easy enough to slightly widen the beam at your preference. By the way, I've heard some complaints about the "Beam-Lock" not being strong enough, and of course there will be some defective beam locks as pointed out by someone at the CoastPortland website. I find that you get what you put into it. If you tighten it enough, it DEFINITELY locks it in place, though the spot quality suffers. I suspect some of the complaints are simply due to the person not putting enough oomph into their tightening of the beam lock.
Narrowing the emitter image doesn’t necessarily make it throw further. You can have a longer focal length optic and you will get a narrower emitter image but it doesn’t change the throw.
I agree eliminating a lip will usually increase the effective optic diameter and that will make it throw further since it will be brighter.
I haven’t actually seen the light in question however.
Most companies that use a lip on the optic do so just so the bezel has something to hole on to. Most lights using aspheric lenses could be designed to use a larger optic as far as I can tell.
See, the convex lens at the center, on the Coast optic, does NOT project an "image" anymore now, it actually slightly narrows the SPILL. Don't change the convex lens AT ALL, what I'm saying is the parabolic part of the reflector, responsible for the SPOT, should be able to throw more, while keeping the spill and the center convex lens exactly the same, as the spill quality is darn-near perfect as it is.
Someday they WILL make that perfect Coast light.
Too bad they will make it with a XPE ;-)
I would prefer them to have the central aspheric with a bigger diameter, as 4 dollars X2000 are able to throw better than these ones, with a much worse buid quality to be fair too..