I always have a bunch of reflectors laying around. I figured I would take a few and see if I could do some testing with the XHp 70 led.
The video is just hot air, almost, but not really explaining what I am going to do.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/h1xws1FbzYY
The photos are coming up in a couple of minutes.
I made tests with a XHP 70 led that is lifted up off the star, by a copper pedestal, as seen in the video. The strips are approximately 1.5mm thick. So, when I say that the reflector is "on star", that means with the pedestal, the bottom inside of the reflector is actually below the bottom of the led substrate/base.
I am also using two plastic washers as spacers. One is .5mm thick and the other is 1mm thick. In the photos I will tell if the star is one the 1st washer, (.5mm thick) or the 2nd washet, (1mm thick) and both washers, (1.5mm thick).
In order to understand where the hell the inside of the bottom of the reflector is, just go by this:
On star - inside of the bottom of the reflector is about .5mm or less, below the bottom of the led substrate/base.
1st washer puts the inside of the bottom of the reflector almost even with the led base/substrate.
2nd washer puts the inside of the bottom of the reflector about even with the bottom of the led dome.
Both washers put the inside of the bottom of the reflector about halfway up side of the dome.
The reflectors that had small holes were opened up so they could sit on top of the led base/substrate. They were too small a diameter to open up and put them down lower, so that automatically puts the inside of the bottom of them, considerably higher and about halfway up the dome.
The camera was set to manual mode and I used a fast shutter speed, to cut down on the light exposure, to see the defects. The camera was 3 meters from the beam. The photos are not focused, due to the low light and the camera had no manual focus adjustment.
You will notice that the dark/light spots do not seem to be too big, but remember for every meter you go out, the spots get bigger and bigger, so by the time you are out to about 20 meters, these small defects look huge and the best way to surmise is that if there is any noticeable artifacts in these shots, you won't want to waste time with that reflector.
OP finish will solve most everything in these reflectors, but you pay a big price. 20%-30% loss of brightness, (OTF lumens) and a very large spot that just sort of blends to spill where you can't tell where the definition is.
None of these reflectors is OP finish. I wanted to show the problems with SMO finish.
The reflectors are as follows:
1- HD2010 - 51mm ID x 40mm Deep
2- 53mm ID x 32mm Deep
3.- 47mm ID x 38mm Deep, similar to a Mag "D" LED reflector
4.- 47mm ID x 30mm deep, used in Mags and similar to the "SSC-P7 reflector"
5.- 32mm ID x 72mm Deep, similar to a mid-size EDC light
6.- Mag Incan "D" reflector, 48mm ID x 28mm Deep
7.- 20mm ID x 15mm Deep, similar to many smaller EDC lights
8.- 38mm ID x 23mm Deep, one of the "Mirella" series, supposed to be for the XHP 70 as well as other big die leds.
9.- LUM 5-90, 87mm ID x 62mm Deep
10.- Mag AA LED Reflector - 18mm ID x 23mm Deep
11.- C8 Style, 40mmID x 34mm Deep A C8 wannabe
Here's the photos listed in order or the reflectors above:
The HD2010 looks better when the reflector is sitting on top of the led base, than when it is lowered down. It still need an OP finish to get rid of some nasty spots.
Notice there is a difference between dark spots and light spots as you raise the reflector. Even though they look better close up, you still see them a lot, dark or white, it just doesn't look good at twenty+ meters. This goes for all the SMO reflectors.
Similar to what a Mag "D" LED reflector would look like and I have noticed that even stippling a deep reflector doesn't always look great, better, but not great.
Terrible, awful, horrible,yuck!
The reason it's so dim is because it was basically a flood monster, so the fast shutter speed did not catch much.
The reason it's so dim is because it was basically a flood monster, so the fast shutter speed did not catch much. Total flood light on this one. Great for an area light, which is what it was designed for.
The Only good beam out of the bunch.
No good and gets worse the higher you raise it. Terrible.
Maybe there's hope for a stippled C8.
Remember, if you can see any artifacts here, they will be much worse once you increase the distance. The farther out, the worse the spots will be and the bigger they will be.
