No matter what you end up with, slapping on some diffusion film will give you a hella nice beam.
All my LuxPro lights (hideous G3s behind reflectors) have diffusion film that turns a hideous fried-egg beam into a nice even flood of light.
Ditto with my Tacklife, the beast of a light that’s built like a tank but has a shiite emitter. With diffusion film behind the glass (nonsticky) I use that as my kitchen/basement light for the wide smooth flood of light. (I just wish the UI didn’t suck so bad.)
Removing optix to have a mule is okay, but with a G3 and similar emitters with hideous angular tint-shift, you’ll still be throwing blue in front and yellow off to the sides. Diffusion film hides a multitude of sins.
I don’t think Gs, G2s, Ls, and L2s were too bad, but why take chances? You want smooth flood, you cannot go wring with diffusion film.
DT8K with boost driver? Might not manage quite 3k lm; a D4 is ~2k. Huge choice of LEDs, I’d go to 519A 2700k for your use case. See if Hank has the frosted optics; if not you can swap them yourself and then it’s extremely floody.
If a DT8K’s output isn’t enough, M44 if it isn’t too big.
I’m not exactly convinced a pocket thrower platform with a throwy version of an emitter that is barely floody enough in a shallow orange peel will do the trick . Looks like a great light but I already have my thrower itch scratched (for the time being… )
Do You mean something like the DC Fix? Do You stick it to the inside or the outside of the lens? I’ll have to get some to experiment, thanks for the idea
The FFlite seems like it might do the trick, puts out 3,5k lumens and sustains a bit over 1k with the E21 2000K. Plus it’s basically pure spill no spot, perfect! - Edit: OOS everywhere unfortunately
No direct data for the Emisar, at least I can’t find it. What’s the ordering process? Just email Hank? Also I think the boost driver is incompatible with mules (" The boost driver upgrade is available for the quad version of XP-L HI, SST-20, Osram W1/W2, Nichia 219B R9080 versions, each LED receives 2A current. The driver is not compatible with Nichia E21A, Nichia E17A, and mule versions of the flashlight."
Keep in mind that “throwy” is very relative when it comes to giant emitters like the XHP 70. It only throws well-ish because of the massive amount of lumens it pumps out but it is very much a “wall of light” kind of beam in the small D1/D1K orange peel reflector.
From Your review of the M44 I gather that the sustained output is almost the same regardless if it’s a single 519A channel or two channels going at the same time (and it’s ~20% of the single channel max). And that a single channel max output is about 65% of two channels. That would mean, given 8500 lumen max output for 519A 4500K (I assume on both channels), a single 519A channel will manage ~5500 lumens max output and ~1100 sustained.
And it leaves the other channel up for grabs for a throw or gimmick option (maybe a deep red sst-20? though it’s not on the list of options). But it will end up at about 130-150$, bit pricey
As for the DT8K I see people mention it has the same driver as the D4 boost, so output would be almost the same as my D4V2 boost (output/current is pretty linear and proportional in the 1-2A range).
“Permanent”, I stick the film inside the light, under the glass, if possible. So sticky right on the glass, or nonsticky tucked between glass and reflector.
“Temporary”, or if I can’t get the glass off, then I need the sticky kind, to slap on the outside of the glass.
It will be a little more - driving more LEDs less hard is slightly more thermally efficient and running more current has diminishing returns in terms of output, so it will start a little higher on turbo and won’t thermally throttle quite as far down, but whether the difference would be enough to be perceptible is another question. But with 8 LEDs, a DT8K is floodier than a similarly configured non-mule D4.
comes in a warm CCT (at or below 3000K would be nice)
is as floody as possible, a nice wide angle TIR or equivalent reflector, maybe frosted or dimpled optics, whatever will get me a nice even spill with almost no spot (or an obscenely wide spot of course)
single cell and pocketable (the D4SV2 is pushing it)
high CRI is nice but not necessary
Any ideas what might do the trick?
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Everything you want with half the lumens you think you need
Unscrew the crown that’s holding the lens down (on your D4V2 of choice), then simply remove the optics.
You are left with four LEDs, much like a mule.
See how you like the flood from those.
Youre looking for a mule. Single cell + floodier than 519a w/frosted optics or xhp70HD w/shallow reflector, if adding DC fix isn’t enough, is no optics, no reflector. Doesnt get any floodier than that.