Essays with Triple TIR optics and XP-G2 Leds [PIC HEAVY!!!]

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts Featured Mods
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Last weeks I received some parts I was expecting to make some triple builds/mods. I had some issues making them “happen”, and they are not the final result I expected in some of them, but they are my new “babies” and I will treat them well!!

When building them I was confronted with some interesting aspects, namely the TIR lenses and the resulting beams.

So I decided to explore that, make some pictures and let people see what they can expect from some triple TIRs and LEDs.

First, a description of the lights, from left to right! All the images below will follow the same order.
(all the external links are non affiliated, they merely indicate where I bought the parts)

S2+ Desert Tan with 18350 tube : AR Coated Lens (brownish coating, not purplish); Carclo 10507 (Narrow Spot) ; XP-G2 S4 5A (4500K, “Warm Yellow”) ; Regular S2+ Pill and retaining ring soldered with kiriba-ru spacer ; BLF X5/X6 driver ; Metal button ; Pocket Clip

S2+ Black with 18350 tube : Clear glass lens; Carclo 10508 (Frosted Medium Spot) ; XP-G2 S4 3C (5500K, “Warm White”) ; kiriba-ru S2+ Triple Pill with custom retaining ring; 17DDm MTN driver with guppy3drv ; Forward Switch (mix of this and this ) ; Pocket Clip

S2+ Mini (“blueish”, not gray) : Clear glass lens; Carclo 10511 (Frosted Narrow Spot) ; XP-G2 S4 3D in Noctigon ; Regular S2+ Pill soldered with kiriba-ru spacer & custom retaining ring ; TA Bistro HD OSTM Driver from Lexel ; Lighted tail switch ; Blue tailcap ; Pocket Clip

Sofirn SP32A: Original AR Coated lens; XP-G2 S4 1A (6000K, “Cold White”) ; Jaxman Optics (equal to Carclo 10507 :???: ); Spacer: a piece of brass that I cut and arranged for this light (Modded HERE) :smiley:

Some photos now :wink:
[Click on them to enlarge the photo on new window]

All lights have a piece of glow-in-the-dark (GITD) tape around the TIR optic! :smiley: :sunglasses:
BTW, I guess that on lower output levels, and against white surfaces, the GITD has some influence and reflects a bit, “shifting” the tint. (Top: DT >>> Black ; Down: Blue >>> SP32A)

Above paper, the beams’ shape in close-up!

And on the wall!

Tint and beam comparison!

_

Some thoughts!

  • The Clear lenses (10507) are the ones that show more the shape of the LED, and seem to have the worst beam pattern and highest tint shift, specially with Cold White LEDs! Despite this, maybe these are the lenses that allow more throw, specially with CW leds.

- The Medium Frosted (10508) allow a nice floody beam, and if used with Neutral White Leds (or eventually Warm White) will make an excellent combination for close range use.

- The Narrow Frosted (10511) give a nice combination of flood (less than the 10508) and hotspot. However, it seems to me that they allow some tint shift, despite I don’t know if this is mostly caused by the LEDs. The S2+ Mini, with the 10511 lens, has the same type of LEDs as my Emisar D4 (XP-G2 S4 3D), and both have the same issues despite the lenses: yellowish hotspot on lower outputs and a rosy outer spill on highest outputs. Maybe a completely Frosted Lens could avoid this?

- The Jaxman triple boards (I bought 1 of each) are quite nice, but the holes for the TIR legs are narrower than those of the Noctigon MCPCB. If this helps to hold the TIR in a better way, it makes it harder to change and continuously experiment different lenses with different LEDs.

- Also, I would prefer the Neutral White and Warm White (or Warm Yellow) LEDs over the Cold White ones, despite I think that all of them would look very nice and with few shifts if used with completely Frosted lenses (10508).
Or maybe using some kind of diffuser, as DC-Fix or something alike :+1:

And this is it!
If you have comments, questions or experiences with triple TIR lenses and XP-G2 LEDs, bring’em on :wink:

Best regards!

2

Thanks for sharing , MascaratumB .

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You’re welcome jacktheclipper :+1:

4

I like flood but I found the medium beam with DC fix is a better balance (read less flood) then a wide beam with no dc-fix.

.02

5

So, as example, a “non” 508 lens with DC-Fix can be better than the 508? Is more or less this what you mean?

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Why is there heavy vignetting, especially in picture one (S2+ Desert Tan) under the “Colour rendering” section?

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Hum, that might have been due to the focus of the cellphone, but it is also a specificity of the beam, that is more narrow. Even pointed from above and with a distance over 1.20m it makes those “shadows” in the corners! (I guess that was what you meant, right?)

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I doubt if those are real vignetting caused by the lens. If it’s a camera phone, the artificial vignetting is caused by the built-in processing effect of your phone. Anyhow, if you’re trying to show comparison shots of CRI results, better do a clean shot, meaning all software processing effects turned off. :slight_smile:

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Ok, I get it now. The lights are probably set to low mode and the room lights turned off?

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Hum, I wasn’t using any special effect on the phone, but when there is few light, the camera starts to lose some image quality. It may be due to that.
Maybe I must take the CRI, from my sentence above! I may not be completely accurate! :person_facepalming:
I just wanted to show how those beams look like and their effect on coloured stuff. Sorry I induced you in mistake and thanks for helping on this :+1:

BTW, I tried to take a similar photo some minutes ago, and it happened the same thing :expressionless:

11

Makes sense now. The shots were taken in a totally dark room, all light sourced turned off. I’m more used to seeing cropped images or close up pictures in CRI comparisons. Sorry. You did well.

12

No problem :wink:
Normally on these photos to show beams and tints I try to make in the darkest environment to capture how it looks like, despite it is always biased by the quality of the camera.

What the photos show is not always what my eyes see as I don’t have good equipment, but I try to make it look the most real possible, always without camera effects :wink:

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Thanks again for the thorough examination, TIR-man!

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Eheh, TIR-man :smiley: Not sure if I use many TIRs, but I surely like to experiment on them :wink:

Hope the thread may help in some way :wink:

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Thanks for the write and comparison pics.
I am a Frosted fan when using Carclo in my triples. Also used the frosted in my D4. Optics are cheap enough to get a variety pack when making a triple build order with MtnE
I have also done some home frosting (wet sanding) when I didn’t have ready-made on hand. But have gone opposite with Ledil Cute optics sanding off the grid and polishing it out to clear. Ledil have some meat on them and can be sanded thinner if you need the extra room to keep the glass lens on top. Also ran into the same on a S3 build where I wanted the glass and had to sand a Carclo to gain some space. I keep the glass cause I use some solvents that will melt plastic. Weld spatter can ruin an optic, uncoated glass too but it is more resistant. I don’t use AR on my EDC lights.

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Thanks vw :wink:
This was the first time I used triples, so it was kind of discovery! I do like a lot the completely frosted lens as it helps to even the beam, comparing to the other lenses. The “semi frosted” (10511) is not bad as well, the the all frosted looks nicer :wink:

I use glass lens (coated or uncoated, depending on the original lens or if I have spare non coated) in all these lights! The beam may suffer a slight change due to that but I prefer to use the glass lens for protection of the TIR, and to improve water proofness, as the o-ring + glass lens will sit better above the TIR.

I do like the results, but - if I can - I will try to get some more triple TIRs to play with :wink: I may also use some diffuser to even the beams on the other lenses as well! It may work well :wink: