Aspherics:

  • way less spill, really no spill if done right. This could be a big advantage for some uses, like in tactical situations, not blinding animals/people out of the hot spot AOI (Area Of Interest), not bothering neighbors, etc.
  • for me, way easier to mount a non-standard size LED - no worry bout the LED retainer ring fitted to the reflector, etc.
  • if it's an adjustable zoom, when the lens is drawn in, they tend to have a real nice consistent spill/flood, way better than TIR, reflectors, multi-LED's, etc.
  • of course there's a price: much less lumens in either full zoom out for throw, zoom in for flood. The flood setting is higher lumens.
  • Adjustable zoom aspherics are really two lights in one - a flooder and thrower
  • hot spot tends to mimic the shape of the LED, so hot spot is typically a square

I'm not sure what throws further given same head diameter - this 1504 is a 70 mm head diam and getting 500+ kcd - not sure how that compare with true thrower reflector lights. An FT03 is rated at 69.5 mm head diam, 875 meters, 190 kcd throw for the SST-40 model. Dedomed SST-40 should be close to 400 kcd, if these numbers are legit. I assume the throw #'s between aspherics and reflectors are close, depending on the quality of the lens or reflector.