:the other day, not bad to be honest, but am planning to swap out the T6 for another emitter, as I’ve done it before and it worked well, but now, with a little more information absorbed, I was wondering which would be the better emitter to use, I previously used a XR-E Q5 on a 20mm star, but now I’ve been made aware of XP-G’s etc etc.
So, if any of you lot have modded a similar zoomie, which would be the better emitter?, and would de-doming said emitter be better?, as I’m after and EDC for my lovely missus, so she’s leaves mine alone, and she has expressed a preference for the ‘bright square thingy’!! I too like a small hotspot. I keep my A60 and my HS-802 (glued one) well hidden now though!
Oh and is it true that, ashperic zoomie wise, the smaller the emitter, the smaller the projected ‘bright square thingy’?
Thanks in advance guys n gals!
PS: I did ask Guru Gords……he’s useless that fella……I am joking of course!
IMO you would be better off putting a different emitter in. De-doming an XP-G2 or XR-E will give you a very narrow beam which throws a good distance. However it’s usefulness is very limited. I have a Uniquefire UF-T20 that I just put an XM-L2 U2 into along with a Qlite 105c 3 mode driver. With the beam on flood it lights up an area very well, even light and covers a really wide area. Zoomed in it still has decent throw with a reasonably tight hotspot thanks to the aspheric. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I am also building an aspheric C8 with a de-domed XP-G2 just for the fun of it. However in your case giving it to your wife as an edc, I would think an XM-L2 would make the light more useful.
I was planning on an XP-G2 R5 to be honest, she, the missus, the bane of my life, needs more of a thrower to be true, as the walk we go on is surrounded by pretty dense trees and foliage, and she takes our Black Labs out early before work, alone, ok this time of year, but the “darker daaaays are drawing neeeeeeear (bit of war Of The Worlds there) so therefore a good thrower is important, she can of course use my Small Sun, A60 or HS-802, but she wants her own!!
In case she drops or breaks any of them!
So, de-doming an XP-G2 will narrow the beam/hotspot further?
I am far from an expert but yes the de-dome will narrow the beam and also make the tint warmer.
The only method I have used for de-doming is putting them in 2K Thinners, takes about 30 minutes and I have had great success so far!
As an example here are some pictures I grabbed from CPF thanks to Vinz. The light is a Dereelight DBS (aspheric) not a zoomie but it will act the same as a zoomed in zoomie.
First is the de-domed XR-E
Second is de-domed XM-L U3
Finally a de-domed XP-G2
So you get the idea of how narrow the beam is. Virtually no spill. Purely a thrower. Obviously you can zoom out with the zoomie but then you lose almost all of the throw.
Friend don’t listen to guys claiming “pencil” or “no use” beam for aspherics. You are ought to throw so you need to make good thrower out of this light.
this is small aspheric zoomie and it yields for smallest emitter possible. Any XML in this type of light will result in poor throw.
If you don’t want to de dome you have 3 solutions old XRE EZ900(Q5orR2bin), old XPE, and most recommended for this type of small aspheric XPC: They look something like this:
If you want de doming XP-E2 is right choice for your light but you got to do reflowing on a star since you will not find them reflowed anywhere.
XPG2 would be good but over driving is necessary for best results… You will loose light efficiency.
So only thing I could recommend for best efficiency of your small zoomie XPC driven at 0,6-0,8A of current that will give you better throw and efficiency than XRE EZ900 at 1,5A or XP-E2 at 2A with smaller beam profile of course…
Plenty of people did not recognize potential of XPC but some guys have been using this in pretty expensive lights like omg lumens deft edc.
Well it’s not a very good search light (if you’ve actually tried to use one at a distance) so finding things to pin point would be hard.
They are fun lights, but I don’t understand their use if they even have one.
The point of long throwing light is so you can see things further away. Unless you already know where it is it’s going to be hard to find what you’re looking for with an aspheric.
I guess to me they’re just lights to play with, which is why I hardly ever use the collimator head on my 7G5V2 anymore.
Good thing that you asked this. But before I start I will say that I also own ton of reflector flashlights so I am not just aspheric type. I can find use for each type of flashlight I have.
Advantages of aspherical lights:
- asheric beam has no spill. Therefore there’s no light reflecting from grass, ground, things near you…
- When you turn on reflector LED light, your night vision is killed by spill light that is reflecting from those nearby objects. Your pupil of the eye narrows and you see less. The brighter the environment is, the narrower is the pupil of the eye, so there’s a reduction in light that hits the fundus.
aspheric beam has sharp borders, so there is better contrast between illuminated area and dark area. The enhanced contrast lets you to perceive it brighter
With aspheric you will see further in the night and you will be as stealthy as you can considering that you are using flashlight.
You could find use in scope type of hunting, sea - boating, law enforcement and just night playing with the light(“avoiding unnecessary disturbance of the surroundings such as people sleeping in their homes or blinding oncoming traffic which can result in a dangerous situation”)
For all disadvantages aspherics have we can simply use another types of light.
I think in these days when flashlights are pretty cheap we can find use for each type of flashlight in our lives…
I guess you have a point. I’m not really into being stealthy though, especially if I have a light saber in my hand. Nobody would have any trouble seeing the beam.
There’s not much hunting here in the suburbs so to me there’s no use.
If you(all of you guys) really want to be 100% stealthy you could use aspheric(dereelight nightmaster V2) in combination with any(and cheapeast) NV device + IR P60 dropin.
In fact you could use this in reflector but with less throw.
That way no one will see you.
This is advice for all people that want to be 100% stealthy when using flashlight…