This stuff is really great. I’ve tried taking some beam shots but the only camera I have is on my phone. I couldn’t get them to turn out very good st all:(
I have a couple of lights that I use on the headboard of the bed at night. I would love to see this in a size that would fit the Pineapple and the S2+. I would be in for purchase of either thin material or a real lens for one or both of them.
Good find Robert!
Man, goshdogit those comparison shots you took really do an excellent job showing how well this stuff works. That is a pretty amazing spread of light. Very smooth and even. I just have to figure out which of my lights I want this on but I know I want to try it on a couple. It certainly would be great on a headlamp but I don’t have a headlamp yet. Gotta fix that. Anyway, nice work guys. :+1:
I took my S2+ on vacation with me, and have pretty crappy wifi but managed to get a couple beamshots on the side of the rental chalet, with the 40degree diffuser and one without. The S2+ is a stock neutral white, 6 x 7135.
You can see how the light is diffused and really lights up the roof of the building. It looks like I was a little closer to the building in the first shot, but you get the idea how clean the diffused light is with little loss.
Without diffuser
With diffuser
Robert, I am really loving the beam shots I’m seeing from this film. The diffused light is very impressive. The S2+ has a pretty solid diffused beam stock but with that film it’s just incredible. It has a limit to its usefulness by killing throw but for lights intended for up-close work there is nothing better than a wide, floody beam and these beam shots are indicating amazing potential in that category. I’m pretty familiar with the S2+. Can you give me an approximate distance from the chalet these shots were taken? I know you were on vacation so I don’t expect exact measurements, just an estimate. Please send me a PM when you can. I definitely need a sample of this stuff. Great find brother! :+1:
Well, I received the 10°, 20° and 30° circular diffusers in a few days ago. Only problem is the 30° came in a 3mm thick panel instead of film. So I’m waiting on the 30° film. Will upload beamshots off all three using a Convoy C8 XPL HI, and an S2+, to give you an idea of the different levels of diffusion.
Meanwhile, I bought one of the Reylight Pineapples, and stuck a 10° diffuser in between the reflector and the glass. The beam is buttery smooth now, with hardly any loss. Here’s what the non diffused beams look like. I have the ringy reflector, not the upgraded one.
Ceiling beam shot
Has there been any updates on these new diffusers. Super interested in adding these to my headlamps. Let me know thanks.
I received the samples from the company. It’s not easy dealing with a company that is used to working with the military and companies like Boeing, then little ol me asking for samples to use in flashlights. The last 4 samples I received came in a Fedex box. Just got a bill from Fedex for $30. I asked them to mail in an envelope or a bubble envelope… lol. Many big companies don’t think twice about mailing things this way. They use Fedex express instead of USPS.
Anyway, in the next few days I will post the 10°, 20° and 30° diffuser photos using a standard S2+ and a C8 XPL-HI, and we can deside which ones best fit our needs. Would like to narrow it down to two.
The 10° really works good to smooth out the beam without disrupting the hot spot too much, where the 40° completely diffuses the hot spot evenly. I’m thinking the 10 and the 30° might serve the purpose really well.
As resourceful as you guys are kind of surprised you are not scavenging holographic diffuser from end devices. I did use a Luminit product in one of my lights to great effect. But as Robert mentioned they are not used to dealing with low lifes like us. I have tons of different diffusers now because I go out and scavenge old flat screen TVs. Almost all the flat screens use holographic diffusers. I have tons of this stuff. I regularly go around looking for TVs thrown away in my neighborhood. At least in my area I find them quite often. The price is right too;)
Wow! Super interested in this!
Me too! I've used scotch tape, milk bottles, all kinds of plastic thngs...this looks great.
Hiyall,
brand new here, so here’s for a quick intro : i’m a light designer specialized in theatrical lighting.
About 10 years ago, when powerleds were still quite new on the market, the main supply source came from Luxeon. I decided i would design a 72W professional led fixture, since there was nothing comparable on the market. Once eventually finished, i tested it on stage and quickly found out that, for as powerful as it was, it was pretty much unusable without an deadly efficient diffuser.
Searching out the web, i found out about light shaping and holographic diffusers. Luminit was born about a year before.
I was lucky enough to ask for and, eventually, be awarded with quite a few samples from them.
Circular, elliptical and even square diffusers, from 10° up to 100°.
Let me tell you something : those things are great, they worked flawlessly and the quality of the light repartition was, from my POV, unseen before.
Their sole flaw, in fact, is their pricetag : as they then told me, the guys at Luminit don’t care much for retail, they mostly work for TV and flatscreens companies, hence the hefty price.
But, if you need a professional result and a dense, uniform, precisely shaped and angled, and perfectly mixed light field, then your quest is over : as far as i’m concerned, i’ve never seen any such thing.
Those diffusers get reaaaally great when it comes to mixing colored led light. At this time, we were looking more for subtle tints and delicate hues than for a plain — always kinda brutal when it comes to leds — color mix. And, no matter what i could try, diy or off the shelf, the result was always pretty coarse, crude and unsatisfying. But as soon as i fitted one of their products (.025, 10 to 30° circular) on my fixtures, i found out my problem had disappeared : the beam’s angle was amazingly precise, the colors were perfectly mixed, without any hotspot, any surrepresentation of a particular color (think of red and amber, for instance…) or any break of any kind when dimming or switching colors, no more rainbow effect at the edge, but just a thick, so dense that you could cut through it, beam of calibrated light.
The losses are neglectable, with a transmission rate around 87% if i remember well [edit :i just checked, and it’s actually 92% !!], which makes it just as [edit : waaay more] efficient as most affordable glass lenses on the market. More important still, you really feel like every lumen emitted lands on its target, like every photon is used. Even the shadows are tinted, without any interference fringe or diffracting effect. For a stage light designer, it means being able to play with the blacks way more precisely and intensely than with incandescent or even HID fixtures. It also ables me to considerably lower the forward current that drives the luxeons, resulting in much less heat and a longer lifespan.
Bref, i’d recommend these light shapers to anyone looking for a close to perfect result.
Seb
AHHhhh!!! What happened to this thread? Did anyone try out (and hopefully get pictures) of the different films? Does anyone have S8 sized samples available (for sale)? ——- This thread is like “Game of Thrones”, amazingly interesting, but your left hanging right at the finish! …… Please have mercy and let us know what the results were. Thank you.
I went down this path and Luminit films are impossible to find. Other brands of commercially available and rated (specs) diffuser films (eg for photography) are crazy expensive. DC Fix is good, but doesn’t have the same level of dispersion.
Instead, the cheapest and most readily available diffuser films are from screens. Smartphone screen backlight assemblies (available as low as $2 shipped from eBay, eg iPhone 5) have a very high angle of dispersion, and are fairly opaque so not ideal. In contrast, diffusers from desktop monitors and laptops are more transparent, yet still have good dispersion. Old desktop monitors are about $20 on Craigslist. Damaged (eg cracked screen) display assemblies (eg laptops) are available on eBay shipped for $5-10, and yield massive sheets on the cheap.
Here’s my post a few months back on Reddit, linked below. One of the comments has a good video demonstrating how to harvest films from a laptop screen assembly. Takes about 5 minutes, yields a massive diffuser.
https://www.reddit.com/r/flashlight/comments/99lz45/anyone_tried_using_a_diffuser_film_on_a_thrower/
Thanks for the update Krutone. I have several sheets of diffusers out of different computer monitors, most of which have different properties.
I would love to try/compare materials that have actual specs, but I guess that is not in the cards as of now.
So far, the best (from a transparency and flood standpoint, at least for my use), I have found is from a Dell “Ultrasharp” monitor, but it would be great to be able to “engineer” a beam like lighting pros can.
Flashlights (LED’s) have advanced so much over the last few years as far as power, light color, beam width, etc; That I am quite amazed that diffusion has not been addressed!
Again, thanks for the update.
I’ll definitely have to take a look at Dell Ultrasharp monitors. Any specific years or just all of them?
In regards to the lack of diffuser development, I blame the community’s hardon for max throw, when in reality, flood (especially smooth flood) has more use cases.
Ideally flashlights would be sold as throw models with a snap on (good quality) diffuser lens for flood. Only two types of flashlights seem to co-opt flood and throw: 1) Some Zebralight models have either a standard glass lens or a diffuser, and 2) Zoomies (which enthusiasts hate).
My dream flashlight is a XHP35 with 1 or 2 18650s in a small form factor which can throw ~1000M at 2.4K lumen turbo, and comes with a nice wide diffuser lens that rivals the spill of mega flooders like the Noctigon Meteor M43.
On the flip side, in some cases a diffuser film isn’t even necessary. All the diffuser does is spread out the collimated beam due to the reflector. Standard LEDs actually have a very wide floody beam. For example if you remove the Carclo Optics on the M43, its already floody beam becomes even more floody. I think it would make sense if the reflector head was removable on a thrower. Best of both worlds, no diffuser needed.
You can’t get cheaper than scotch tape.
The “ultrasharp” sheet I have been using is from an older “CCFL” 24” monitor that would be rated at just over 2K resolution. It is better than any of the 1080P monitors diffusers I pulled out, but makes me wonder what the difference an LED monitor would have, or what an LED monitor of 4K, 5K, or even 8K diffusers would have? …. or better yet, any of the pro light diffusers that started this thread?
Though I realize that everyone’s needs are different, I believe “hotspots” can be antiquated to the dustbin of history ( as were the dark spots of incandescent bulb flashlights).
My renewed interest started when I replaced my old incandescent flood lights in my backyard, with some quality LED fixtures. The diffused LED fixtures are like going from the stone age into “Star Trek” as far as lighting goes! No hotspots and an almost horizontal beam of even light. They make my diffused flashlights look like caveman torches!
My frustration comes from the fact that PRO diffusers exist that would cover nearly everyone’s wants/needs, but we just can’t access them to even try them out!
Thanks for the answers, and putting up with my rants. Here’s hoping that things change in the near future.
Myself I don’t like the wide flood of my floodiest lights. And I don’t even have any mule. OTOH I love out-of-focus aspheric. Why?
- The sharp beam cutoff means I control where the light is not shining. F.e. people sleeping nearby. Or just looking in my direction.
- I imagine that a much-narrower (but not narrow) beam gives me the same intensity with significantly lower power consumption. But I never checked if that’s the case really.
OH, I love zoomies. I love their throw and I love their flood. Though I don’t love the intermediate modes nearly as much. 
Though I agree that sometimes a diffuser attachment would be a very useful addon.
Haha! Well, the problem is the expense of the actual film. But that’s only part of the problem. Brief background. Luminit has a patent on holographic diffusers, and they cater to large companies like defense contractors and architectural firms. When trying to deal with them in small quantities a 12” x 12” sheet is $75. But that’s only half of it. They require you to have a Fedex account, and you pay for mailing which is another $53 dollars. They flat out refuse to mail it any other way.
I recently bought a 12 x 12 sheet of 40º film to diffuse some kitchen lighting. That sheet cost me $128 to diffuse 6 ceiling can lights. Does it work?, heck yes, and works extremely well. Was it worth the money? In the whole scheme of a $40,000 kitchen remodel, I’d have to say yes. But to diffuse a few flashlights? No.
It’s really quite a shame they ignore a whole market segment. It would be awesome if the company would set up a small division to deal with marketing to flashlight manufacturers and enthusiasts since they not only make film, but holographic glass lenses too. They have all the cnc cutting machines to do any size or shape or thickness.