Longest reflector you have seen?

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

What is the longest reflector you have seen? I hear you guys love throw. Wouldn’t a super long reflector give an awesome throw?

2

3

An LED flashlight’s beam with a reflector light is composed of 3 parts:

  • The spot - this is the bright light in the center
  • The spill - this is the dim light at the sides
  • The corona - this is the circle of light in-between the spot and the spill. Dimmer than the spot but brighter than the spill. It is caused by the LED being mounted at the base of the reflector rather than at the optimum focal point, which would be up near the lens (a recoil thrower).

My recollection is that a deeper reflector gives you more corona and a narrower spill. But it doesn’t significantly increase the brightness of the spot. Since the spot isn’t brighter, throw isn’t increased. This is why you don’t see long skinny throwers.

When it comes to the reflector, by far the biggest factor for increasing throw is the width. The wider the reflector the more throw you get.

4

It’s even more complicated than that. Imagine an infinitely large reflector. ALL light would be spill.

Checkout this video and pay attention to the hot spot and spill. You may be surprised by what you see.

I was.

[video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl51sLSSv6s width:600 height:400]

EDIT:

Firelight2, I just realized that you participated in the thread the video came from. So you have already seen this. :slight_smile:

What happens when you pass an opaque object in front of a reflector

5

Thanks. The deeper the reflector, the more ‘spill’ gets brought into the corona. Light travels in all directions from the LED, the reflector is shaped to divert the spill straight forward. The spot is just light direct from the LED. Has anyone seen a 6 inch deep reflector? Wide reflectors probably made better geometry with wide LEDs.

6

Incorrect.

  • The “spot” is actually light that hits the reflector on its focal point.
  • The “corona” is light that hits the reflector off the focal point.
  • The “spill” is the light direct from the LED that doesn’t hit the reflector at all.

A long reflector gives a narrow spillbeam. This is because the upper edge of the reflector shadows the exposed LED.

There are flashlights that don’t use reflectors at all. Instead the LED sits behind a protective glass lens with no other optic. Such lights produce a very wide diffuse beam… essentially all spill with no corona or spot. Such lights are called “mules” and produce the widest possible spillbeam. This is because the LED is very close to the glass lens so there isn’t much flashlight structure to shadow the view to the emitter.

7

Here’s the reflector of a Niwalker Vostro beside the reflector of a Courui D01:

8

This? http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S021796

9

Thanks. That actually looks pretty big, and it’s like 3.3 inches. I was kinda hoping to see a 6” monster in action, but I guess that would just be crazy :slight_smile:

10

I think that would be HID lights LOL