The smallest spot I have is around 5 cm. at a meter. It is a (PC Amber) Philips Luxeon LED in an UltraFire light that is similar to a Yezl t9. (The Yezl from CNQ is prettier, but I have had trouble with the drivers.) I can’t remember where I bought the UltraFire. It has a 38 mm. fairly thin lens. The Small Sun zy c10 probably just about does your 7 cm., but it is hard to say because they don’t give the focal length in the descriptions and the dome has an effect that is hard to estimate. If not, you are back to swapping emitters. It is not hard if you know how to solder wires.
If you really want it to focus as close as a meter, you might have to put an o-ring behind the lens or something to make it longer.
a dedomed xpe is about 50 mm in the 1.99 wallbuys zoomies at a meter and a dedomed sk68 xre is bigger but still smaller than your 7cm x7cm requirement at a meter .
If it were me, I’d just replace the XM-L2 with an XP-G2. Only two wires to solder. If you feel daring you could de-dome the XP-G2 first too for an even smaller spot image.
You are pretty much on the edge of possibilities with the light you have already, 7x7cm at 1 meter can not be improved much. The Small Sun ZY-C10 already has the smallest led and a big lens to get at 6x6cm. If you have a XP-E2 led dedomed and build in the ZY-C10, you get get a bit smaller, I guess 4x4cm at 1 meter.
That is a type of modification we hadn’t talked about yet. If you have a lens from an old pair of binoculars or anything like that that can be made to fit, or order one from some cheap source, it will probably have a very long focal length and a very small spot. Lenses for most other purposes have much longer focal lengths than flashlight lenses do. If it fits well, it will be easier to swap than the LED and much easier than a dedome. The total light output won’t be good, but that doesn’t seem to be the main issue.
We are naturally fixed on achieving a high light output and you need short focal length lenses for that. But this queastion is not about output, with a long focal length lens you may toss away 80% of the light but there's your small spot :-)
I know it´s not about the brightness and the light have different modes so. But it doesn´t hurt to give all the information if someone wonders, sorry! Anyway, it´s a quick fix and you can have the lens in the pocket and use it with our ordinary flashlights when you need it or made a more serious looking mod. I have a few zoomies now and no one comes close to this in tight spot. If it´s to tight I can always use an XP-G2 or XM-L or a smaller lens.
I should have said, though that you would have to make the light longer somehow, which is not as easy or at least not as neat as changing to a smaller LED.
Here is where I got that long focal length light, similar to a Yezl t9 but with a conventional driver: WallBuys.com is for sale | HugeDomains . Like the SS-100, it came matching the description but with UltraFire printed on the slide. At least, that is better than “POLICE”.
I just bought another China-made 1x18650 flashlight in my town with an even smaller hotspot.
Its 5cmx5cm at 1m distance from the wall beating my previous 7cmx7cm flashlight. However, it’s slightly longer in length (143mm) as compared to my previous one (134mm)
There are some markings on the flashlight
CREE Q5 JinLongBao 505A
I can find the brand of the light on the net but this specific gold-color one I cannot find……maybe already obsolete
We don’t know whether it is a “cut throat” at $23 until we see the light.
By the way you can use this Imgur to upload your photo and share it with the provided URL. No registration required at all and it is just a simple drag and drop process. You can share the photo of your light here if it is convenient for you.
Hi thanks for letting me know of the photo site. Attached please find the photos of my two (2) 1x18650 lights. Forget the spills as I’m only interested in getting the smallest hotspot.
This is the gold-colour light having a hotspot of 5cmx5cm at 1m from the wall
This photo shows the other light having a hotspot of 7cmx7cm at 1m from the wall. It’s shorter than the gold-colour light.
Thanks for posting the pictures for us Travelmate.
Well maybe it is a bit expensive at $23 but if the pill is solid then it’s not too bad IMO.
Both lights seem to have similar lens diameter, so I would guess the golden one which produces a smaller hot spot is simply due to the lens having longer focal length than the black colour’s one.
