I just received my X60L3 Nichia drop in and am somewhat disappointed with the beam profile. I've tried the dropin in multiple solarforce host/bezel ring configurations with few improvements.
Basically, the beam looks very asymmetrical with lots of overlapping circles throughout. For me, it's more than just a wall-hunting problem. In close quarters the banded patterns are a real distraction.
I've determined this has nothing to do with the dropin itself and everything to do with adding the bezel.
Shot 1 (X60L3, no bezel):
Shot 2 (X60L3, L2T Bezel):
I don't feel like the image above shows the severity of the artifacts, but hopefully it gets the idea across. Given the unique nature of triples, it's not like I'm expecting perfectly smooth output, it's just that what I'm seeing is counter to other wallshots and user descriptions I've seen thus far.
Any advice on how to improve the look of this beam? I've tried this in my L2, L2T, and L2N with various bezels.
I’ll guess that you’re getting reflections off the inner bezel. You could try putting a matte finish on the inner part of the ring. A simple way to find if that would fix your problem is use scotch adhesive tape on the bezel, just trim off the excess and see if the beam pattern looks better. If the tape cleans up the beam pattern perhaps using a scotchbrite pad to dull the inner bezel finish would be a permanent fix. Good luck.
Thanks for the reply. I've actually tried both stainless and matte black bezel rings of various styles without a significant improvement.
I first see the problem when I apply the head to the body of the flashlight. With no grommet, lens, bezel ring, or anything I see the funny pattern. It seems to me that the taller the head is from the lip that holds the dropin in place to the very rim of the flashlight, the worse the artifacts are. Makes me wonder what would happen if the inner side of the head was bare aluminum rather than anodized.
Perhaps this is one of those cases where the dropin was optimized for surefire heads? OR, maybe I'm just obsessing.
Either way, it'd make me feel better to know if anyone else sees what I'm seeing!
