What determines how narrow or wide the beam profile is?
Is it the footprint of the led, meaning, if the led is small and homeless, it will produce a narrow beam?
Is it the length and width of the reflector?
All of the above?
I’m looking for my definition of a perfect thrower.
Something that can light up an area of approximately 30 feet wide at no more than 50-100 yards away, BUT high color rendering as well, prefer around 4000k.
The closest thing I’ve been able to find is Armytek Predator pro with a warm color tint. Which is pretty close, but I’m not impressed with the color rendering, plus I don’t really trust their reliability. I know they’ve had pretty big failure rates before. I also don’t like the stupid nipple switch on the back, something like the Acebeam t35 switch is perfect.
Ive seen people put Nichia 519a 5000k dedomed into something like a Noctigon kr1 or d1, but the beam pattern is too narrow and doesn’t throw that far.
I’m thinking more around the lines of something like Convoy L21b size maybe, although I don’t really the quality of Convoy so more than likely would end up going with Weltool F6r…I like their quality better.
But the reason I’m asking is cause I can’t afford to buy 10 lights in order to find out which one would work better.
Instead I’m trying to make a good plan ahead of time before buying anything…
No hotspots: stay away from all reflector lights; you are down to looking at only TIR lights. The Armytek you linked has a pronounced hotspot.
30ft diameter at 50 yards (150ft) translates to a beam diameter greater than 12 degrees. So you are looking for a floody light, so L21B won’t be it. Looks like any of the multi-TIR lights around here, like the Emisar D4K, would do.
Armytek produces a big wall of light at 50 feet. It’s almost perfect, but like I said there are other issues with that light that I do not like that’s why I haven’t bought it yet.
You seem to contradict yourself a lot. That armytek light is a thrower, a thrower gives a narrow hotspot with the intention of seeing a small area far away. It doesn’t give “a wall of light”. The spec says it has 1500lm output, which is not much for a floodylight. Do you want flood, or do you want throw? They are not the same. It might look like there is a lot of spill in that video, but in real world it’s not that bright.
You think you don’t see a hotspot because the objects covered by the hotspot in this scene are much farther and darker than surrounding objects, but the hotspot is there–you will be able to see it if you did the beamshot with the second scene.
So after all, you do want a hotspot, just not too narrow.
The other thing Im curious about, does the part of the bottom of the reflector, reflector being a cone and all, does the width of the bottom of that cone make any difference as far the width of the beam coming out the front? The part of the cone that sits right next to the led, if that was wider would that make the beam wider?
Or is it still more about the width of the emitting surface of the led?
How large the bottom of the reflector is is completely determined by the height and width of the reflector–it is the plane normal to the axis containing the focal point of the parabola (not a cone!), which is determined by the dimensions of the parabola. A deeper reflector will have a smaller base, while shallow reflectors will have a larger base. Deeper reflector gives slightly more throw and more corona and narrower spill, shallow reflector gives small corona and wider spill, but prone to tint shift.
But for all practical purposes, the hotspot angular width is determined by 2 parameters only: the width of the reflector and the radius of the largest circle contained within the LED.
The easiest thing for me to do would be to get that Weltool from the skylumen guy, that 5x5 led produces the beam I’m looking for, but I dont think they come in different tints esp high cri.
Looks like you want a light with the FFL707A or GT-FC40 in a medium-sized reflector. High CRI, large hotspot, high output, decent throw. Or a quad-TIR like D4SV2 with 519A.
Get CONVOY S11, OP reflector, with GT-FC40 , the tint might suit your needs, it throws yet floody enough to light an area similar to your first picture.
And It wont burn hole in your pocket, unless you leave it on in level 4 or 5 . O, and you may also try the xhp70.3 hi cri.
You probably want a light with TIR optics. TIR optics can shape the light in many different ways, and some will give a huge spotlight affect that’s very uniform but still somewhat throwy. KR4/D4 with spotlight optics with 519A (domed) 4000k will give you what you want. Just a massive hotspot and near 0 spill.
