The only one that looks off to me is the one on the far right in the beam shot above. Is that the M21A?
Are all of them pointing straight on to the wall… meaning the light is perpendicular (90 degrees) to the wall. If any of them are not, it will skew the beam shot.
Those photos straight down on the light with it tail standing and the LED centered as good as possible in the reflector can show any misalignment.
Honestly, with a couple of dozen Convoy lights, I don’t have any that show misalignment in the optics. It would be very strange if you got three of them in one order.
I was analysing better and I guess the problem was not in the M21A but in the M1 !
The LED used is the Osram W1 that normally causes this kind of problem, specially with smooth reflectors.
To minimize the effect, you can try to screw a little bit more or unscrew a little bit the bezel of the flashlight and see if it solves the issue. However, I cannot guarantee you that it will be OK when pointing it towards a white wall. Another solution would be changing or modifying the gasket (that white piece around the LED) but that takes much more energy, time and resources and is a try an error exercise.
I can tell because I had that issue when I modded my Eagle Eye X3R and my Convoy S2 with this kind of LED.
If you use it outside you will not feel it too much, though.
So, looking at to your initial questions, it is annoying but given the difficulty to center this LED in particular, it can be seen as “acceptable” in a certain way.
You can find some more information on this thread:
Thank you for your answer.
Yes, maybe it’s just a “white wall” issue, but my other lights don’t have this problem.
I’m new, so maybe I was just surprised about how bad those LED looks in those host. It do show even outdoor tho.
I also tried an OP reflector, helps, but not much. I guess those OSRAM LED with this host is just not my thing. The L21B looks best and I was really surprised how intense the throw was.
If I am right, from left to right this is the M1, L21B, and M21A.
Is this correct?
If so, yes the M1 is slightly misaligned, but not that bad. I wouldn’t be concerned.
The L21B also not that bad.
Neither of these will be noticeable when used at a distance.
The worst one is the M21A to my eyes. It is like an ellipse.
Again, if you are not lighting up something close like a wall or ceiling, it will not be very noticeable, if at all.
You could contact Simon at Convoy and send him the photos. If they are out of tolerance, he will work with you.
I realize that I put the flashlight from left to right. The beam is what it is. Noticeable also in nature, not a white wall problem.
I told Simon, waiting for a reply.
It’s a hard emitter to center and the smooth reflector makes it worse. Like others have suggested try unscrewing the bezel to loosen up the reflector a bit and tightening it back up and see if just that made any difference.
Some people here have spent hours getting an emitter perfectly aligned to get the absolute maximum candela out of a mod .
Next obvious question is can you move the mcpcb .
Some more experienced here might say don’t mess with it because there’s a good chance it could get worse before it gets better . That’s not to say you can’t get the emitter centered better but that it may not be super simple .
sorry for not originally understanding your question
Well, a picture is a picture… The problem with how it looks remains the same when I use only my eyes.
Maybe I’m wrong and expect to much, but I will definitely think twice before buying a light with any of these emitters again.
Usually the problem is not the emitter. Though some are harder to get right than others. Any beam problems are in the design and/or construction of the optics… like reflector. More often than not, it is centering in the reflector (edit: or reflector height above the led). Which is why everyone was asking you to take a picture, one light at a time, from directly over the center of the reflector . When you are directly over it with the camera, you should see the LED reflected evenly in the reflector of the light when the camera is in the right place. You need to also avoid other light from room lighting that is reflected . You should only see the led. (turned OFF BTW) A picture like that can, maybe, reveal if anything is misaligned . Sometimes this is an easy fix.
I will be interested to hear what Simon says to your inquiry.
The emitters are okay. You might need to center the reflector correctly around the emitter. This can be done by unscrewing the bezel, rotating the relector, and carefully screwing the bezel down.
A thicker gasket might be required to focus the L21B so that it throws further. The bezel can he unscrewed, reflector lifted out, and two gaskets placed around the emitter (get two, glue them, sand down gasket to correct height?). I wouldn’t do this unless you have a light meter to measure the lux and calculate the beam distance. Maybe it’s okay and I’m making assumptions…
Thank you all for the answers and advice on how to fix this. I really appreciate it!
I do use all of my flashlights in situe, I’m not just “white wall hunting”
I tried all of the advice and maybe I was just asking for to much… But, on the other hand, should the flashlight you pay for not live up to what is advertised? Should I really expect, and know, that they will look this, in my opinion, bad?
It’s just “how it is” and it’s ok?
I got a similar comet shape of the beam on a homebuilt light, even with a perfectly centered reflector. It turned out the LED was not reflowed in a flat position, so the axis of the LED and that of the reflector were not parallel and not identical, but formed a tiny angle. It turned out to be virtually impossible to correct this with tens of reflow tries. I had to put some Kapton tape under the reflector to mount it a bit crooked.
Another successful try was to galvanize the LED to the MCPCB, which worked, but will not be massproduction-proof and I don’t think that tiny amount of bonding material will take long to rupture with thermal stress cycles.
In my experience these are really hard leds to have perfectly centered. Beam shape might change even if you hit the light to something. That’s actually how I fine tune them.
Thank you for your answer!
So, do you think those LED should be sold including this information? I mean, I bought them without no information whatsoever about this from the seller.