Similar-ish pattern, but different. The rings are sharper lines, like the outer ring you see there, and there are a few of them. The location is similar.
Here is what I tried - I removed the bezel, put it back on, etc. and the rings did not change at all.
I tried placing my thumb over the side of the lens over the bezel and/or top edge of the reflector, no difference to the rings.
I tried putting my thumb over just the center of the lens where the spill from the LED comes out, and the rings disappeared completely.
So as far as I can tell, it is coming from something near the very bottom of the reflector or the gasket around the LED? Bezel or no bezel makes no difference. Even if the bezel was matte black, I think there would still be rings.
If the gasket and/or board surface was black, maybe the rings would go away? I had a similar problem with a Convoy Z1 I modded and I had to use some RIT Dyemore and dye the plastic gasket black to get rid of the ringing. But that was a zoomie, everything has to be blacked out that doesn’t get projected out the aspheric lens of the Z1.
I started just trying to measure the lens, seems to be 55mm by 2mm approximately. I figured since I already got dust in the reflector, why not try to figure it out?
I tried taking the gasket out, reflector sitting on the board. Rings. Tried blocking off the bottom of the reflector to make the gasket artificially taller. Still rings.
Then I took out the lens, but left the reflector in, and… no rings!
Tried taking the 50mm green AR lens I have from my Pioneman K55. It’s too small to stay under the bezel, but fits in the mouth of the reflector… The rings came back…? Positioned it ever so perfectly so it fell inside the mouth of the reflector a bit, and the rings mostly faded away… WTF? FWIW, the green AR may have made a slight hard to notice difference in the green tint, but probably not much vs the uncoated glass.
But that gave me an idea. The Pioneman’s 50mm AR lens has an o-ring on it of same diameter (I think 50mm OD) sitting between it and the Pioneman’s bezel… So I flipped it upside down, to use that o-ring to block the upper rim of the reflector from the glass… and rings gone! I used the o-ring trick with the original 55mm lens, and rings still gone!
It seems like it’s that upper last mm of curved rim at the top of the reflector that’s interacting with the lens to make those weird rings.
Did some more experimenting - if you put something like a flat washer in between the rim of the reflector and the lens (or rather, under the lens), with an ID of like 48mm to block that part from shining into the lens, it also seems to work almost as well as the o-ring strategy.
Comparison of Effects of Convoy “Green Reflection AR Lens ” (it’s a reflection not a tint) on Duv (it makes Duv about 20 points more negative) Here and white-wall beamshot Here
The purple reflection AR lens is what I would stay away from.
Yes. An outer ring at periphery, brighter in the new one versus the old one, but still very dim compared to hotspot. White wall hunting will show this, in real life use by 20-30 yards it will not be visible. It doesn’t bother me at all but YMMV.
Hotspot is BLINDING. This is with my Nealsgadgets Lishen LR2700HP, but without AR lens. Which I’ve found to increase output about 3%.
I suggest anyone on the brink to dive in (EDIT 3/13: pardon the unbridled initial enthusiasm; please read my next few posts on TS30S Pro.) especially if it’s still at the ridiculous sub $60 sale price.
Above is data from first gen TS30S. TS30S Pro will behave similarly. @Fwhomeboy, stay with Samsung 40T. Very close to Lishen in this light. I use Lishen only to test the upper limit (“bragging rights”), in real life I can’t tell the difference.
BTW the bezel is much harder to take off vs first gen. I had to use rubber dishwashing glove. And be VERY careful, there are TWO O-rings, one above and one below the lens, and they are different from each other. The one above the lens (next to the bezel) is flat and feels like plastic, not silicone.
When I get some AR lens and repeat testing many times, throw and lumen might go up still. At 60 buck, nothing comes close to this baby.
Button: The old button was for me best in the business as far as travel and tactile feel are concerned. The new button is better… mainly because it is less mushy. It is the best button among all the lights I have (and Convoy’s side button the worst).
Parasitic drain is ok. Not crazy like TS21.
New TS30S Pro does feel a little bigger than 1st gen TS30S; a little top heavy. A little more awkward in comparison. Size, weight, and shape, ie the proportion, of 1st gen remains a lucky/magical decision by Wurkkos.
Concerning the throw, although I got 1030m for first gen TS30S, it was after many, many tries. Throw measurements give a range of results, and 1030m was the very highest in that range for first gen. In contrast, with TS30S Pro, 1125 m was from a casual first attempt, WITHOUT AR lens. So the difference is probably larger than the numbers indicate.
But … but … what about the free gifts? Hahahaha. I saw a photo on Reddit showing a diffuser that’s way too small and a holster that might fit a Swiss army knife.
Oh, and hey, since the throw is obviously better: Maybe I’ll get the same results running a Wurkkos battery in the Pro as you did with your hotrod Samsung 40T in the regular!!! Yeah baby!
The Wurkkos battery is a good inexpensive battery but can’t compete with 40T . TS Pro may not survive that disadvantage.
From 1st gen TS30S testing:
Stock Wurkkos Battery ~3980 lm
With AR lens ~4090 lm (~3% gain)
With AR Lens + Samsung 40T ~4750 lm (11-16% gain from battery alone - confirmed by numerous measurements w/ my TA lumen tube)
With daylight saving time coming, I hurried to take out both lights for a shoot out. This is the most important test for me, not white wall hunting but actual use “in real life.”
I could now imagine Wurkkos’s good will: to create something that’s an “improvement” over the incredibly successful TS30S. And what’s the only way to improve a thrower? Make it throw further!
So yes they’ve done it. Particularly at 50 yards and beyond and especially in Turbo, the Pro has a piercing hotspot that is distinctly brighter than 1st gen. The improvement took me by surprise, considering measurements of throw was only about 100 meter different.
But we know the flashlight hobby frequently involves tradeoff, and the tradeoff in this case is area of illumination. Whereas TS30S Pro illuminates one tree, TS30S 1st gen illuminates that tree, and the one next to it. I plan/hope to show this with same beamshots of the hill in front of my house.
Ha-ha, you get what you pay for, right? I ordered from Ali, where there IS no free gift action, but the deal was cheapest. I actually messaged and asked for the possibility of a free gift of a diffuser if they had one. They replied saying they didn’t have any in stock that would fit it, just smaller ones – so they do know exactly what they’re sending folks. Instead, they offered to send me “a big case” as a gift. I have no idea what that might be, nor did I ask, but I’m quite curious for it to arrive, lol. Probably another Swiss army knife holster, heh.
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