On 03 Mar 2005 23:37:13 GMT, Ian Stirling
wrote:

Don Foreman wrote:
On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 05:49:56 -0500, Nick Hull
wrote:

IIRC the military uses some LED flashlights with the LED mounted
'backwards' into a reflector because the beam is so much tighted so it
gets less backscatter in a dusty environment.

That might be the Pelican Recoil.
http://www.pelicanaustralia.com/ledlites.htm

Similar idea, but this requires a fairly large reflector so the 3/8"
dia body of the LED and its support structure don't present
significant obscuration.

I believe Ian Stirling is/was contemplating this configuration using a
sapphire lens as both support and heatsink.

I am, I'm wondering at the moment if extracted dies from luxeon stars
is indeed the best way.

Keep us posted, Ian! I use emitters rather than Stars, but
extracting the die would be well beyond my ability. I figure the
die is about 1 mm square while the emitter body is about 8 mm dia,
so you'd gain a little if you could do that. How much you'd gain
would depend on the reflector diameter.

Streamlight gets good results from batwing Luxeons in their very deep
short-focus reflectors. A batwing might be a good choice for a retro.