On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 23:58:39 +0000 (UTC), Crow Leader
wrote:

In the USA the first version of this light was the Stealthlite 2020 or something like that. It had a great beam that was almost square like the die of the LED itself. Scatter was almost nothing at all. The only flahslight I have with a beam nearly as tight is a Maxabeam.

The one I had had a screw to operate switch and was total garbage. They changed the materials used, but it was still poor. It was hard to turn on and off, or would turn on an off itself. There was never a clear separation between on and off either.

Pelican needs to come up with a better switch system. Toggles that don't lock on or off without a peg that breaks off is stupid.

Good small switches are hard to find unless you're buying in
production qty. I'm using magnetic reed switches. They're very
small, very reliable and hermetically sealed.

I think the assymetrically-fed (was "offset fed") paraboloid would
match the retro's beam tightness by simply blacking out the portion of
the Luxeon that can "see" directly out the reflector's aperture so
that *all* light is collimated. The loss that would produce is
probably less than the blockage presented by the emitter and support
structure in a retro design.

A little "spill" is generally not a bad thing in a flashlight. Don't
need or want much, just enough to see one's feet and immediate (arm's
length) surroundings and direct the rest where it's needed at greater
distance. A totally contained beam is only necessary if one is
concerned about backscatter in fog or very dusty condx. Tactical
users may also be concerned about ability of a distant off-axis
observer to localize the light -- and therefore it's user. (Think
target) In fog, rain, snow, dust, buggy or even humid condx the
beam will draw a line to the user anyway so the only real advantage is
freedom from being blinded by backscatter.