# Awsome diffuser material! Now with comparison photo



## jzmtl (Feb 8, 2009)

*Awsome diffuser material! With better comparison pics.*

I just found some very cheap and awsome diffuser material, it's available at the nearest home improvement store. 

You know those semi transparent plastic films they sell in window/drape section that's self adhesive and intend to stick on windows? I have some left over from doing bathroom window, so I cut a piece to size and stuck to my fenix. Wow, it was originally ringy from cree and smooth reflector, now it almost rival my novatac's beam quality! I only put one layer on, so there's still a nice hotspot, but the transition is so smooth. The particular type I used is colorless and have many circular patterns molded on it, so your mileage may vary depends on what's available in your store.

The product name is d-c-fix (company website), google it and you should find plenty of hits. I picked up a roll from local home improvement store in the blind/drape section. Paid $10 for a roll of 45cm X 200cm.

_Added May 2nd_:

Edit: Some comparison shots, test subject is rebel minimag. 












Test result from selfbuilt, done with Olight M20

Clear glass: 84.2 (reference)
d-c-fix: 81.5 (3.2% loss)
Glad press 'n seal: 81.5 (3.2% loss)
Frosted scotch tape: 76.6 (9.0% loss)
M20 diffuser: 63.1 (25.1% loss)

Surefire F04 has 11% loss from MrGman's testing result.


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## Patriot (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*



jzmtl said:


> I just found some very cheap and awsome diffuser material, it's available at the nearest home improvement store.
> 
> You know those semi transparent plastic films they sell in window/drape section that's self adhesive and intend to stick on windows?




Hmm, no. I can't relate to that one. I'll go search it though. Sounds like you made a good discovery though.


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## Bullzeyebill (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Do you have a name for that product, that film type material?

Bill


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## Cosmo7809 (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Its basically to "frost" a bathroom window for a little more privacy but can let light in.


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## jzmtl (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Name is d-c-fix. I googled it, it's this: http://www.berlinwallpaper.com/dcfix/Transparent.htm I used the circular one since it's what I have, but I think the other two would work even better.


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## balou (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Well... sounds an awful lot like diffuse scotch tape.

Make some comparison shots to find out which one lets through more light


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## jzmtl (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Tried scotch tape before, this one gives better result and much stronger. Also cut to any shape since they come in 17" wide roll.


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## Illumination (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Sounds great...now need to figure out whether a diffuser cap can be built...al la Surefire F04 beamshaper...but for my other lights...


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## arjay (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Nice find! I just remembered that our company uses something similar, it's called adhesive book cover. Found some strips that are about 2 inches wide, cut a small piece and stuck it to the front of my LOD-CE and the common donut hole in the beam vanished. It is now smooth! 

Free diffuser since we just throw the scraps away. I would love to give some to those who wants some but I'm afraid that the shipping cost from the Philippines to your place would be impractical.


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## balou (Feb 9, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*



arjay said:


> Free diffuser since we just throw the scraps away. I would love to give some to those who wants some but I'm afraid that the shipping cost from the Philippines to your place would be impractical.



Couldn't you send them in a normal envelope? That shouldn't be so expensive




jzmtl said:


> Tried scotch tape before, this one gives better result and much stronger



thanks for the info. have to look around for this stuff. I just tried some yellow paper tape - works, but probably quite some light falloff, and ugly yellow color


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## kapitan88 (Feb 10, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

hey arjay,

do you have a picture of that material you used? is this available in national bookstore? am from makati lang. been looking for a possible good diffuser, so far what i've tested is the cap from a spray bottle, its translucent and has a slight dot in the center, which makes the output light ringy.


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## jzmtl (Feb 12, 2009)

*Re: Awsome diffuser material!*

Now with pic comparison between L0D and novatac, see first post.


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## PhantomPhoton (Feb 13, 2009)

That does look pretty nice. Thanks for the pics. I'll have to look around for some down here in The States.


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## Light Sabre (Feb 14, 2009)

I have been using the same type of difusing material for a couple years now. Works great. If you can pull the lens out of your flashlihgt you can use it as a template and cut out a piece the exact same size as your lens and place it on the inside of the flashlight so that's it's protected and is held in place. Not gonna work on flashlights that get hot tho. If you can't remove the lens of your flashlight, you can use a flat washer where the ID or OD is the same diameter as your flashlights lens and place it on the outside. If you don't like how the beam looks, then you can just peal it right off. Works great on LED dropins when you use them in non-focusing flashlights. Always seems the emitter is not at the focal point of the reflector and the beam looks fugly. I can only find the difuser material at one store here in town, and it took a year to get in their last order from Germany. So if you can find it, buy it now. May be a while before you see it again.


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## GregWormald (Feb 15, 2009)

At the risk of repeating myself:

The best diffuser I have run across is a small circle cut out of the lightly pebbled section of one of the flexible CD/DVD cases.

I cut the circle with three little 'ears' and the whole thing sits on top of the lens and the 'ears' click into place in the O-ring recess. When I want a thrower, a quick flick with a fingernail and it's off and into my pocket for later.

A heavier diffuser can be made from the heavier pebbled sections of the same case.

Greg


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## LEDninja (Feb 15, 2009)

I use Glad Press n Seal. On both sides of the lens.

[email protected] P7 stock:





[email protected] P7 with diffuser:


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## jzmtl (May 2, 2009)

Finally took some pics with rebel minimag as subject. I don't have a light meter so can't tell how much light is lost, going to send some to selfbuilt and let him test it.


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## Light Sabre (May 3, 2009)

I use the d-c-fix "Milky" material as a diffuser. It's just like the diffuser lens that Terralux supplied with the TLE-6N drop in. Works great. If you don't like the results you just peal it off.


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## cave dave (May 3, 2009)

I really need to look for some of this stuff. It seems like a pretty light diffusion judging by the beamshots. More than Writeright but less than LDF from flashlightlens.com. I have LDF in my HDS EDC. (will also fit Novatac)

So the order from least to most diffusion is: 

1. Writeright BW PDA film
2. DC Fix (*Edit: very similar to LDF see below*)
3. LDF Lens (similar to Fastcar 5 layer)
4. SF F04 (similar to Fastcar 10 layer)

I'm not sure where scotch tape falls in, it seemed to have a pretty large output loss.


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## cave dave (May 3, 2009)

BTW,
Those are very nice beamshots. I took some shots of the LDF lens beam and the pics simply don't do it justice. It just makes it look like somebody stole the hotspot, instead of the beautiful smooth center weighted flood that it is.


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## cave dave (May 12, 2009)

I had a chance to try the DC fix window diffuser and it is virtually identical in diffusion properties to the LDF lens material from flashlightlens.com

Or at least that is the way my eyeball sees it.


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## jzmtl (May 14, 2009)

I sent some to selfbuilt to see how much light is lost with it, the result is pretty good.

Test result from selfbuilt, done with Olight M20

Clear glass: 84.2 (reference)
d-c-fix: 81.5 (3.2% loss)
Glad press 'n seal: 81.5 (3.2% loss)
Frosted scotch tape: 76.6 (9.0% loss)
M20 diffuser: 63.1 (25.1% loss)

Surefire F04 has 11% loss from MrGman's testing result.


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## wildstar87 (May 15, 2009)

Would this stuff here be similar to the D-C-Fix?

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100076189

This stuff and the Gila Privacy film seems to be all that the Lowes/Home Depot have..


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## jzmtl (May 15, 2009)

Looks similar. You'll have to make sure the pattern is random, otherwise it'll create weird artifacts. Is that price for one sheet? If so that's really expensive.


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## Hondo (Aug 29, 2009)

OK, took a bullet on this one. I could not find D-C-Fix products anywhere around me, so I ordered from Berlin Wallpaper. The Gila stuff looked horrible, with a spray-on activator for the glue backing - yuk!

I ordered two types: The self-adhesive type like jzmtl got, only in the "sand" finish, and the new static-cling type in frost. The static cling frost was a waste, it cuts the output drastically, don't get this. The self adhesive "sand" rocks, though!

This stuff is almost identical to the 5-layer stuff that Fastcar had a while back, if you ever tried that (very expensive) stuff. Flipping back and forth, the hotspot is slightly less bright with the D-C-Fix, but I have to flip back and forth many times to be sure. It does not seem to cut out any more light, just diffuses a bit more to the spill than Fastcar's stuff. Anyway, nice moderate diffusion, still has a hotspot, only with much less throw, much more spill brightness, and turns event the most horrific beam into a perfect, smooth pattern. Much easier to apply, with the adhesive backing. Even though it has an adhesive, it can still be removed without leaving a residue, so much easier to work with than the Gila stuff, and less than half the price, unless you have to pay the $6.95 shipping from Berlin like I did.

A tip on cutting circles: Get a cheap compass and replace the pencil with an X-Acto knife with a #11 blade and you can spin out a circle in a jiffy. You may want to practice on paper to get good cuts and check the setting of the compass that you are cutting the right diameter for your lense. If you want to avoid the pinhole in the center, first tape down a tiny bit of wood or plastic on the D-C-Fix material for the compass point to ride on. Enjoy, and thanks for the lead, jzmtl!


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## Armed_Forces (Aug 29, 2009)

Here's what I use.

Awesome stuff! Highly recommended. :thumbsup:


..anybody else tried it??? 
I bought it on a whim. :tinfoil:


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## Bullzeyebill (Aug 29, 2009)

Armed_Forces said:


> Here's what I use.
> 
> Awesome stuff! Highly recommended. :thumbsup:
> 
> ...



I think that is what Sgt uses. I have used this in the past, but lost my sample. Iff I recall it did not show much loss of output (lightmeter + bounce) as my F24 beamshaper. I removed the beamshaper diffusion film and added the LDF to the tip-off mount. Recently I am using the removed SF diffusion film in one of my 1.25 bezel LED lights, my Chameleon, and the results are very satisfactory
mostly pure flood. My newer F23, medium beamshaper, is really excellent.

Bill


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## Light Sabre (Aug 29, 2009)

Kittrich Corp (La Mirada, CA 9063) "clear" works great. You still get a very good hotspot and throw and it gets rid of the Cree rings and other beam blemishes. It basically looks like matte Scotch tape. We have a roll of it at work. I bring the scraps home and use it on some of my flashlights. :thumbsup:


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## sORe-EyEz (Aug 30, 2009)

i would not use window film for high output lights just in case they cannot take the heat. 

not sure if window films all use the same type of glue, because in my previous home the film is a pain to remove. :thumbsdow i wouldn't want to find out what heat can do to it... :sick2:

it should be fine for lights that have good termal control? :shrug:


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## jzmtl (Aug 30, 2009)

Armed_Forces said:


> Here's what I use.
> 
> Awesome stuff! Highly recommended. :thumbsup:
> 
> ...



I sent some D-C-FIX to another member and he said it and the LDF give pretty similar results.



sORe-EyEz said:


> i would not use window film for high output lights just in case they cannot take the heat.
> 
> not sure if window films all use the same type of glue, because in my previous home the film is a pain to remove. :thumbsdow i wouldn't want to find out what heat can do to it... :sick2:
> 
> it should be fine for lights that have good termal control? :shrug:



Don't have any high power incan so I can't say, but none of my LED lights have problems with it. Even if you get glue residue, some WD40 will take care of it.


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## sniper (Jan 23, 2012)

Boy! is that stuff expen$ive! 

A PDA protector sheet with just a bit of "tooth" to it works well. I used some on my Mag 3D, and am about to do it again. Of course, every time you put something in front of a light source, each surface will reflect/absosrb 5-10% , (that's both sides of the glass and plastic) so it will throw some less. 
Not really a problem for real-world folks, methinks.


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