120° Flat vs 120° Convex Lenses

[MoKan Reefer]

I'm in the process of having a company build a couple of led fixtures and am at a loss for true information as to how much convex lenses effect par.

I'm having ledzeal in China customize 5 of their Zues 300 fixtures for my current 300g build (73" x 36" x 25" tall) and they have options for 90°, 120° and 120° convex lenses. Kevin from ledzeal has told me that to their knowledge the convex lenses improve spread and blending but cut down on par. We all know that radions have swapped their gen4 fixtures to convex "HEI" optics and I've heard almost nothing as far as losing par with them. I know comparing the HEI optics and 120° convex lenses is somewhat like comparing apples to bananas but it's the only other example I could honestly find.

I could find no other information on this topic through the interweb googling other than for horniculture or even here searching here other than a few conversations about orphek.

Here's a website picture of how the stock Zues fixtures look

The white lense is obviously the convex lens. Kevin said that the convex lense is the same height as the regular 120°

If anyone could help with this conundrum with any input or experience, it'd be very much appreciated.

 

[oreo54]

Maybe you can find something here..
Personally ( and via manuf info in the past) reflectors are better in the 90-ish range.
Bubble lenses in > 120..

Optic Types | Carclo Optics

www.carclo-optics.com

Pick type.. view pattern..

10628 | Carclo Optics

www.carclo-optics.com

10.0mm Wide Spot Frosted TIR LED Lenses | Carclo Optics

www.carclo-optics.com

TIR is great to focus but not so good in blending..

As to PAR sort of a mixed thing.. more blending less control or focus..

 

[mseepman]

So what did the OP decide to do?

 

[MoKan Reefer]

I haven't completely decided but most likely going to order 3 with 120° convex lenses and 2 with 120° flat clear lenses. 1 of the fixtures with flat lenses will be for my current 180 which is going to become my wife's and the other 4 I'll mix every other convex/flat on our upcoming 300g build so I'll have spread and par.

 

[mseepman]

I ended up ordering the new lights and putting the 120 convex lenses on the red, green and cyan led's while everything else got 120 degree regular lenses.

 

[MoKan Reefer]

That's actually a really good idea. May end up doing that along with using the convex on the few whites. Time will tell .

 

[mseepman]

So i got my lights and got them pulled out of their boxes to test for any issues. The convex lenses on the specific colors that I chose worked out well and I think that it will lend to the best color blending.

 

[mseepman]

So what did the OP decide to do?. I can tell you I'm very happy so far with my lights. Colors coming on corals that I never saw before and I'm still below 40% on 3 of the channels at their highest in the day.