thud,
Good points. I am a huge fan of the diffused IR light, especially for low flying and any hover ops. Having flown NVG on UH-1H and UH-60s, I found that the UH-60 IR searchlight was excellent, but I always ended up with a sore thumb from motoring it around on dark nights and in the hover because it did not diffuse enough. The Huey on the other hand lacked a sharp IR light and this made identification of various features a challenge, especially during low level with no GPS (what was that ancient technique again...clock to map to ground or something? Anybody??
). But, the diffused light on the Huey was fantastic for low flying, hover ops and liftoff and landing from the hover. Much better than the UH-60.
I would rather the diffused IR light for civ HEMS ops than the beam style lights. I would be intrested to see what the SX16 looked like with IR filter and no focus, but I suspect it would still be to bright for dark night ops. SASless - you would probably know.