GoVegan
Enlightened
I often see people request a 1000 lumen light EDC in the 'Recommend Me a Light For...' forum, personally I always laugh thinking to myself why the hell do they need a 1000 lumens for EDC and that they are most probably just making an assumption based on their previous usage of some "300 lumen" Chinese "tactical flashlight" purchased on Amazon or one of the Chinese online shopping stores, and that "300 lumen" light was way over rated and was probably more like 70-100 lumens. Besides, people often don't understand the difference between lumens and candela even.
I'm sure there are some people that really need a long distance spotter, but I should imagine that would be more for work and job specific tasks as opposed to EDC, and if work related then most people would probably be better off getting a light designed and marketed towards their specific profession and carry this light on their belt, in a tool kit or keeping in their truck. Another case, back yard usage, you'd be better off keeping a high powered light by your back door as opposed to trying to get your EDC light to do the same job.
I have also read about people refusing to buy HDS lights as they are "underpowered" compared to other companies out there. Well besides some of the lumen overrated Chinese lights, even if you look at some of the other well known brands out there, their lights usually have quick step downs in brightness levels and all these companies are really doing is gaming the FL1 standards and taking advantage of customers who don't know otherwise. Many companies are doing this but to give a few examples, paying for a Surefire P3X Fury 3 cell light rated at 900 lumens only to have it drop down to 650 after a few mins, or a Surefire E1B MV rated at 400 lumens for 1.25 hours but after 25 mins starts flickering and by the 30 mins point is less than 50% brightness (a particularly sore point for me as I really wanted this light but not with those specs), or an Olight S1R V2 rated at 900 lumens step down to 300 lumens after a few mins... I could go on and with many many other examples. BTW yes I understand for some use cases step downs are acceptable and that some people may not care, and may even prefer this design.
So on the contrary to the above, with HDS lights, each light is individually calibrated so you know that you really are getting the rated lumens and because of this you also get at least the listed runtime (often you get much more runtime than listed in the HDS specs).
However the real functionality of HDS lights come from their multiple output levels (which applies for both the clicky and the rotary models) and the design of the easily accessed UI, i.e. no scrolling through different brightness levels and disco modes, being able to easily and instantly get to different output levels especially with getting to maximum just by holding down the button.
The 1000 lumen HDS
Henry wrote a fantastic white paper about flashlight design and how our eyes work, I consider this required reading for any self-proclaimed flashaholic or even anyone just getting into the hobby even if you have no intention of ever buying a HDS light (I know I have read it at least 2 or 3 times over the past several years).
https://www.hdssystems.com/Articles/LedFlashlightWhitePaper.pdf
It details:
-----
"Put another way, you need 4 times the light to see twice as far with the same
illumination level.
[text cut]
"Taking all of the above together suggests that we can use lower levels of light for many
tasks and gain benefits in the process. Not only do you increase battery life with lower
output levels, you will be able to see further when you really need to and you reduce
your visibility footprint. Here is the scenario. Imagine you are using a low light level
to navigate - such as following a trail in the mountains at night - which you can easily
do on less than 1 lumen. Also imagine you can get maximum output with a simple
press of the button. After hiking for a while you come to a place where you need to
look far ahead. You hold your light above your head, point your light to where you
want to see and then press the button for maximum light output. Because your eyes
are dark adapted, you will be able to see much further with the maximum amount of
light than if you had been following the trail with a brighter light. Depending on
circumstances, you may be able to see twice as far on the same amount of light. That is
a huge increase in distance without buying a bigger flashlight."
-----
So once you understand the above, you can see how with your small 250 lumen HDS light, you really can 4x the performance and see further into the darkness than with a 1000 lumen light.
I know from my own personal usage that my HDS EDC LE 250 lumen XP-G2 when using the 110 lumens, looks much brighter than my Elzetta Alpha 415 lumen light and I also get 3x the runtime on the same battery too, the HDS even at 110 lumens also throws further and seems much brighter than my Malkoff MDC SHO 250 lumen XP-G2.
Now wait! Before commenting read the white paper, it really is worth your time.
I'm sure there are some people that really need a long distance spotter, but I should imagine that would be more for work and job specific tasks as opposed to EDC, and if work related then most people would probably be better off getting a light designed and marketed towards their specific profession and carry this light on their belt, in a tool kit or keeping in their truck. Another case, back yard usage, you'd be better off keeping a high powered light by your back door as opposed to trying to get your EDC light to do the same job.
I have also read about people refusing to buy HDS lights as they are "underpowered" compared to other companies out there. Well besides some of the lumen overrated Chinese lights, even if you look at some of the other well known brands out there, their lights usually have quick step downs in brightness levels and all these companies are really doing is gaming the FL1 standards and taking advantage of customers who don't know otherwise. Many companies are doing this but to give a few examples, paying for a Surefire P3X Fury 3 cell light rated at 900 lumens only to have it drop down to 650 after a few mins, or a Surefire E1B MV rated at 400 lumens for 1.25 hours but after 25 mins starts flickering and by the 30 mins point is less than 50% brightness (a particularly sore point for me as I really wanted this light but not with those specs), or an Olight S1R V2 rated at 900 lumens step down to 300 lumens after a few mins... I could go on and with many many other examples. BTW yes I understand for some use cases step downs are acceptable and that some people may not care, and may even prefer this design.
So on the contrary to the above, with HDS lights, each light is individually calibrated so you know that you really are getting the rated lumens and because of this you also get at least the listed runtime (often you get much more runtime than listed in the HDS specs).
However the real functionality of HDS lights come from their multiple output levels (which applies for both the clicky and the rotary models) and the design of the easily accessed UI, i.e. no scrolling through different brightness levels and disco modes, being able to easily and instantly get to different output levels especially with getting to maximum just by holding down the button.
The 1000 lumen HDS
Henry wrote a fantastic white paper about flashlight design and how our eyes work, I consider this required reading for any self-proclaimed flashaholic or even anyone just getting into the hobby even if you have no intention of ever buying a HDS light (I know I have read it at least 2 or 3 times over the past several years).
https://www.hdssystems.com/Articles/LedFlashlightWhitePaper.pdf
It details:
-----
"Put another way, you need 4 times the light to see twice as far with the same
illumination level.
[text cut]
"Taking all of the above together suggests that we can use lower levels of light for many
tasks and gain benefits in the process. Not only do you increase battery life with lower
output levels, you will be able to see further when you really need to and you reduce
your visibility footprint. Here is the scenario. Imagine you are using a low light level
to navigate - such as following a trail in the mountains at night - which you can easily
do on less than 1 lumen. Also imagine you can get maximum output with a simple
press of the button. After hiking for a while you come to a place where you need to
look far ahead. You hold your light above your head, point your light to where you
want to see and then press the button for maximum light output. Because your eyes
are dark adapted, you will be able to see much further with the maximum amount of
light than if you had been following the trail with a brighter light. Depending on
circumstances, you may be able to see twice as far on the same amount of light. That is
a huge increase in distance without buying a bigger flashlight."
-----
So once you understand the above, you can see how with your small 250 lumen HDS light, you really can 4x the performance and see further into the darkness than with a 1000 lumen light.
I know from my own personal usage that my HDS EDC LE 250 lumen XP-G2 when using the 110 lumens, looks much brighter than my Elzetta Alpha 415 lumen light and I also get 3x the runtime on the same battery too, the HDS even at 110 lumens also throws further and seems much brighter than my Malkoff MDC SHO 250 lumen XP-G2.
Now wait! Before commenting read the white paper, it really is worth your time.
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