sgt253 was last on the list so...
This was originally a 200 lumen light that I recalibrated down to 140 lumens. Actual out the front lumens is 140.
At HDS, Henry does the programing and I do the calibration so it was a simple matter for me to drop the output down.
Why would I do such a horrible thing? Well, it reminds me of a joke about women, depth perception, and 8 inches, but I can't tell that joke here on a public forum. We, the flashoholics of the world, have been lied to so much and so often by so many that it becomes incredibly difficult for use to really know lumen output. This coupled with the logarithmic way our eyes work (not just eyes, but the human body in general tends to work in a logarithmic fashion) it makes discerning things like lumen values extremely tricky.
While things like the FL-1 standard have come about, it really is just flashlight manufactures attempting to police themselves (which to me is a lot like congress being able to vote for their own pay raises or the inmates running the asylum), and so we went from the National Enquirer lumen ratings to The World Weekly News lumen ratings but somehow, everyone felt better about this.
Really, the closest thing we have to an independent body is right here... CPF. The problem is, there is so much disinformation out there that often gets perpetuated along as fact (like the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1 not being able to penetrate frozen wool Chinese clothes... or the 9mm Parabelum being a newer caliber than the .45 ACP... 1903 9mm vs. 1905 .45... Oops. Wrong forum, but you get what I mean.)
Quite simply, it was one of the things I wanted to demonstrate as so many people think the HDS is "underpowered" in lumen output. It is the main reason I shut down discussion on the emitter in this thread as folks wanted to guess the output by what emitter was used (which I changed the original output anyway) but it is virtually impossible to tell with the naked eye what the output is... which is why we have $15,000 equipment to do so. It becomes a little easier when comparing lights side by side, however again, your eyes will play tricks on you as a completely diffused light producing the same lumen output as a light with a tightly focused beam will appear to be much less bright and warmer tints tend to give us the impression of lower output than cool while.
The other reason for the pass around was adjectives. Bright, big, small, heavy, light, dim, best, cheap, expensive... are all rather meaningless. It is all the perception of the user and unless one gets to hold, feel, and use the light for themselves, they really won't know. Add into this that a flashlight is more than just the sum of its parts (and sometimes less), and also how one uses a light varies greatly from person to person. HDS certainly is NOT for everyone. It's a niche market and the only person who can decide if you are in that niche is yourself... and that can be hard to do unless you are willing to plop down money based on other's adjectives from their perceptions or borrow and handle the light to figure it out for yourself.
I have also found that most often the biggest critics of HDS lights are by those who have never owned, let alone used an HDS light. We don't have to go too far back into the HDS thread to see this. First hand experience is ultimately the only way you will know if the light is right for you.