how many lumens do you reasly need

[Stress_Test]

In practical use I've found it's heavily dependent on how dark-adapted your eyes are at the moment you need /use a flashlight.

Just woke up at 3am in a totally dark room? One lumen is plenty to see by.

Just walked into a blacked-out warehouse space from a sunny day outside? A 100 lumen light will make you think "is this thing on??"

Assuming no pressing emergency, we can usually wait a minute for our eyes to adjust to whatever light level we have.

On that note, I've realized that a cop may have a need for a REALLY bright light if he's in hot pursuit and the bad guy ducks into a dark building from a sunny afternoon. Or maybe you just wait for the K-9 unit to go in after him!

 

[chainsolid]

Utility aroun 1000 Lumens
EDC: 200-500 Lumens

 

[Ishango]

It totally depends on the situation. When camping I rarely need more than 50 - 75 lumens. Late at night a firefly mode can be sufficient for a decent amount of tasks. When I'm alone in the dark and hear an ominous sound I can't place, 35000 lumen is barely sufficient

 

[Unicorn]

It all depends on what I'm doing. Military mission with dark adapted eyes and just need to dig something out of a pack without losing my night vision or alerting any enemy? Maybe 1.

Walking my dogs and wanting to be able to check what they are sniffing or to make sure there's no glass on the sidewalk? 60 or so.

Security and wanting to light up a building or bush a couple hundred meters away? 600 to a couple thousand... sort of depends on how tight it is and the actual brightness. Lumens isn't a guarantee of brightness just the total output. Remember an old incandescent 40 watt refrigerator bulb was something like 600 or 800 lumens.
Checking the neighbors yard because there are tools still out since she's rebuilding her house after it burned down? Same as above.

Lighting up the beach in winter when there is cloud cover and it's pitch black? How much can I get? It's a great place to see how bright some of my lights are.

 

[Lou Minescence]

How many lumens do you really need ? None
I like a flashlight or headlamp that has between moonlight and 1,000 lumens. That's what I want. I find that will work for most of my tasks. I will refuse to buy a light that can not go as low as at least 5 lumens or more. EDC style works best for me overall.

 

[GadgetGeek]

I'm fond of the Streamlight Polytac X that I bought for a family member to use when they take the dog out. It came with an 18650 battery. 600 lumens on high for 3.5 hours. I think 600 lumens is a good number and plenty of light for edc.

Edit: Just wish it also had a low 1 lumen output.

 

[Splitrail]

I rarely need a flashlight away from home.
My home light is a Nightcore MH10 S (1, 50, 300, 1050, 1800).
The upper two levels are useful in the forest where I live, the lower three are perfect indoor options for me.