Too Bright....

[jupello]

Yes, Sometimes lights have too high output to be practical. But more often the problem is that the beam is just too tight..

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Finding dim lights is far more difficult than finding bright ones. While that has been true for years and years it's even more true with todays high efficiency LEDs.

 

[rona]

I never use a setting over 30 Lumens unless I'm showing off.

 

[Philonous]

My SC600 is too bright to use for close up dark time work. But I'll tell you, during the daylight, crawling around inside a loaded truck, the high beam really helps when you adjusted day time vision, but have to see into in a dark area.

Surely you mean the turbo mode is too bright? The lowest mode is just 0.1 lumens...

 

[mattevt]

I probably won't be using my ROP to read a map in the dark.

 

[AverageGuy]

I am in the "there's no such thing as too bright" camp. I need a bright light at work during the day, as Wildlands pointed out, they can never be to bright.
I am happy to see the smaller form factor, extremely bright lights coming to market. I am in the process of trying to decide between an Olight SR92 or the Maelstrom S18.

 

[TDKKP]

Too bright?????

My POB 35W HID is not bright enough.

My DRY Cool White 2500 lumens I just bought is not bright enuugh in LED.

My 1.3W 445nW blue laser is not too bright either.



I need something with the same power of the sun in a no cloud day in summer: that's might be bright enough, NOT too bright.

 

[Burgess]

Here's my profound take on this subject:


At night . . . .


Anything which causes yer' eyes ( irises ) to "stop-down"

is simply WASTED lumens.



_

 

[ganymede]

If your find your light too bright then you are using the wrong light for the task. Nuff' said!

 

[River17]

When I first started this unstoppable hobby of flashlight collecting/modification, I was giddy at "how insanely bright" 120 lumens was. I rapidly began to modify 6Ps with bigger and badder mods and purchase more lights with the goal of achieving the most brightness possible.

Now, a little more experienced and (I would like to think) a bit wiser, I have concluded with much certainty that my incredible little E1L is all I personally really need for 95% of my flashlight uses, despite the fact that I use flashlights ALL the time and for every possible reason I can think of. In fact the only time I even bump it into the "high" mode of 45L is for nighttime spotting around my neighborhood on the occasional late walk or in the backyard looking for nocturnal critters. If I could only keep ONE of my lights I would probably consider my E2E with its TLS TX2 2-stage replacement head (30/220ish lumens) to be my most all-around useful setup, and since its throw/flood balance is very nicely managed the low setting doesn't look too bright although there are certainly times when it is. Nevertheless, the E1L still gets a vast majority of pocket-time unless I am planning to be outside for extended periods of time and/or I know there is a good chance I will require long-distance illumination.

I have a number of 350L+ lights but the ONLY time I ever consider any of them remotely practical other than to impress people (NOTE: for my own personal uses, in no way do I mean to speak for anyone but myself) is when I'm on long solo walks late at night. In those situations I carry my highly-customized 6P "defensive" setup with a DereeLight XP-G beamer, strike bezel, McClicky, etc. The only reason I feel such brightness necessary or even realistically useful for that matter is because I know that if/when I use that light it won't be as a close-range illumination tool but rather to "power-blind" a potential assailant or scan dark alleys etc for the presence of the aforementioned bad guy.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE powerful lights that put out an insane amount of light, and I LOVE trying to create the most face-meltingly awesome setup with absolutely no regard or care for runtime or heat (within safe limits, of course). I just personally don't have any true use for such lights other than for my own amusement and that of the people I show them to. Simply put, a majority of my "flashlight time" is happily spent at 3 lumens, and I LOVE that too.

 

[precisionworks]

4D Maglight is 100 watts and estimated 6000 real lumens

Even Tim The Tool Man would like that. He might not even say "more power" :devil:

 

[Stevie]

Here's my profound take on this subject:


At night . . . .


Anything which causes yer' eyes ( irises ) to "stop-down"

is simply WASTED lumens.



_

With you there Burgess. I walk at night in the countryside and in the woods I prefer a nice 20lm from my Zebralight to light things up softly. When I step out of the woods into fields and need to see a bit further I use an Olight T10 (old version) on 15 lumens, still throws about 40 yards due to the throwy nature of this light. The next level up (38lm) actually blinds me when looking at the hotspot at a distance of about 5 yards in front of me and takes away any night vision I have developed. Sometimes less is more!

 

[Moonshadow]

The difficulty I have is with multimode lights whose lowest mode is too bright. The LX2 is a good example: low is supposedly 15 Lumens, but is actually quite a bit higher. Even 15 is way too bright in some situations though - so I would always prefer to have the option of a genuine low (1 Lumen or less).

 

[AFKAN]

As much as I agree with what's essentially being said here, there's no substitute for lumins

I most likely won't be happy until they can make the moon brighter with a hand held flashlight

 

[River17]

The difficulty I have is with multimode lights whose lowest mode is too bright. The LX2 is a good example: low is supposedly 15 Lumens, but is actually quite a bit higher. Even 15 is way too bright in some situations though - so I would always prefer to have the option of a genuine low (1 Lumen or less).

YES. That is a fantastic point... what happens when, for example: you're 30 minutes into a late-night walk and you feel a massive killer mosquito land on your forearm. You need/want to check out that spot on your arm to see if it actually "got" you, but knowing that even the 15L (or whatever it might be) low setting of your light will blind you you're forced to choose between (A) waiting until you get home and (B) checking it out NOW but at the cost of guaranteed - albeit temporary - vision loss. Obviously not the end of the world in this situation, but its a good example of the value of a truly low setting.

 

[AverageGuy]

I was at work the other day walking down a 6" air line, (about 20' up by the ceiling), trying to see where a a small tubing line tied into it, I had my Quark 123^2 Turbo X and it was doing okay, but I wished it was an SR90.
I just ordered a Maelstrom S18 to use at work, among other things, and while I am sure it will work great I know I will want it to be brighter.

On the same hand, I really like the low low of the Turbo X and use it a lot at night. I had a V10R Ti on back-order, (should have it next week), and one of the selling points, other than the fact that it is Ti, was the low mode. No matter how practical the lower modes are, I still love a bright light, practical or not.

 

[nbp]

I never use a setting over 30 Lumens unless I'm showing off.

Both of your posts so far, rona, have been direct duplicates of posts from other members earlier in the two threads. :thinking: In this thread you copied flatline's post exactly.

Do you have anything of your own to say or does plagiarism suit you best?

 

[TyJo]

I encourage all who are in favor of max lumens to buy a light that is capable of multiple modes and low lows. I used to look for max lumens and found multi mode lights much more useful. I use my lights in the dark and it got annoying blasting my night adapted vision away with hundreds of lumens when I only needed 0.1, 1.5, or 15 lumens. Don't get me wrong, I love lumens, throw, CRI, etc., but I have found that I enjoy and use these low output levels much more then max lumens.

 

[davidV5]

YES. That is a fantastic point... what happens when, for example: you're 30 minutes into a late-night walk and you feel a massive killer mosquito land on your forearm. You need/want to check out that spot on your arm to see if it actually "got" you, but knowing that even the 15L (or whatever it might be) low setting of your light will blind you you're forced to choose between (A) waiting until you get home and (B) checking it out NOW but at the cost of guaranteed - albeit temporary - vision loss. Obviously not the end of the world in this situation, but its a good example of the value of a truly low setting.

Solution 1 - Use a finger to make a pin hole, which will only let a small amount of light through.

Solution 2 - Use only the side spill to light up the arm.

 

[warmurf]

My answer is yes. The Big Bruiser, being 1 mode and up around 2300 lumens is too bright in close quarters, and you can't drop it down a mode or two. So it's a light you only take out where you have space. Great for short bush walks.