What do you do with your lumens?

A genuine question that has probably been asked before, as I continue on my illuminating (arf arf) journey through lighting I find that as much as I love the wow factor of 1000+ lumen lights, practically I don't ever find myself needing more than 500 or so lumens.
Now I know there are dog walkers who like to check there hound out in a big field far away and other reasons to have powerful lights...But I'm just curious what they are? Beyond driving to the middle of nowhere and turning your torch on full whack and the inner 9yr old boy grinning, what do your 1000+ lumen lights do that your lesser powered ones don't? Just curious...Having just got the olight H2R and wondering why i need a headlight that powerful.

We're a hiking family, and light that powerful can be really nice to have when we're trying to figure out the path ahead. Also, with floody lights, it's not that much.

Most of the time though, I'm using sublumen for walking around in the dark, and a few hundred lumens at the most.

I use flashlights for bike lights, out and about it's amazing how many lumens u can use to find your way on a rainy night !

I was just thinking about that...I was watching my chargers this week, and estimated that I use about 50Ah per week in my lights, mostly 18650's. That puts me at somewhere around 18,000 lumen hours per week, probably about 15k of that to see and be seen while on my bike.

Days are getting shorter here in the northern hemisphere, good times for light geeks!

Inside the house 10L or less.

For close work (10ft or less) I use 50L or less. I find if I use more the glare back bounce of objects messes with my vision when I focus on things outside the main lit area.

Walking around the neighborhood I use 200L or less.

I have a 1000L + thrower, but unless I am in the countryside I rarely stretch its legs. Its just too bright and too far and I wouldn't want anyone flashing that around at me so I do likewise.

I use my AceBeam K70 on my bike. I have it mounted to my handle bars.

:thinking: well i am not a sub lumen guy, i prefer to light up stuff plenty..............tired adapted eyes or not. Still around house at night, anywhere between 10-20lm is fine...........can be up to 200lm depending on light(floody). Work uses tend to be anywhere from 100-300ish, most uses around 150lm. Out for a walk/exploring, then anything from 200lm up to what ever is available. Always have to hit the 100% for a bit to show darkness who's boss...............then dial it down a bit for sustaining a balance of output/heat.

It never grows old lighting up trees/fields tbh...............but walking between them lower hi cri i like. Throw type lights get limited use due to surroundings(need open areas for the big guns). So majority of use, be it home or work tends to be more flood bias. From mules to triples and quads i enjoy, different form factors of which p60 tend to find a nice balance for me. Right size for heat/run time and carrying without discomfort. With some 18650 lights getting pretty compact(ZL and D4 to name 2), these will also be introduced to my winter EDC rota.

Billy Light said:

I use my AceBeam K70 on my bike. I have it mounted to my handle bars.

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On your bike?... Got a photo? What mount is large enough to hold that??

[h=2]What do you do with your lumens?[/h]I keep them in my battery in case it gets dark.
P

kj2 said:

On your bike?... Got a photo? What mount is large enough to hold that??

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I don't have a K70, but this mount works for the 50mm tube of the M43, and the 52mm X7VN (I'm sure it would work for the K70). Too heavy for serious MTB, and probably not appropriate for very jarring Enduro rides, but very fun for showing off on weeknight trail rides...
https://i.imgur.com/VSemq02.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aKMrwPo.jpg

kj2 said:

On your bike?... Got a photo? What mount is large enough to hold that??

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https://www.google.com/search?q=Bik...gIKQ&biw=1155&bih=740#spd=5034134725098827355

My big lights(X65vn, x7, TM28) are used for daily walks and weekend adventures and I have two triple xml lights(gloworm XS, Ituo Xp3) that I use for mountain biking/road riding. My inner 9yr old is alive and well

Quote: "...what do your 1000+ lumen lights do that your lesser powered ones don't? Just curious..."

I use the X65vn to see stuff further away.

The lights I normally use almost exclusively are a couple of Tubes, a couple of Tips(Nichia), an IYP465(Nichia), and occasionally my LA10 CRI Surefire 6P and G2, Seraph 6, and my TerraLUX Lightstar 80. All of the others (Nitecore MT06, MT06MD, EA41, EA45S, EA8,TM11, TM16, TM16GT, P30) I basically bought for the little kid WOW! factor, and haven't really had a need for any of them. I have one of the TIP CRI on my keychain, and EDC a Microstream in my pocket. If I want to EDC more I put my EA11 on my belt. When I had a car I carried my Rayovac 4C Lantern, and I have a 10yr old Eveready lantern converted to LED and an Eveready Light Fusion Folding Lantern for area lighting when the power goes out. Interesting how it used to go out a lot, and now that I have all these lights, it hardly ever goes out. Hmmm.

I do whatever I want. Which can vary at any given moment. I can say I turn them on and off in the house lots of times for no reason at all. I walk the trash cans down the driveway once a week and light up the neighbors and my trees, for no reason at all. I keep some mega lumens on the night stand just incase. Other wise the real answer is, Have fun with them!

peter yetman said:

[h=2]What do you do with your lumens?[/h]I keep them in my battery.
P

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I was going to say that exact thing Pete.
Lower settings normally provide all I need.

But turning off neighbors light sensing porch lights and street lights is fun too.

bykfixer said:

But turning off neighbors light sensing porch lights and street lights is fun too.

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But that takes all the fun out of it. When I was going to college, the campus street light poles were those six sided kinda fluted ones. Someone in the past found that if you kicked one hard enough it would shake the bulb to the point that it would lose contact and go out, and take five or ten minutes to come back on again. Now, that was a challenge. We used to get a few guys together and see how many we could have out at the same time.

Multi thousand lumens are fun. But rather I prefer a decent runtime instead of a short burst which very fast drains the cells.
The lumen race has lead to over powered flashlights and I don't find it optimal to get as much lumens as possible just because it's possible.

^^ That's what I liked about the medium setting on a couple of my lights that max out an emitter on high.

The medium is appearing to be nearly as bright while providing like 5x the runtime.
I don't mean those turbo gimmick type but the kind that high is a sustained amount for like an hour or a medium of say 60-70% of high with a 5-8 hour run time.

I'd really rather somebody do one that the high is 60-70% max capable with a 5-8 hour runtime with a low or perhaps not... yet lumen wars still rage on.

When walking my dogs at night I like to light up the roads I'm walking on. I like to see what's around.
At the beach I like to see what's there.
I also like the highest or turbo setting in the event I need to shine it in someone's face to hopefully blind or disorient them for a moment. Also nice to see all of the person, to include their hands.