Cellphone as a Flashlight

[claudeswares]

My Samsung Captivate doesn't even have a LED. As others have said, even if it did, I doubt I would trust is battery life or water resistance. Good thing my ReVo is always on my keychain.

 

[palacial]

Re: Cellphone as a Flashlight

I used to work as a backcountry park ranger in Yosemite and if I had a nickel for every "lost" hiker I eventually found stumbling around in the dark using his/her cell phone as a flashlight, I'd be a millionaire. If they'd only had the fore thought to bring one measly cheap plastic light on their 12 mile hike... Who know, maybe I'm just being old and crotchety but don't our cell phones do enough these days? What do I know, I still back up my GPS with a compass

SF

 

[jh333233]

Not limited to android, iphone have serveral apps which do the same thing
it might be a good choice IF you have no other choices
ramping the brightness requires access to the setting, the app itself couldnt do it
it might be somehow inconvinient, also the brightness wasnt that high, as they werent
intended for flashlight-use

 

[KiwiMark]

I have the HTC Desire HD, it has TWO flash leds which you can use with the flashlight app. 3 mode. Not a bad white tint

I recently bought the same phone - the flashlight app came with it and it works pretty good, with a nice floody light. It doesn't have much throw, but it seems that it could be useful in plenty of situations.
I guess for me my cellphone can be my backup to my backup to my backup - I have 3 lights on me as well as the cellphone.

Not so with my phone, however, as it usually degenerates into, "Where the hell did that app go?", not to mention it's awkward to hold a flat object vertically. Plus it's all flood, so you can't illuminate anything more than 15 feet away unless it's pitch black.

1. You can install an app like 'Folder Organiser' to organise your apps into folders to make it easier to find whatever app you are looking for. You can also make a shortcut to the flashlight app on the homescreen.

2. I never had any problems holding my phone, but I wouldn't use the phone as a flashlight for longer than half a minute at the most. It should work fine for finding the keyhole in a door or seeing your dropped keys.

3. Yep - there is no real throw to the camera flash LEDs, the cell phone only really works as a close range flood light.


Honestly I think that the dual LEDs that are used as a camera flash would definitely work fine as an emergency flashlight. They would also work fine for most (non flashlight carrying) people as their only light if we are talking about the occasional need and not trying to walk through a dark forest at night or anything at all that needs some throw. I'm happy to have the app on my phone, but I'll continue to EDC my 3 good EDC lights.

 

[Napalm]

Is there a "Flashlight Organizer" app too? Something like a flashlight database with pics, where you could sort all your lights by make, model, lumens, throw, color temperature, size, battery type, last time you changed batteries etc.

Nap. :laughing:

 

[ryaxnb]

The main problem with a cellphone-light is the extremely short battery life of most phones, even when the power sucking led flash is off. A small aaa edc light is a much better light due to battery life an runtime.

Sent from my Samsung Captivate using Tapatalk

 

[KiwiMark]

The main problem with a cellphone-light is the extremely short battery life of most phones, even when the power sucking led flash is off. A small aaa edc light is a much better light due to battery life an runtime.

A multi-mode light that runs from a AA battery will do even better. Take a Quark MiNi AA for example: 8 hours on medium, 60 hours on low. If you are going to be hiking for a couple of hours at night to get to a campsite the phone will be a really bad choice for your light source - a nice small 1 x AA light would work so much better. Definitely the 8 hours on medium would be more light for more time than you'll get from your cellphone!

Walking from the car to the front door and needing some light to see something that you dropped - the cellphone light is fine, the battery wont go flat from 30 seconds of LED usage. For extended use - there are a huge number of flashlights available and almost any one of them would be a better choice than your cellphone. You get better light with more throw from a flashlight and a couple of hours of light from one AA battery isn't a problem for most flashlight, I wouldn't want to try using a cellphone LED for a couple of hours!