My edc light has a max output of only 300 lumens

[bykfixer]

It really depends on the use it is intended for and how much light pollution is around. If it's dark 300 is more than enough. But in a well lit parking lot for example a shadow at 50 yards will still appear dark with "only" 300 lumens.

My EDC lights are 500 (max) and 110 (max). I keep a 650 lumen number in my truck to shine into manholes and such in daylight because the beam is fairly throwey.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

An EDC can have 2 basic functions.... area low distance light and a thrower for longer distance. LIke bf said light pollution defeats lower lumen lights such that 300 lumens is less useful for distance and flood both either the distance has to be shorter or the throw tighter but if you have 500-600 or 1000 or more lumens. I currently EDC a ~100 lumen AAA light these days which is enough for my uses if I know I'm going to be out at night I typically grab an 18650 light usually my Sofirn SP32 that does about 600 lumens on high and 1200 lumens turbo and I typically use it on low or medium. My 120 lumens only needs to light up things at about 1 foot away or in the dark at 3 feet.
I don't consider an 18650 light as an EDC light as the type of situations I get in I would not be able to pocket it comfortably and a holster on it is pretty much out of the question. When I do go out at night I want at least 500 lumens and throw of about 50 feet ahead which is possible with limited light pollution.

 

[pancakeayaka]

300 lumen is enough for me. When I see 300lm is not much that means the environment is bright.
I prefer constant output for an hour to extreme output for 1min...

 

[defloyd77]

Die? No. It might be a bannable offense on CPF however

 

[sween1911]

My EDC is a Surefire Gen6 L1 that tops out at 65 lumens. Plenty of light! You'll be fine.

 

[PoliceScannerMan]

See Archimedes curve, it is true. As your CPF post count increases, you lumen usage decreases.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

See Archimedes curve, it is true. As your CPF post count increases, you lumen usage decreases.

It depends on how old you are as post count increases often eyes become weaker.

 

[kerneldrop]

Turbos on my truck
Turbos on my lights
You stop sending Lumens when the light turns blue. Until then you aren't sending enough

 

[Monocrom]

See Archimedes curve, it is true. As your CPF post count increases, you lumen usage decreases.

Exceptions to every rule.

 

[Poppy]

Will I die?

@chip100t that was funny!

In reality, when you you look at threads that discuss what people carry as an EDC, unless they carry lights because they use them at work, you'll find that most, it not many only carry little lights at 300 lumens or less.

Here is a picture of EDC lights I carried in the past. I still carry the cooyoo Quantum that has an output of about 30, and 100 lumens. It's been my EDC for about 8 years or so. It is the one that is attached to my set of keys.

My earlier EDCs were the Streamlight Nano, 10 lumens, ( a terrible light, although highly acclaimed at the time), and then for quite a while a single AAA DQG xp-g2 tiny with two output levels: 2.5 lumens, and 60 lumens.

 

[greatscoot]

See Archimedes curve, it is true. As your CPF post count increases, you lumen usage decreases.

Lucky for me I still have a low enough post count, that I can still chase the BIG Lemons.

 

[ampdude]

This is generally my EDC loadout, or something similar. Could be any random E2e and 1AAA light though. As mentioned in a previous post, I only carry larger lights when I expect to need them. E2e is 60-100 lumens with the MN03 lamp assembly depending on battery health and the Sofirn is a 4K 100 lumen. I have a lithium AAA in that one. It has a low mode that's about 10-15 lumens.

I don't normally carry the E2e on me during the day, but the Sofirn came in very handy last summer when I was in a completely dark Indian earth mound. Sometimes you really do need a light during the day. I never seem to learn that lesson.

I carried a red squeeze light forever on my keychain, but I think it finally gave up the ghost after about 18- 20 years.

I still have it but it's not reliable anymore.

 

[bykfixer]

For decades people got by with 150 lumens from lights so big they came with a shoulder strap. But back then things weren't so lit up after dark either.

In my sleepy little town you can drive around without headlights on and not realize it until a cop pulls you over for not using your headlights. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "Well, actually no I don't mam"……"You are driving after dark without using your headlights".
At that point you have two options:
1) do you know who my father is?
2) mam I apologize, if it's ok I'll turn them on now.

1) is usually followed by "step out of the vehicle" as they call for backup.
2) is usually followed by "please do and drive safely on your way"……

Whenever I use my 500 lumen EDC light I usually click it to the 200 lumen medium. Nearly the same looking output with 8x the runtime. Has nothing to do with the Archimedes curve unless that curve indicates the more posts equals a quest for more runtime.….

 

[Duster1671]

There is only so much power an aluminum flashlight body of a reasonable (pocketable) size can dissipate before the LED junction temperature is too high and the body is too hot to hold. There are small differences in driver efficiency, LED efficiency, etc. that push that number up or down a bit, but we're at the mercy of physics here.

For a single cell pocket light, that power gets you about 300-400 lumens. One can play games with timed step-downs and PID control to get brief bursts of much higher power, but imo the usefulness of those modes is limited. I'm happy with 300 lumens max sustained output and find that it's more than enough light most of the time.

 

[vicv]

This is the only thing keeping me away from the surefire edct series. Too much output. It just isn't necessary to have 1200 lumens from a 2 cell light. My mag-tac at 310 is more than enough and I'm usually using the 40 lumen mode. Because of this, I've had the light for about 18 months and I'm still on the original cells. And the high mode lights up as far as my eyes can even see. And I still have very good vision. Why would I need more?

 

[bykfixer]

Shining a light any farther than my eyes can focus allows me to see something. What that something is I do not know because my eyes don't focus that far anyway. Yet I can tell the difference between a camping tent and a hungry grizzly, focus or not so there is that……

 

[Bradbn4]

I kind of like the "middle" of the road devices - so 300 is not that low of a powered device on max.

Heck, I would love to fine a rock solid edc that was had good stats in power, heat, and run time at a "normal" power levels. Something not far off that 300 lumen rating for turbo mode. I have some high(er) power lights to light up my world. I have some real low power devices that has a good run time. But What I would want in a simple EDC would 18650 (protected) battery power with 50, 100, 200 (normal high) with maybe a 300 max mode. Something I has a front battery replacement and a removable tail cap for remote switch. In a perfect world, something ipx8 rating so no extra USB ports.

If the price was around 75 bucks; ok - let me buy 3 - at $100 toss one in the cart and be on my way. At $150 and I can set the 3 mode brightness to 50, 100, 200 and I will go, hmm, ok - I will get one.

 

[Poppy]

I kind of like the "middle" of the road devices - so 300 is not that low of a powered device on max.

Heck, I would love to fine a rock solid edc that was had good stats in power, heat, and run time at a "normal" power levels. Something not far off that 300 lumen rating for turbo mode. I have some high(er) power lights to light up my world. I have some real low power devices that has a good run time. But What I would want in a simple EDC would 18650 (protected) battery power with 50, 100, 200 (normal high) with maybe a 300 max mode. Something I has a front battery replacement and a removable tail cap for remote switch. In a perfect world, something ipx8 rating so no extra USB ports.

If the price was around 75 bucks; ok - let me buy 3 - at $100 toss one in the cart and be on my way. At $150 and I can set the 3 mode brightness to 50, 100, 200 and I will go, hmm, ok - I will get one.

You can get a Convoy S2+ for less than $20 with its standard driver with 3x7135 chips. Each 7135 chip on the driver adds 350 ma.
It would give you three settings about like this:
HIgh 350 lumens
Middle 140 lumens,
Low 18-20 lumens.

They will take protected cells, and with a max of 1050 ma draw, you'd still get hours on high, and the light would never get hot.

 

[vicv]

My favourite s2+ is an sst20 with 4 chips. In high is about 500 lumens and brighter than I would ever need. Cannot recommend these enough. I don't use mine much as I much prefer a forward type switch, but it's great. Gets nice and toasty on high but never too hot to hold. One day I may remove a single 7135 chip and bring the levels down a bit

 

[ampdude]

This is the only thing keeping me away from the surefire edct series. Too much output. It just isn't necessary to have 1200 lumens from a 2 cell light. My mag-tac at 310 is more than enough and I'm usually using the 40 lumen mode. Because of this, I've had the light for about 18 months and I'm still on the original cells. And the high mode lights up as far as my eyes can even see. And I still have very good vision. Why would I need more?

Yea we can only hope they go back to more quality builds and quality output like used to be the case, but everyone out there is just trying to be the same as everyone else nowadays, and "outdo" them by fudging some specs or underselling. I don't think we'll see quality return to a lot of things any time soon, if ever.