Stinger Candlepower vs. Surefire Lumens ?

aerospace

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
3
Hi,
I am new to the board ! Looking at the specs. for a Stinger vs. Surefire and I noticed that the Candlepower spec for Stingers is 15,000 ! how does that convert to a lumen reading to compare against the Surefire ?

Thanks,
Aero
 

signals

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Apr 12, 2002
Messages
111
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
The short answer is that it doesn't. They measure different things.

Lumens measure the total light output, while candlepower measures the brightest point within a beam. A high lumen bulb with no reflector or optics to focus the light into a beam will have low candlepower and a low lumen bulb with a narrow beam reflector/optics can have high candlepower.

It would be nice if flashlight manufacturers gave an ACCURATE specification for both, but I don't think I've seen any that do.. (Maybe Mag? Don't they have both on their spec sheets now?)

-Kevin
 

Size15's

Flashaholic
Joined
Aug 29, 2000
Messages
18,415
Location
Kettering, England
SureFire give accurate (realistic) Lumen ratings for their products. I guess you need to outline how you measure Candlepower. Lumens in an integrating sphere is scientific.

Al
 

dano

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 11, 2000
Messages
3,881
Location
East Bay, Cali.
I don't think there is a flashlight company that DOESN'T inflate the numbers...

Unfortunately, you can't compare lumens to CP...Other than by sight...

--dan
 
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