Is there a method or metric for measuring how much FLOOD a light has?

decooney

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 28, 2012
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After purchasing my first small collection of lights, its been interesting to discover how much flood one light has versus another. For example, my Sunwayman T40CS U2 has a fairly targeted beam or hot spot under 50 yards. My recent Klarus XT11 has more pronounced flood at 50 yards than I would have thought, so I'm now using it for more close up purposes. Both great lights for different needs I would guess. After trying both, I would have preferred to find something in between the two of these lights in terms of flood vs. throw. Even after carefully reviewing some of the best quality beam shots online to try and figure this out before purchasing, until I tried them in different fields and outdoor settings in different levels of darkness only then I could truly see the difference. This lead me to a question.

Perhaps this is a stupid question but I thought I'd ask - I'm wondering if anyone has come up with some sort of metric or way to scale to measure and "rate" flood of flashlights (lets say at some particular distance) 20,50,100 yards, that could be used in consideration before purchasing one light vs. another? i.e. (1-10) 1=no flood-pinpoint beam, 5=30ft wide flood at 50 yards, 10=super flood at xxx width at 50 or 100 yards, etc. If this is a stupid question, it won't hurt my feelings to hear the real answer - just curious now if there is a way to scale or rate it. :thinking:
 

Gunner12

Flashaholic
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Dec 18, 2006
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Location
Bay Area, CA
I know that optics state the angle of the beam coming out. I think they state the angle from the center of the beam to full width and half maximum (50% of the brightness of the center area).

This measurement doesn't give any distance measurements, but you can kinda guess at the distance by how much light the LED in the optic is making. You could combine the beam angle and the lux at 1m or something and have a good idea of how far the beam will throw.
 

TheExpert

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Joined
Nov 8, 2011
Messages
194
I too would like to know if there is a measurement for this sort of thing, I know Rigid Industries measures their lights in this way but I don't think they do so in flashlights. Which come to think about it would be very useful info. I think they really should start doing this!
 
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