Must...have...more...lumens...

Until recently, my brightest light was a 30-lumen Costco 2AA Luxeon. But last month I bought a 105-lumen thrower (Pelican M6 xenon) and an 80-lumen semiflood (Wolf Eyes 6MX). Now, I can't imagine getting ANY light below 80 lumens, no matter how cute, small, or cheap.

Why carry a light that "might" be adequate--but might not? That kind of "it's better than nothing" thinking is what drives 90% of car owners to buy short, narrow-gage jumper cables...only to find that they won't jump or won't reach. (Mine are 2-gage 25-footers.)

So, now that I've had a taaste of 80 lumens, I'm hooked. Is this just me? If this describes you, too, what's your minimum threshold?

I'd rather have more LUX! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'll have to say its pretty rare nowadays that I actually find myself NEEDING more lux. That isn't to say I wouldn't enjoy having more, but I don't often run my variable power lights on high now as it is - except for fun or to show off.

For a while I was 'hooked' on having a bright light with me at all times, then I relized that I dont really need a certain amount of lumens. I would rather have good battery life, a usesable amount of lumens, and great durablity then just sheer output.

To me the minimum amount of lumens I want is proabably around 2-3, because thats what it takes to have a light that will light up a room in complete darkness.

all i really need is 5.5 regulated LED lumens running off a AAA aka arc AAA

Incandecents?

I would rather have a purer quality of light than more
Lumens, both would be the ideal

Paul, it's not just you. I have a passion for high output flood beams, which made me buy an L4.

A few weeks ago I got an Aleph1 head with a WX1T luxV in there driven by a BB1000 from Endeavour. The light gets hot really fast but is well above 150 lumens. It will be an even better hand warmer than the L4 in the next winter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
If I need longer runtime I still can use the lower setting. But it's good to know that "high" is just a push away.

If you want REALLY light up the night, hotwire or HID is the way to go. I love my X990, not very pocketable but it has the lumen output of a car headlight.

I'm with you, brother! More lumens all the way! Even my keychain light is a burner: Arc AAA running a lux III at 400ma on a li-ion. My top producer is a Havis-Shields HID: 2500+ lumens for an hour per pack. And lots of lights inbetween! My SL-20X w/ 35X lamp is nice at 400 lumens/hour runtime. Pelican Big D at 1100+ lumens/hour+ runtime... I also love leds and have many, but unless you're going to use them in clusters, they just can't produce the output of the "big guns" (got several nice 70-100 lumen ones...L4/sammies/etc). Even for floodlight: Energizer 8W Folding Fluoro is over 200 lumens/runtime around 12+ hours on nimh D cells. You can sit in your dinky "perfect" pale blue led beams, but as for me, give me lumens or give me death! (dead batteries)...

Excuse me, I've had waaaaay too much coffee this evening...

lol Phaserburn. love that post!

Life begins at 100 lumens.

BREAKFAST* begins at 3000 lumens.


* reference to USL's egg, bacon and grits cooking prowess.

Yes, I already have my 3600 lumen light, a 100W Osram 64625HLX powered by 30-amp-sustained SLA. 12.75V resting voltage, 12.08V under load for a true 12V to the bulb. Suddenly my ROP, my P91 and MN11 are no longer cutting it, not to mention the little LED lights.

Can't hold hand in front of that for longer than a quarter second before it becomes VERY painful. Haven't tried the ignition test but suspect it is not going to be too hard to set paper on fire. Hotwire gods have advised that the '625 is perfectly capable of doing this job and quickly, too.