Just to clarify:
1) They DON'T measure at 1 meter, they back calculate to 1 meter to make extrapolations easier. (They measure at 10 meters, do math to see what that would give at 1 meter, and give the cd as the lux at 1 meter)
The ANSI standard specifies 10 meters as the measurement distance.
In some cases, 10 meters is not enough either.
2) Using the inverse square law, you can MATHEMATICALLY extrapolate the lux at one meter to the lux at any other given distance. Again, the back calculated lux at one meter is used, NOT the actual lux at one meter.
3) Lumens are the measurement of a light's TOTAL output. This has zero to do with throw, other than that if you know the throw and the lumens, you can make guess about the potential beam shapes that might result. For example, a light with a throw of 1 mile and 1,000 lumens is going to have a small dowel shaped beam, and a light with a throw of 50 meters and 1000 lumens will have a floody beam, etc. You can't know the ACTUAL beam shape as to the proportions of the beam's lumen allocation to each range though, from that, only the concept of flood vs throw as a priority, etc.
So, sure, publishing specs is a good idea. The viewers of the specs just need to know how to interpret what they are given.
For example, the ANSI throw is measured at 10 meters. Some throwers might throw farther than their rated throw if they have beams that take longer to reach a
representative brightness in their hotspot. Some definitely need over 15 - 20 meters for example. The 30 meter ANSI measurement range can be chosen then, etc.
My own preference would be to take lux readings at gradually increasing distances until the
MAXIMUM cd was reached. (The LUX would keep dropping with distance of course, but, using the inverse square law, eventually, the lower lux
at a longer distance would result in a higher cd)
So, to me, the light's cd is super useful, as I can then calculate the lux at any given distance. If they "under estimated the cd", say by 10 meters being too short for full beam formation, that's not as bad as OVER estimating it...as a light selected for a particular use would be able to AT LEAST reach an estimated distance and intensity.
So, the cd and the lumens give some apples and apples comparisons between lights, that while in no way perfect or complete, allow - for the first time - a way to COMPARE lights relative to potential performance attributes.
This is in sharp contrast to the "Candle Power Wars" waged on the shelves across the world, with lights claiming "1 Million CP! - 5 Million CP! - 15 Million CP! - etc, and the 15 million CP ones might be WEAKER than a 1 million CP version, simply because the "1 million CP" version exaggerated its CP less, and the "15 million CP" version exaggerated it more, etc.
So the 1 million CP light might have had, in reality, 50,000 cp, and the 15 million CP one might have had ~ 35,000 CP, and so forth, there was no correlation between advertised numbers and actual performance - it was like "eBay Lumens" and eBay mah", etc....100% advertising/0% performance.
Using the ANSI standard was therefore a real step in the right direction - as - at least for regions with jurisdiction, the crazy claims all but stopped. The other areas are still "Wild West" though.
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So if you are selecting a light for use at 200 meters, say for night shooting, depending upon the optics low light performance, and the shooter's degree of night vision/adaptation, most need ~ 1- 5 lux on target to aim well enough to hit the target at that range (A paper target). They might need closer to 15 lux on target to hit a low contrast target though, say a guy prone in dark clothing, etc.
If you know the light's cd, you can then calculate what the lux would BE at 200 meters.
You can IGNORE the PUBLISHED ranges in meters, that are BASED UPON the lights lux at 1 meter (cd), because those use 0.25 lux as the target intensity at the published range.
As 0.25 lux is 100% useless (Unless your optics can let you take a good shot with a half moon as your only light source at 200 meters...) - you need to forget the PUBLISHED range, and, focus on the PUBLISHED or, the CALCULATED cd. (This means the lux at 1 M spec is not useless, its just not ready to USE w/o understanding what it represents, which is the throw to 0.25 lux)
So if the light's published range is ~ 200 meters, and, most shooters need AT LEAST 1 lux on target to hit it, you know that
1 lux is 4x the 0.25 lux they used.
To get 4x brighter illumination, you'd need to either get twice as close, or, get a light with 4x the cd....to have one lux at 200 meters instead of 0.25 lux at 200 meters.
Example: A light publishes a range of 200 meters. That means its got a rated 10 k cd (As that would get you 0.25 lux at 200 m): Even if they ONLY give a range in meters, you KNOW the cd - as they gave you the range to 0.25 lux.
If you REALLY need 1 lux at 200 m, you need a light with 4x the cd, or, 40 k cd.
If you REALLY need 15 lux at 200 M, then, you'd need a light rated at ~ 600 k cd (15 times 40 k)
And so forth.
So picking ONE range and illumination level (Such as "True Lux at 25 M", etc) would be about the same as having a back calculated lux at one meter. Except the math from 25 M is harder than using 1 M...so, the 1 M range is fine...as it allows plugging in the values to figure out what lux at what range will work for YOU.