First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm disappointed

[Golfer2000]

I was really expecting something that was blinding bright. However today when my brand new Jetbeam III Military came in I found it to be pretty weak. Perhaps this is how all LED lights are but when I read 225 max lumens I was at least expecting it to be brighter than my 125 lumens Stinger. Ive tried different batteries to make sure they are somewhat fresh (SF123's) and even mess around with the settings. I went through the brightness settings and I'm 99.5% sure I'm on the brightest setting too. Is this what I am to expect with LED technology?
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[Curious_character]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Lumens are a measure of the total light output, not the brightness of the main beam. If the light is very tightly focused, the main beam can be very bright even if the total light output isn't that much. Conversely, a light with a high total output won't have a very bright main beam if the main beam is large and the spill large and bright. I don't have any experience with the Stinger, but something like a Mag has a very tiny main beam and very little spill. So the main beam is pretty bright in spite of the low total light output.

If what you want is a light that's hard to look at, get one that has a large and/or deep, smooth reflector. This way, a large part of the total light will be concentrated into a small beam, making that small beam very bright and hard to look at. If you can find a review of the light you're interested in, look at the "throw", or lux level, which is a direct measure of the brightness of the main beam, and ignore lumen measurements or claims.

c_c

 

[Yoda4561]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Well, "pathetically weak" makes me think there's something wrong here. I find my 200+ lumen malkoff M60's inpossible to look at without turning my head away, much worse than my old surefire M3+ HOLA.

 

[faucon]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

I have a Jet III-M and I would not call it weak. It is an excellent thrower and can easily illuminate objects at the other end of a football field. If yours can't do that, something may be wrong with it--the setting??

 

[Crenshaw]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Somethings definetly wrong there....could you post a beamshot?

firstly, check that youre using it on max, remember that LED lights have multiple modes, lows, medium, and MAX.....a beamshot against your stinger would tell us alot...

secondly, the problem could be that something is shorting within the light itself..that would be a manufacturor problem..

which dealer did you buy it from?

there is absolutly no way you can be staring into that thing without pain...

Crenshaw

 

[jimmy1970]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Is the head tight?? There is no way you could comfortably look directly at the beam of a healthy Jet Beam III M on high - no way.

Something doesn't add up here. Clean threads etc?

James...

 

[KiwiMark]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

I have a Jet III-M and I would not call it weak. It is an excellent thrower and can easily illuminate objects at the other end of a football field. If yours can't do that, something may be wrong with it--the setting??

I concur with this. My Jet-IIIM is a warm tint version and has the most pleasing colour of all my lights, yet it is bright enough for almost any task. I have an Olight with an R2 emitter that is a little brighter, but my Jet-IIIM is not even vaguely "weak" compared to the R2 Olight - slightly less blinding maybe.

I can stare into the Jetbeam at the minimum setting, but at full setting it would be painful on my eyes and leave me with a bad afterglow in my vision for many minutes.

 

[ja10]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

I just shined my 30 lumen E1L into my night-adjusted eyes.

They hurt.

 

[Guy's Dropper]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

If you can look directly into a Jetbeam on hi, there is something wrong with the light.

 

[Kamakazikev24]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Take your sun glasses off! LOL.

 

[JBorneu]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

There's definitely something not right here. Either it's not on maximum or it's a faulty light. Clean the threads, check wether the cells in it are fresh, tighten everything well, read the manual, do a reset (if the IBS interface has a reset function, I would think so) and then go to the brightest setting. If it's still weak enough to look at directly without trouble, there's something very wrong. Contact the dealer you got it from in that case.

 

[orcinus]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Were you looking at it from the right end?
Sorry... :laughing:

Could you post a beamshot of your Jet-IIIM next to a Stinger?

 

[The Sun]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

I just shined my 30 lumen E1L into my night-adjusted eyes.

They hurt.

 

[hyperloop]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

something is definitely wrong with your light, just programmed my Jet III Pro ST to max and flashed myself for slightly over or equal to 1 second and i had to wait a while before i could see to type.

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

Just to add to the chorus, I can't look into even a 60 lumen 1AA light without killing my eyes. If you can look into a 200 lumen light without being blinded, it's broken.

 

[pltan]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

something is definitely wrong with your light, just programmed my Jet III Pro ST to max and flashed myself for slightly over or equal to 1 second and i had to wait a while before i could see to type.

Clearly the OP is running a ploy to get all Jetbeam owners to blind themselves, and then buy up all the second hand lights which will flood the market!

 

[TigerhawkT3]

Re: First LED light (Jet-III Military/LE) and I'm highly disappointed

People, please stop shining flashlights into your eyes. That can be hazardous.