how many lumens do you reasly need

[Stress_Test]

In practical use I've found it's heavily dependent on how dark-adapted your eyes are at the moment you need /use a flashlight.

Just woke up at 3am in a totally dark room? One lumen is plenty to see by.

Just walked into a blacked-out warehouse space from a sunny day outside? A 100 lumen light will make you think "is this thing on??"

Assuming no pressing emergency, we can usually wait a minute for our eyes to adjust to whatever light level we have.

On that note, I've realized that a cop may have a need for a REALLY bright light if he's in hot pursuit and the bad guy ducks into a dark building from a sunny afternoon. Or maybe you just wait for the K-9 unit to go in after him! 🙂

 

[chainsolid]

Utility aroun 1000 Lumens
EDC: 200-500 Lumens

 

[Ishango]

It totally depends on the situation. When camping I rarely need more than 50 - 75 lumens. Late at night a firefly mode can be sufficient for a decent amount of tasks. When I'm alone in the dark and hear an ominous sound I can't place, 35000 lumen is barely sufficient 🙂

 

[Unicorn]

It all depends on what I'm doing. Military mission with dark adapted eyes and just need to dig something out of a pack without losing my night vision or alerting any enemy? Maybe 1.

Walking my dogs and wanting to be able to check what they are sniffing or to make sure there's no glass on the sidewalk? 60 or so.

Security and wanting to light up a building or bush a couple hundred meters away? 600 to a couple thousand... sort of depends on how tight it is and the actual brightness. Lumens isn't a guarantee of brightness just the total output. Remember an old incandescent 40 watt refrigerator bulb was something like 600 or 800 lumens.
Checking the neighbors yard because there are tools still out since she's rebuilding her house after it burned down? Same as above.

Lighting up the beach in winter when there is cloud cover and it's pitch black? How much can I get? It's a great place to see how bright some of my lights are.

 

[Lou Minescence]

How many lumens do you really need ? None
I like a flashlight or headlamp that has between moonlight and 1,000 lumens. That's what I want. I find that will work for most of my tasks. I will refuse to buy a light that can not go as low as at least 5 lumens or more. EDC style works best for me overall.

 

[GadgetGeek]

I'm fond of the Streamlight Polytac X that I bought for a family member to use when they take the dog out. It came with an 18650 battery. 600 lumens on high for 3.5 hours. I think 600 lumens is a good number and plenty of light for edc.

Edit: Just wish it also had a low 1 lumen output.

 

[Splitrail]

I rarely need a flashlight away from home.
My home light is a Nightcore MH10 S (1, 50, 300, 1050, 1800).
The upper two levels are useful in the forest where I live, the lower three are perfect indoor options for me.

 

[Gremlin]

I am finding that a light rated for over a 1000 but will give me 600 lumens on medium or high with 10,000+ candela is all the light I could possibly need. If there is a lower setting around 200 lumens then I don't think I would ever take the light off the medium or low settings. I just described the Fenix PD35... works wonders for me. I suppose there may come a time when I need 1,700 lumens like it provides on Turbo, but I haven't had to go there in six months. Wonderful light with an even lower setting of 60 lumens that is useful indoors.

 

[PaladinNO]

When I worked as a carpenter, 1000 Lumen for plenty for me for years. Carried a Fenix PD35 2014.

Then I switched jobs and I did a stint in a storage hall, and I frequenty used a flashlight as directional guidance since "that one" wasn't very specific when pointing at a crate 30 meters away next to 5-10 identical ones.
But 1000 Lumen was barely enough to overcome the overhead lights, so I quickly upgraded to 3000 Lumen and went with an Acebeam EC50 Gen II.

The runtime of the EC 50 wasn't the best, as I did run it at those 3000 Lumen for most of the time. And so I often wanted something with better runtime, size and weight be damned. And ultimately landed on the Fenix LR35R. Dual 21700, and up to 10.000 Lumen.

Of course I had long since switched jobs again by the time I got it, but I like the LR35R so much I have bought 3 of them. And I still want at least one more. 80 hours at 50 Lumen, or 1.5 hours at 3000 Lumen.

So based on my experience, I would say 3000 Lumen is enough for as good as everything.

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

ALL OF THEM! 🤓

 

[1936jdb]

I've been having this discussion with people for years as an electrician.. lots of folks want ONE light in a room, because they don't like "a lot" of light. I have to remind them that there's a difference between dim lighting, and just plain not being able to see. I always recommend more lights, with a dimmer. All the light you could ever want, and all the dark too.
I see flashlights the same. I carry an old Nitecore MH20 alot. It claims 1200lm on turbo. And I do use that at work trying to see in crawlspaces and attics. But 90+% of the time I have it dimmed down to 200lm or less.
The big benefit to a "bright" light is that to support that high output, there needs to be a fair bit of battery. Which just translates into lots of runtime at lower levels.
Now I'm sure that alot of people don't need a light on their belt that can be left on 200lm for 8+ hours at a time, but some of us do just that, frequently.
That said, my preference for size/runtime/output is just about right there at that MH20. It replaced a Nitecore D10 with an extra Eneloop in my pocket. Which after some job changes might be just what I'm going back to..

 

[dc38]

Something that can go between 1 and 500 lumens, and flood/throw, but has high CRI. A balanced 70 lumen mode for 10 hours would be awesome, with some hands free capability.

 

[PaladinNO]

I've been having this discussion with people for years as an electrician.. lots of folks want ONE light in a room, because they don't like "a lot" of light. I have to remind them that there's a difference between dim lighting, and just plain not being able to see. I always recommend more lights, with a dimmer. All the light you could ever want, and all the dark too.

I call it "mood lighting" or simply "navigation lighting" (lamps that are on 24/7) but I want both several, weaker lights on the walls, and 1-2 much brighter lights in the ceiling when I am working or trying to see something clearly.

Just a single, bright light in every room is a big "NO!" from me. Even if it's dimmable - to me, a dimmer is just another point of failure.

In my 28m² (7x4 meters) room ("my personal space"), I have 4 wall lamps, 2 on each side, with equivalent of 40W bulbs (LED, obviously). With another 40W desk lamp behind my monitors.
I also have 2 ceiling floodlamps, with equivalent 150W bulbs (R7s) on each side of my desk. With another 80W (also R7s) right above my head, as a backup.

I also have 2x Ledvance 40W/830 600x600mm LED-panels above my adjacent work desk, for plenty of lighting when I am building computers (I build my own PCs, and doing it for others on commission).

So several points of illumination is a clear way to go for me.

The big benefit to a "bright" light is that to support that high output, there needs to be a fair bit of battery. Which just translates into lots of runtime at lower levels.

This! All the time! This is a big (pun intended) reason why I like big lights. Both the more practical Fenix LR35R (dual 21700, 10000 Lumen), and my much more impractical Fenix TK75 and TK76 (5100 Lumen / 2800 Lumen, respectively), both with 12x 18650.

Fenix TK75 Flashlight - DISCONTINUED

The newly upgraded Fenix TK75 Flashlight now blasts an astonishing 5100 lumens just over a half of a mile (850m) by utilizing cutting-edge CREE LEDs.

www.fenixlighting.com

TK76 Fenix Flashlight - DISCONTINUED

Fenix TK76 Flashlight utilizes three separate LEDs to offer a broad range of illumination options. Fenix TK76 Flashlight is a powerful addition to a team’s onsite lighting tools with instant turbo, strobe and SOS.

www.fenixlighting.com

These lights, in their current config, are much too big to be have any day-to-day practical use, but when (if) I visit the family cabin in the winter, where there are no power, these are the lights I bring with me. In case of the TK75, it can give me 150 Lumen for ~150 hours.

And If I use it for 8 hours every day, I have 150 Lumen for effectively 18 days. And if I have both lights with me, and just replacing the battery carriers, I have double that.

I don't really (read: "I really don't") need the Turbo power from these lights, but I have it if I need it, and otherwise have a practical output for a long, long time.

 

[Fuzzywuzzies]

I think most folks are agreed that the answer is "It totally depends on your eyesight, and use case(s)."

For me, I've found that more than around 850lu on a quality floody light is too bright for close up work like inspection, but less than that is too little for more distant work or lighting a space for getting tools in and out etc. I hate modes universally, and no-one has yet invented a dual control (rear button on/off, rotary brightness) torch that is robust enough for me... So I stick with my Elzetta Bravo. 🙂

 

[LuxLuthor]

You can never have enough lumens!!!