If you could only have 1 fixed lumen output?

[waddup]

what would it be?

or,

whats your 'most used' brightness

all these 1000+ lumen lights (and no doubt 2000 by next year)........

is anyone (other then law enforcement/military) actually ever going to need 1000 lumens?


ever.

30 lumens is enough for me to walk a dog in the woods at night.

maybe flashlight design can look more into longer runtimes then higher output?

80 lumens for 70 hours might be a better choice for many then 1200 lumens for 22 minutes?.

 

[jamesmtl514]

200 SF lumens is perfect for me.
I need to be able to ceiling bounce, and with that amount of light I'm comfortable.

 

[Max_Power]

I like around 170 lumens of warm-white, e.g. the M30W/M60W, it's enough throw and spill for indoor use without completely ruining my night vision like the P7 700 lumen monster in my 2D Mag. Also seems bright enough to attract attention of maniacal automobile drivers when I am crossing the street. Could maybe push it to 350 lumens (if you also expand the angular size of the hotspot) before being too much for indoors.

For reading a menu, about 20 lumens of pure flood is preferable. A 170 lumen light with a diffuser is not too bad, but will attract attention in a restaraunt.

Since I live in the city, I don't often use my Thor 15 million CP spotlight (135W halogen car headlight bulb, 12 inch reflector, 20 bucks at Costco.) It really shines in the country with no man-made lights nearby.

 

[RWT1405]

I agree with you waddup, I really think some of the people here are near blind. LOL!

My .02 FWIW YMMV

 

[slappomatt]

man where are the flashoholics? I NEED 10,000 lumems all the time :tinfoil:

 

[was.lost.but.now.found]

If you could only have 1 fixed lumen output?

What fun is that??

 

[Sgt. LED]

Whatever lumen output the 1st gen Cree E2L Outdoorsman is would suit me well enough.

Supposed to be 45 lumens but looks closer to 60.

 

[carrot]

Whatever lumen output the 1st gen Cree E2L Outdoorsman is would suit me well enough.

Supposed to be 45 lumens but looks closer to 60.

+1

Between 45-80 lumens works well for me.

 

[PeaceOfMind]

+1

Between 45-80 lumens works well for me.

Me as well. 45 is plenty for me 99% of the time. But I like to have 100-200 available for occasional bursts of use for seeing further distances or lighting up a room, or for use when my eyes are not dark adapted yet.

Although it would be neat to have available, I've never found myself in a real life scenario wishing that I had more than 200 lumens available.

 

[kelmo]

10 for me. On my multilevel lights that is the most used setting.

 

[divine]

I think I would be happy with around 5 lumens for 99% of my use.

That is pretty much where all of my multi-mode lights are set.

 

[computernut]

25-60 Surefire Lumens is good for most of my purposes.

 

[ragweed]

It depeds on my use but 30-50 lumens & anywhere inbetween would usually work ok for me. Nice post.

 

[Cosmo7809]

I need the polarion(http://www.polarion-store.com/pd-polarion-ph40.cfm) output all the time

 

[Snow]

My most used is probably the Zebralight on low for reading, but if I could only have one level, I would want at least 50 lumens or so for outside use.

 

[mbw_151]

If I can only have one level it would be about 50 lumens, like my E2L or Malkoff M60WLL. Most of the time I use multilevel lights at 5 lumens or 20 lumens, but if I can only have one I want a little more.

 

[was.lost.but.now.found]

I can always drop output simply by cupping my hand around the lens, so personally I would go with more output because that is what I find myself using my light for more often. 200 lumens would be nice. When it comes to my eyes, they constrict much more quickly than they dilate; essentially meaning my eyes will compensate more easily in the presence of too much light than too little. I have no need for tactical usage. If a prowler wakes me from my sleep, I shouldn't really need a flashlight because my eyes will be fully night adapted.

 

[Gatsby]

Like many here my most used levels arguably are 20 and below. However, that is partly based upon the availability of one (or more) levels higher than that.

There are certain tasks I do regularly where a bit more oomph is required, mostly checking on the dogs (including the 4 month old puppy) when I let them out at night. I don't need 2000 lumens, but I do need more than 20 to see what they are up to in the back of the yard. I see very little difference between high on my E2L, E1L (it is a bit of an overachiever) and my L1 CREE - so I'd choose that level which is roughly 60ish Surefire lumens.

You know the funny thing is - back in the day I had an HDS B42XRGT which was my primary EDC and I rarely used the 42 setting! But when I did, mostly checking on the dogs at night, it was arguably enough.

Realistically somewhere between 40-60 is a pretty well balanced light for most of the tasks I do regularly - not so blinding that it is useless indoors but enough to reach the back corner of the yard from my deck with some other sources of light (floods which don't reach that area) keeping my night vision a bit off.

 

[mossyoak]

10 lumens is all i need

 

[fishx65]

Being an outdoorsman, 200 would be my choice if I had to live with one level. It's not very often that I need or want less output. In most cases, I'm always looking for more output. Pretty much happy with single level R2 modules right now.