"Practical" Lumens?

[alnl1996]

One of the most "Practical" lights I own is the Malkoff Body Guard V2 with the 18650. Great tactical light and very useful for everything else. Full beans for 8 seconds then steps down to a very reasonable 250Lumens.
Excellent for indoors and out/ No heat issues on the battery or light/ Fantastic runtimes hours upon hours to 10%/Feels great in hand/ Excellent quality/ No BS ratings from Gene..actually I think he under rates some of his products when compared with my "other" lights and real world use.
I do prefer more neutral LED's but this 6200K is sweet.

 

[FPSRelic]

I think what you're really after is a light that uses flat regulation versus the step down regulation most modern lights use to cheat on the ANSO FL-1 standard. Flat regulation being where the light pushes more power to the LED as the battery gets tired, to keep the output the same right up until the battery is almost dead, sacrificing runtime to make this happen. Step down regulation being the opposite, where the light reduces output to the LED as the battery gets tired, thus increasing runtime at the expense of consistent output.

Back in the day, companies like Surefire used to market flat regulation as being a benefit of their lights. But since the ANSI standard measures output as being the average lumens for 2 minutes from on with fresh batteries, and runtime as being from on until the light gets to 10% of max output, most vendors these days program their lights to run flat chat for 2 minutes then immediately ramp down to anywhere from 40% to 60% of max output, and reduce output as the battery gets lower to extend to runtime for as long as possible to be above that 10%.

If you want flat regulation, you'll need to either look at older lights from companies like Surefire, or ones from companies like Malkoff Devices who still cling to the benefits of flat regulation. You won't get high output screamers out of these lights either, as flat regulation in those will give you like 10 minutes of runtime from a light that'd give you 1.5 hours of runtime using the FL1 standard.

 

[DaveTheDude]

Malkoff is the most honest about lumens and runtime.

At face value Malkoff lumens are low compared to a lot of the competition, but then you see how great their regulation is.

Truer words were never spoken.

 

[bykfixer]

Sometimes the amount of light this photo on my phone screen produces is the practical amount.

Sometimes what is practical requires this many photons.

But typically it's somewhere between.

 

[pnwoutdoors]

Thankfully, my primary uses for flashlights don't involve much throw and can be accomplished with far less overall output than most whiz-bang flashlights that get all the headlines.

For me, a Surefire-sized P60 type Malkoff drop-in with a durable tube/head/tail and a crenelated ring works perfectly for self-defense and lighting up a pathway. It's got enough lumens to effectively "blind" someone within ~20yds, and it's light and small enough for easy pocket carry. While not waterproof, it's water-resistant enough to survive the rain and winters. Fully-potted electronics help it survive multiple drops onto the ground. Durable, useful little units. Even if the output is "only" in the 350-450 lumens range. Practical, all day long, every day.

 

[alpg88]

When I first started buying flashlights I thought more lumens = more throw. So when I went out walking my dog I took my 2500lm torch with me expecting to see almost twice as far as when I went out with my 1500lm torch. I was quite disappointed to see the distance was roughly the same just what I could see was marginally brighter which seemed pointless as the 1500lm torch was bright enough. It was then I realised lumens are not everything and can quite often be lumens for lumens sake.

That sounds about right, it is not fake lumens, but your eyes, to see 2x as much light you need at least 3 times of lumens, our eyes do not see lumens increase as linear. even with real 1500 and 2500lm otf you would see the same result. That is assuming your optics are identical, now if you had 2 different lights with different optics, then comparing lumens is even more pointless, as far as lights ability to throw. Best way to compare lumens with different optics would be white ceiling bounce.