What are the reasons for carrying low-lumen lights?

[idleprocess]

In general (for me), a bright light is going to reflect off of a lot of surfaces, so I prefer to have lower lumens and illuminate the item, not roast it. More often than not, I just need to find something close by or observe something in the correct lighting. Lower lumen lights does that for me 👍🏽

I think this gets into the varying definitions of EDC or carry lights. In my work backpack I've got more powerful lights that are nominally 800, 1600, and some 2300 lumens. But that backpack generally goes home to office and occasionally to the makerspace - it's certainly not on my person at all times. For actual on-person carry I find I only need to be able to perform close tasks and navigate truly dark areas with enough throw to see perhaps 10 meters.

My reality is that I'm a suburb-sweller that does desk jockey work. The only sort of holster that's going to blend in would be for a cell phone, otherwise whatever I carry needs to fit neatly into my pants pockets - and without clashing with my other on-person items. Single-AA lights are too big for the keychain but might slot into a pocket gracefully while 123A and larger are just too much.

I'll carry larger lights for specific tasks. i.e. I've got Emisar D4s and FW3As that are great for walking the dogs and offer canned sunlight on demand, but they get clipped to the pocket for the duration of the task then otherwise live in a cabinet.

But that's just me and my circumstances.

 

[ma tumba]

I hike every morning into the Catalina mountains on a goat trail. It is rocky, twisty, surrounded by cacti, and rattlesnakes abound. When I use my light, it is set around 3 lumens. I prefer to use my night vision (as in the rods and rhodopsin in my noggin). If I use max (300 lumens) it is only for things 200+ yards away. I don't want my night vision destroyed and then HAVE TO use the flashlight for the rest of the hike. There is no light pollution where I hike and even a half moon with a clear sky is enough. I only use the 3 lumens if I want to check something out.

If I'm out in the Jeep at night exploring, night vision is gone from all the lights on the Jeep, so If I get out and want to see a few hundred yards off, I need more lumens because of the lack of rhodopsin in the eyes. So there is a dedicated light in the Jeep with more lumens and a tighter beam.

It is all what you use it for and what the ambient light around you is like.

Hogo, what color temperature do you prefer in that 3lm light?

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

Hogo, what color temperature do you prefer in that 3lm light?

It changes but currently around 5000k is what I have been using. I'll go down to 4000k and up to 5700k. I've come to the conclusion that it seems more dependent on my mood than anything else. Anything lower than 4000k is just too warm for me.

 

[PaperKnife]

Some good points being covered.
Personal preference is what it really boils down to.
The main take away ladies and gentlemen, buy more lights, feed the demon

 

[flatline]

As a rule, I want enough light to clearly see what I want to see, but not so much light that I have to wait for my eyes to adjust.

If I'm looking at something at arm's length, even during the day, 3L is typically plenty. Looking across the room, I step up to 30L. Very rarely do I go higher than that with my EDC. I will usually reach for another light if I need more.

--flatline

 

[ma tumba]

I think that for complete darkness in the wild the best light for me is the original incand A2 with custom 5mm ring. I have a multimode calipso ring currently set to provide either a sublumen high cri 3000k beam or ~20lm 5600K beam. and the main bulb delivers a very tight ~100lm beam which is good well beyond 10m.

But again, if there is an ambient light the A2 is not good

 

[xxo]

I would turn the question around and ask why do you need 500 or 600 lumens for EDC? I carry 37 lumen a LED solitaire on my keys for EDC and I don't feel the need for more lumens for reading something or looking at something up close, finding something that fell under the desk or in the back of a closet, for lighting up a key hole or walking down a dark path or set of steps. There are times where I would want a bit more throw, but throw is NOT lumens. I prefer to use as few lumens as possible to get the beam pattern and beam distance that I want, in a EDC flashlight more lumens represents more glare (try reading something with a 500 lumen flashlight), loss of natural night vision, shorter battery life, more heat generated and more unwanted attention.

 

[peter yetman]

It's interesting looking at the post counts of the various responders and corelating them with their answers.
Achimedes' Graph is still relevant!

Oh, and as for me, I use a 170Lm HDS most of the time and rarely feel the need of anything else. I went searching for a lost dog in the woods a while back and the HDS never felt underpowered.
Of course it does make a difference when the stated lumens are accurate and not exagerrated by the manufacturer.
P

 

[Katherine Alicia]

finding something that fell under the desk

^^^ THAT^^^ exactly that! I knew I forgot to add something :-D

 

[carrot]

Sometimes, you just need enough to see. Not to stand out. For use, I value lower lumens more for runtime and discretion.

For fun, higher lumens to make daylight will certainly put a smile on your face.

It's worth noting that many lights that advertise high lumens cannot hang onto them. I often carry a 4000 lumen pocket rocket not because it is so bright (that's for fun) but because it can get so dim. But at 4000 lumens, it'll only do that for a few seconds before it throttles down to a more reasonable 300-400.

I think I use under 1 lumens the most. Next, under 30 lumens.

My bike light is the one place where I want the most lumens for the longest amount of time.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

I hike every morning into the Catalina mountains on a goat trail. It is rocky, twisty, surrounded by cacti, and rattlesnakes abound. When I use my light, it is set around 3 lumens. I prefer to use my night vision (as in the rods and rhodopsin in my noggin). If I use max (300 lumens) it is only for things 200+ yards away. I don't want my night vision destroyed and then HAVE TO use the flashlight for the rest of the hike. There is no light pollution where I hike and even a half moon with a clear sky is enough. I only use the 3 lumens if I want to check something out.

If I'm out in the Jeep at night exploring, night vision is gone from all the lights on the Jeep, so If I get out and want to see a few hundred yards off, I need more lumens because of the lack of rhodopsin in the eyes. So there is a dedicated light in the Jeep with more lumens and a tighter beam.

It is all what you use it for and what the ambient light around you is like.

This information is good for folks new to CPF. One thing a lot of people do is use too many lumens, then their eyes step down because it is so bright. Then they struggle to see at distance because their pupils are constricted, so they add more lumens to see farther (if possible). Unfortunately, like my 10 year old son, after looking afar they make the mistake of shining the flashlight onto the ground in front of them, further destroying their night vision.

That whole Rhodopsin thing Hogo wrote about deserves further study for newcomers.

 

[ma tumba]

one thing you need more lumens is when you need to see colors across a large area. for example, if I dropped a brown wallet in a park with a lot of yellow/brown leaves on the ground, having 10000lm flood light would help a lot as I would be able to see the entire area and my daylight color vision would help a lot.

 

[vph0107]

I would turn the question around and ask why do you need 500 or 600 lumens for EDC? I carry 37 lumen a LED solitaire on my keys for EDC and I don't feel the need for more lumens for reading something or looking at something up close, finding something that fell under the desk or in the back of a closet, for lighting up a key hole or walking down a dark path or set of steps. There are times where I would want a bit more throw, but throw is NOT lumens. I prefer to use as few lumens as possible to get the beam pattern and beam distance that I want, in a EDC flashlight more lumens represents more glare (try reading something with a 500 lumen flashlight), loss of natural night vision, shorter battery life, more heat generated and more unwanted attention.

I gotta be entirely honest, it puts less strain on my eyes to read on 500 lumens than it does with 50. Perhaps I need to try and get used to lower lumens. I do agree with the reasoning regarding beam pattern, battery life, and heat generation though. The unwanted attention hasn't really been a problem for me at least.

 

[vph0107]

Sometimes, you just need enough to see. Not to stand out. For use, I value lower lumens more for runtime and discretion.

For fun, higher lumens to make daylight will certainly put a smile on your face.

It's worth noting that many lights that advertise high lumens cannot hang onto them. I often carry a 4000 lumen pocket rocket not because it is so bright (that's for fun) but because it can get so dim. But at 4000 lumens, it'll only do that for a few seconds before it throttles down to a more reasonable 300-400.

I think I use under 1 lumens the most. Next, under 30 lumens.

My bike light is the one place where I want the most lumens for the longest amount of time.

Yeah I've got an Emisar D4, at first because I was younger and loved the idea of a pocket rocket, but now I have it because of how intuitive its UI is, where I just hold down the button to get my desired brightness. Maybe I haven't experienced true under 1 lumen brightness yet, but it feels to me like it might be a waste, and you may as well just rely on your night vision? Please let me know the error of my ways, because I know tons of people swear by the super low moonlight modes.

 

[Katherine Alicia]

it puts less strain on my eyes to read on 500 lumens than it does with 50.

500lm for reading!? ceiling bounce maybe but not direct on the book surely? 20-30lm at 2700k is just nice for me, any brighter or hotter and it just becomes less cozy, 500 would likely give me a headache esp above 4000k.

 

[vph0107]

Sometimes, you just need enough to see. Not to stand out. For use, I value lower lumens more for runtime and discretion.

For fun, higher lumens to make daylight will certainly put a smile on your face.

It's worth noting that many lights that advertise high lumens cannot hang onto them. I often carry a 4000 lumen pocket rocket not because it is so bright (that's for fun) but because it can get so dim. But at 4000 lumens, it'll only do that for a few seconds before it throttles down to a more reasonable 300-400.

I think I use under 1 lumens the most. Next, under 30 lumens.

My bike light is the one place where I want the most lumens for the longest amount of time.

500lm for reading!? ceiling bounce maybe but not direct on the book surely? 20-30lm at 2700k is just nice for me, any brighter or hotter and it just becomes less cozy, 500 would likely give me a headache esp above 4000k.

Not directly on the book. Sometimes ceiling bounce, sometimes shining past the book. 2700k is pretty warm for me. Thing is if I go directly on the book I'm still sitting at around 250 to 300. Sounds like I need to give lower lumens a longer try.

 

[bigburly912]

I can't even see what's on a page with 500 lumens. Literally just tried it out haha. It completely white washed it

 

[Hogokansatsukan]

I gotta be entirely honest, it puts less strain on my eyes to read on 500 lumens than it does with 50. Perhaps I need to try and get used to lower lumens. I do agree with the reasoning regarding beam pattern, battery life, and heat generation though. The unwanted attention hasn't really been a problem for me at least.

I'm thinking the light you are using may be greatly exaggerating the lumen output... or you may wish to see an optometrist! LOL!
Out of curiosity, what flashlight are you using?

 

[vph0107]

Sometimes, you just need enough to see. Not to stand out. For use, I value lower lumens more for runtime and discretion.

For fun, higher lumens to make daylight will certainly put a smile on your face.

It's worth noting that many lights that advertise high lumens cannot hang onto them. I often carry a 4000 lumen pocket rocket not because it is so bright (that's for fun) but because it can get so dim. But at 4000 lumens, it'll only do that for a few seconds before it throttles down to a more reasonable 300-400.

I think I use under 1 lumens the most. Next, under 30 lumens.

My bike light is the one place where I want the most lumens for the longest amount of time.

I'm thinking the light you are using may be greatly exaggerating the lumen output... or you may wish to see an optometrist! LOL!
Out of curiosity, what flashlight are you using?

The last time I did this I used the Olight S1 Mini. Yeah I really do need to see the eye doctor soon, my prescription probably needs to be renewed too haha. Well, I'm gonna give the Haiku a good amount of time in my pocket and see if I can't sway myself to a lower lumen user.

 

[archimedes]

.... Maybe I haven't experienced true under 1 lumen brightness yet, but it feels to me like it might be a waste, and you may as well just rely on your night vision? Please let me know the error of my ways, because I know tons of people swear by the super low moonlight modes.

If you are using truly dark-adapted night vision, one lumen can seem incredibly bright (really)

You may want to search CPF for "sublumen" threads, as moonlight and even firefly modes used to be pretty popular around here.

A significant part of the reason HDS and ZL have been so popular are their sublumen modes. Some even use outputs less than one-tenth of a lumen fairly regularly.

I'm guesstimating that about half of the total HDS Rotary settings are about a lumen or less.