What are the reasons for carrying low-lumen lights?

[bykfixer]

Lately I get home from work in the middle of the night so I carry a yuji'd sofirm number to walk around the place when I get home. The half dozen or so lumens is plenty to see by (via tooth hold) at that time of night while I unpack and put stuff away.

 

[bykfixer]

Point well taken. I would submit that dense forest exploring at night is not necessarily best served with just one flashlight. Sure it's nice to have a wide field of view for most applications, but when a noise happens beyond the trees near you, a narrow beam flashlight (thrower) will not reflect back light off of nearby trees, and you will be able to see beyond those nearby trees (high lumens or low).

I like older LED lights in those cases. My 90 something lumen Pentagon L2 or the 100 or so lumen Streamlight TL 2 LED send out a real nice pencil beam while providing enough spill to keep from tripping over tree roots etc. Especially in high humidity where all the spill of a modern light illuminates the millions of water droplets right in front of me. And an old 2 cell incan Maglite is also great at those times.
Just hold it waste high and it drills a nice bright hole through the air borne condensation without placing a wall of light in your face.

 

[GarageBoy]

I use every last one of my 3-400 lumens - definitely helpful when looking inside dark spaces in broad daylight

Also useful when you show up to a place that has no power and you have to be there for a bit

 

[Monocrom]

Low lumen lights for me:

1- Preserve my night vision.

2- Might have to loan a light to a non-enthusiast. Don't want them blinding themselves when they invariably look down the emitter as they switch the light on.

 

[vph0107]

Low lumen lights for me:

1- Preserve my night vision.

2- Might have to loan a light to a non-enthusiast. Don't want them blinding themselves when they invariably look down the emitter as they switch the light on.

You know I've never even thought of your second reason. That's a great idea, but I'm also paranoid of someone else touching my precious... Haha, I'm gonna start carrying a cheapie low lumen on me now.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

Dim lights are good for long runtimes. They are useful for late night bathroom breaks without drawing attention (especially outdoors). They are good during natural disasters to avoid detection of looters. During a blackout, the first person seen with a bright light is the first one robbed. Dim lights let you keep the light to yourself on walks. Bright lights draw in a bunch of people to walk annoyingly close in front of you, blocking out light useful to you. Dim lights let you preserve night vision for stargazing, hunting, etc. Low lumen lights tend to be cheap (not multilevel) and lightweight so you can keep some on you as loaners to keep people from taking or losing your good lights. Dim lights are good for kids who like shining lights in people's faces.

 

[chillinn]

I just woke at 3:30AM, bleary-eyed, and reprogrammed the 6 levels of my SC53c G6 mode group to 0.01Lm, 0.06Lm, 0.26Lm, 1.0Lm, 3.5Lm & 10.3Lm, H1/H2, L1/L2, M1/M2, respectively, after deciding there was good purpose to this. Mode separation is pretty decent, 1 x6-> 2 x4.33-> 3 x3.85-> 4 x3.5-> 5 x2.94-> 6. Mode 6 is 1030x brighter than mode 1, so that's a little extreme. I might change M1/M2 to 1.0Lm & 3.5Lm, and have a duplicate mode with L2 & M1 for 3.5Lm max, or highest mode 350x brighter than the lowest mode. On second thought, because L2 & M1 will nicely go back and forth on press and hold, if there is to be a duplicate mode, it should be lower in the mode sequence, H2 & L1. Deep thoughts for nearly 5AM.

 

[greenpondmike]

Prevent glairback

 

[greenpondmike]

To keep from over illuminating something

 

[Lumen83]

I think 25 -100 lumens of warm tint LED or incan is about perfect for almost all of my usage. I still use a surefife 6P the most of any light. I mostly use these inside the house or in and around vehicles. 15-50 lumens is probably preferred for me in these situations. I don't want to burn my retinas out trying to fish the dog toys out from under the couch. If I'm going out to do something like walk the dog on a wide open trail at night, I grab a bigger light. If I'm in a sketchy area of town at night, I carry an EDCL1-T with 500 lumens. Its all about planning accordingly. There's a light for every task. Thats the best part about this hobby, if you ignore your bank account statements. However, If you're talking about what a lot of people carry or use the most, don't be suprised that they're carrying and using sub 100 lumen lights. They're not trying to go blind finding the screw that just rolled under the refrigerator.

 

[flatline]

Almost 10 years ago I was cleaning out a lab at work and found a handful of 14505 cells that were going to be thrown out, so I brought them home. These are lithium primary cells the same dimensions as an AA with large capacity but able to provide only low currents. I dropped one in my 4-sevens Quark AA and discovered that that Moonlight and Low worked fine, but the higher modes couldn't function.

I've been using that Quark AA for 5-10 minutes worth of light 3 or 4 nights a week for the last 10 years on the same 14505.

It turns out that for lots of uses, a small amount of light put in precisely the place you need it is all you need. Too much light can make seeing fine detail just as difficult as not enough light. If I weren't a compulsive fidgeter, I would totally get a rotary light so that I can dial in the exact amount of light I want.

 

[kumasan2020]

1. Enough to look around.
2. Fever is mild
3. Long runtime


I carry a Klarus Mini ONE Ti with me

 

[timbo813]

My normal carry right now is a streamlight microstream (rechargeable). It gets the nod most of the time just because of how easy it is to carry and I like the momentary on/off with the push button. The 50 lumen low mode is good for most uses and way more than I want in the middle of the night. I put my thumb over the emitter for walking into the bedroom after my wife is in bed. On my nightstand I keep a zebralight with it's sub-lumen modes. Its really a better light but not as easy to carry.

There are two times I need/want really bright lights.
-Outside trying to see animals in the distance.
-At work looking at pipe and equipment far away (especially past the overhead lights)

95% of the time 50 lumens is more than enough.
75% of the time 10 lumens would be fine.
In the middle of the night in a dark house sub-lumen is better

 

[chillinn]

I carry a Klarus Mini ONE Ti with me

8Lm is enough, often more than enough, at times too much, for anything indoors after gathering some dark adapted eyes. Also, :welcome:

The 50 lumen low mode is good for most uses and way more than I want in the middle of the night...
95% of the time 50 lumens is more than enough.
75% of the time 10 lumens would be fine.
In the middle of the night in a dark house sub-lumen is better

Freaked me out with your 50Lm low. But you redeemed yourself in the end. I guess the fact is if one carries a flashlight, most of that carry time is during the day, and you'll need more lumens during the day to overcome ambient light.

 

[mccririck]

A super bright light is too bright in average size rooms. Also its more dangerous if you accidentally look at it or if you accidentally shine it in someone's eyes.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I've noticed at work I leave my headlamp on the 50 lumen mode most of the time and it is enough about 75% of the time. I could get by with 15 lumens about half the time but that makes for mode time spent switching modes to when I need 30-50 lumens. 5 lumens is a waste of time for me as there is often too much light pollution that shuts down your eyes and I often work near the ceiling where it is darker looking up into darkness while standing where there is light shining on me from a distance. When you are older and your eyes get weaker you need more light to see clearly. I find having 120-200 lumens a "step up" and 300-500 lumens on occasion helps to navigate unfamiliar areas as you can reach out at a distance if your light is not a thrower and I almost always use a headlamp for lighting at work so I can have both hands free to climb ladders and work. I often use one hand to hold onto something while reaching around obstacles with the other hand to work.

 

[etc]

Discretion. Sometimes you don't want to attraction attention.

Having said that, I think a single mode light is obsolete. I love the Malkoff high-low ring concept where you have 25 lumens on low and 800 on high, case in point, in Malkoff M91T.

 

[distrbd]

This thread or should I say the question( why one would need a low-lumen light) made me ask myself : Do I even have a low lumen light? then I looked inside my very small collection of inexpensive flashlights and sure enough I found one. Fenix E01 , it is discontinued now but supposedly throws 13 lumen (but it's purplish blue).

I stopped using it after a short while, the main reason was the low output, never thought it would be useful/ handy to have around until I read a post here this morning about a young mother looking for a 3 lumen light or less, low enough to see at night to change baby's dippers, this scenario would never have crossed my mind so it goes to show you , if a low lumen light is on the market, then there has to be a need for it, whether we can see or understand that reason .
I did buy a ITP A3 EOS (150 lumens) for my EDC /key chain and still carry it in my pocket 13 years later.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Discretion. Sometimes you don't want to attraction attention.

Having said that, I think a single mode light is obsolete. I love the Malkoff high-low ring concept where you have 25 lumens on low and 800 on high, case in point, in Malkoff M91T.

I like single mode lights for some uses like standby lights at home when you find yourself needing a light on the spur of the moment you can grab one and turn it on and go with the only mode it has instead of fumbling with modes till you get the right one. Having cheap single mode lights you can even use alkaleaks in them if they ruin one just toss it. My former favorite single mode light was a 3AA one from Home Depot sporting a luxeon with a resistor. the only problem with these lights is the plastic they were made of was a little brittle and over half of the ones I bought were broken and a few alkaleakage ruined the contacts and switches but they put out about 40 lumens fading to nothing over hours and hours. I replaced the last one I broke with an Energizer floating 2AA light that puts out about 50 lumens for about $9 that I hung on a carabiner on a nail on the edge of a shelf in the garage.

 

[flatline]

I have several single mode lights in the 30-60L range and I love them for regular use.

I don't want a light to surprise me, and multi-mode lights always have that posibility.