50 lumens

after using torches for many years and after looking at countless beam comparisons on cpf i had one of those eureka moments. i feel i have stumbled on one of the fundamental truths of the universe-for a handheld general use torch you never need more than 50 lumens. ever. any more is like having a car that will do 200 m.p.h.nice but completely unececessary.dont you think all these super high lumens ratings are just a marketing ploy to take money off us poor flashlight addicts?

i nearly agree

for 80% of us - there are some who need more

but if you could get a supercar for $40 why not - you can still drive slow in it

for me the fun is modding - i know that its me that made it brighter - and thats fun

aljsk8 said:

i nearly agree

for 80% of us - there are some who need more

but if you could get a supercar for $40 why not - you can still drive slow in it

for me the fun is modding - i know that its me that made it brighter - and thats fun

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Its not needing more.. ITS WANTING MORE, MUCH,MUCH MORE !!! :duck:


Regards,

Ra.

That's the beauty of multi level lights. If you have a 200 Lumen hand cannon you can set it to 50 lumens and get a heck of a lot of runtime.

For example i need more light than 50 lumens , when it is cloudy rainy evening or night, when i am going home late, the all that 50 lumens are reflected "away" in other direction, not iluminating the ground to your eyes an you see nothing ...

There is no such thing as too much of a good thing. =]

Well, I was very glad I brought my focusable m*g85 along when escorting my 90 year old grandmother across an icy parking lot. Old eyes need more light.

When you're making contact an unknown person(s) in the dark and you want to be sure of your safety... you want all the lumens on that individual that you can get. You want to see what they're holding, wearing, doing; and the added benefit is that with a lot of lumens in their face they can not see you.
I'll stick with my high output lights thank you.

General use, indoor distances, light adapted eyes and 15 - 20 lumens should be enough for most needs.

However, there is no way 50 lumens will light up distant trail heads or a familiar stand of evergreen trees you are searching for unless it's less than about 100m away.

Im going to have to say i disagree. There are time when you need over fifty lumens. I have a E2W usually that will get the job done but at times my M4 with the 325 lumens is a better choice.

For working in Electronics or maintance(close stuff) 25-40 lumens(or in the house).For outside Maintance looking for leaks and such(30 feet away)I'd say 70 lumens or there abouts.for general backyard stuff 100 to 150 lumens.For two legged varmits in the area I'd say around 1000 lumens.For me I think(it will change in 6 months)the Fenix L2D-CE is the one for me.

Fluffster said:

Well, I was very glad I brought my focusable m*g85 along when escorting my 90 year old grandmother across an icy parking lot. Old eyes need more light.

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Dude, she`s 90. Drive up to her door.

Try quickly locating and reading a house address while driving by at 30mph with 50 lumens.. won't happen. 200 torch lumens with a reasonable balance of throw/flood is a good comfort zone, more is nice, less will do. I've been using the LumensFactory HO-9 with ~320 bulb lumens in a brinkman maxfire host for this task lately... it's the right tool for the job.

but I do agree that in many cases that you would use a flashlight, you don't need very many lumens... A single under-driven 20ma LED is more than enough light to navigate and identify objects indoors.

I think a good number of us could get by with no flashlights in our day to day lives (except those that require one due to occupation). I think back to before I was enlightened and I got by with minimags and keychain lights. Its matter of preference and what you are using the light for. The best flashlight is the one you have with you when you need it. The lighting needs and wants of the members here are as varied as the members themselves. For me, 50 lumens is more than enough. If I could get 100-150 lumens at the same runtime would I?..... Most likely.


OJ

My A2 is the perfect light for my uses. I use the LEDs indoors and for walking around outside at night, and I'm also glad that if I hear something (or the dog starts barking at something), all I have to do is point and press the tailcap and I have an optical cannon at 71 lumens at my disposal!

I find that my U2 on high is very effective at sweeping areas and lighting things up and I mostly use it on low, even low is really bright for MY U2 but it's tons lower than High which is somewhere around 3000lux@1meter, (note to self find reliable light meter)

50 lumens is perfect if you are sitting in your room playing around, but let's get real for any outdoor use or distance use you need a minimum of 80 or more just to get by. I prefer 100 plus lumens with 2 or more stages.

You would probably find 50 lumens inadequate if your walk in the woods happened to cross paths with a bear. The further you can see ahead the less surprises you'll encounter.

I think I understand what you're saying, but maybe your statement was a bit too "absolute". I have been playing with a couple of lights in the 40-60 lumen range (Scorpion LED and a borrowed SF E2D) and was surprised by the incredibly wide range of uses one of those lights could handle well. If I had to own one fixed-output light for all uses then a small, high quality 40-60 lumen light would probably be the hands-down best "do everything" choice.

However, once I got out in the woods at night things changed drastically. The 50-ish lumen lights carved out an uncomfortably small hole in the darkness, and something along the lines of a stock MagCharger seemed like the absolute minimum for comfort, and somewhere around 350 lumens (MC+1160 range) was more like it.

The Mag85 provided a comforting level of overkill and while I had to admit less light would suffice it was nice being able to see all around me with ease.

Indoors, 50 lumens is ideal for navigating around a dark house in a hurry, but too bright for close-up work (blinded myself too many times) and overkill for walking quietly around without disturbing anyone.

Having said all this, I'll still agree that 50 lumens is about the perfect level if you have to pick one light and one level of output. It's just so nice that we don't have to choose

mdocod said:

Try quickly locating and reading a house address while driving by at 30mph with 50 lumens.. won't happen. 200 torch lumens with a reasonable balance of throw/flood is a good comfort zone, more is nice, less will do. I've been using the LumensFactory HO-9 with ~320 bulb lumens in a brinkman maxfire host for this task lately... it's the right tool for the job.

but I do agree that in many cases that you would use a flashlight, you don't need very many lumens... A single under-driven 20ma LED is more than enough light to navigate and identify objects indoors.

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I disagree IMHO. I used the brinkman maxfire from W*l-M*rt to locate the license plate of a missing person who was in my area (OKC). Me and 2 friends in a pick up truck shining every house and every car in the drive ways for 3 nights. We finally found the car with the maxfire LX from atelast 70 feet away..I had more than enough light. Now there is one less un-medicated bi polar dropout on the streets.