Flashlight Blasphemy

I just returned from a long weekend in the North Lake Tahoe area. Quality darkness for sure. I brought two hand held lights, a turboheaded 9P w/MN60 LA and 6P with a BOG Premium Cree drop in module. These are my brightest lights. Well they were too bright for after dark strolls. The BOG Cree produced lots of glare up close and was not very good at illuminating reflective street signs as so much light reflected back off the signs you couldn't read them. While they were very entertaining to play with, my nephew loved the 6P BTW, I would have been better served with my E2e w/MN02 LA and HDS B42. The most used light of the trip? My Arc AAA-P.

Anybody else brought a broadsword when a pocket knife would do?

kelmo

I find the same thing when it is pitch black all around. When I am camping and there is no moon ou,t 5 to 10 lumens is plenty. It is good to have more light available to light up the path further ahead but for the most part I find I use the low levels more on my multi level lights.

Sounds like maybe the Arc AAA-P was the ticket. Did you have it with you? Also sounds like somebody needs an L1!

You betcha! My Arc AAA-P is always with me. I even had it tubing down the Truckee River! The L1 is on my wish list. And I preordered a Novatac P85.

should've bought an A2:naughty:

while most of us want to get the brightest output from our lights many frequently overlook night use. when theres no light pollution and your eyes are fully adapted to the surrounding a cree at full drive wont do you much good.

5mm leds are still the most ideal [to me anyway, although never tried, I suppose a high/low mode light is also]

EDIT: second thought, after a comparison at night I found the McluxIII-PD on low works better than A2 on low

i agree. in real dark situations, super bright output isn't really needed. this is where multimode flashlights come in handy.

My last trip showed me that 9 lumens is too much. My fenix on low was killing my nihgt vision when i turned it on, im thinking of a 120P for that .3 lumen mode, or maybe just a red led of some sort.

But don't forget, sometimes it's nice to have a super bright light. Sometimes things go bump in the night.

I've recently purchased a Photon Proton and found how useful its dim levels (white and red) are for walks in unlighted areas near home. Five lumens or less gives plenty to see your next few steps. Even the low level on the Rexlight, which is probably around ten lumens, seems too bright and the higher levels just kill your night vision.

Geoff

What I'd like is a really wide flood beam, no hot spot at all. I've missed a couple of Mule waves but maybe I'll catch one sooner or later. Meanwhile perhaps I'll try modding a cheap 1aa light.

I bought a NiteIze three-red LED drop-in for one of my many Mag Minis specifically for getting up in the dead of night and being able to pad around the place without disturbing Miss Significantly Other.

I found that even the non-bazookaness of the drop-in was a bit too bright, in spite of it being red. So I pulled the plastic lens out, rubbed it around on some 150-grit sandpaper and now it has a soft, diffused flood.

I wouldn't use it outdoors unless I was way out where the dark is real but I do have a Mag Mini knock-off with a piece of "Magic" tape over it. That's nice for a dark backyard.

thats why any light has to have a low output together to the full power one
(and a medium one for normal, battery conserving chores)

For outdoor use, try a red Inova X5 or Fenix E0. For indoors, I put a single red 5mm 3000mcd 20mA LED from Radio Shack in my 2AAA MiniMag. This is woefully dim by CPF standards, but there is absolutely no chance of it being too bright at night or waking anyone up. It's just enough to navigate around the house, and even surprisingly has a good bit of throw, maybe 12-15ft useful range in complete darkness. Would probably have a bit more flood if put into a 2AA MiniMag. Best of all, it only took a little widening of the hole in the reflector.

I can understand your use of the word "blasphemy". Several years ago I took the position that for nighttime walks and such, it's often preferable to simply assist the ambient light sources in lighting your way. Overly bright lights had a tendency to destroy your ability to see anything other than what was in your beam. My favored light for such at the time was lights like the Infinity. It was even less bright than an Arc, but was ideal for assisting ambient lighting.

Blasphemy? Needless to say the brighter is better judgements were around back then too.

I was just using my Infinity last night and the thing that struck me most about it was its horrible blue tint compared with today's neutral white leds. It definitely still makes plenty of light for use when dark-adapted.

Not blasphemy at all . . . .


We Flashaholics, more than anyone, realize the value
of having the right amount of light for a given situation.


The people living in the "Real World", however, haven't yet learned this.


They still think: Brighter is Better.


So they skip the 2-D cell Maglight, and buy a 4-cell. :naughty:



IMHO, the biggest advance in flashlights during the past year or so has been the "variable" brightness levels offered.


Just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we can now have our flashlight:

Not too dim, not too bright, but Just Right !

kelmo said:

Anybody else brought a broadsword when a pocket knife would do?

kelmo

Click to expand...

Nope,

I use my EOS on lowest mode possible when in the outdoors. Those light
swords are good to play with in the city. But in the outdoors, 1-3 duffiused
lumens are perfect for most tasks.

Empath said:

Blasphemy? Needless to say the brighter is better judgements were around back then too.

Click to expand...

The "brighter is better" groupthink represents a dismaying level of genuine ignorance about the real world use of lights.

The armchair commandos, SWAT wannabes, and Cree Kool-Aid Drinkers seem to dominate CPF these days.

.

well , the lowest output light on the forum to others off forum are still considered brighter....for one thing, theres a few die hards I know that, despite the growth in better technology, still believes that mag products, especially the minimag and solitaire as the smallest and brightest light they can buy.
[I've managed to ruinthe life of one already by hitting him with the beam of the P1-CE]

My wife is doing research work in the Northern Cameroon Sahel region where it is really dark at night with no illumination in the streets. Even though she also has a Fenix L2T, a Peak McKinley, Fenix L0P and a Minimag with a TLE5 led kit, the 2 lights that are used the most are a red led ARC AAA and an ARC AAA-P.
This for reasons of maintaining night vision.

Kind regards,
Joris

Wha??.... There's no such thing as too bright!

Sadly, God won't trade me his flashlight..... Imagine what I could do with the sun! oo: