Lowest Level on LRI Photon Freedom

Does anyone know the approximate lumen estimate for a Photon Freedom on the lowest level? My home is DARK at night, and the lowest level is all I need to move around the house without stepping on Legos, animals, or banging my shin on the coffee table. I have a stock L1, and even an ML1 with the ultralow tailcap mod, and these are both too bright when I'm completely dark adapted.

Is there anything else in an anodized Aluminum body (besides HDS/Novatac) that has a low setting this low?

I seem to remember that the freedom runs about 1 mA to the led at the lowest level, so maybe about 0.05 lumens. You can set the Spy 005 to even lower than that if you want. But I think your best bet if you want an affordable aluminum light to not mess up your night vision is get one with a red led.

paulr said:

But I think your best bet if you want an affordable aluminum light to not mess up your night vision is get one with a red led.

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I've got one of those, but I can't seem to see as well with a red LED as with a dim white LED. I have red L1, but I like the ML1 with the ultra low option better. I don'tknow if you will know what I mean, but I have to "think" too much with a red LED.

aggiegrads said:

I've got one of those, but I can't seem to see as well with a red LED as with a dim white LED. I have red L1, but I like the ML1 with the ultra low option better. I don'tknow if you will know what I mean, but I have to "think" too much with a red LED.

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This is actually a good point -- red and ultra-dim white LEDs are both good for working with night vision, but for different reasons. Red creates a sort of tunnel-vision effect, it is great for tasks that need a LOT of light, such as reading up close -- as enough light to read with in any other color would wipe out night sensitivity. However, the fact that your night vision has no sensitivity to red makes red a terrible choice for trying to light up a large area. For things like navigating or walking around a dark house, the best bet is very dim white, which actually resembles low-level natural moonlight and actually takes advantage of night vision -- meaning that even extremely small amounts of light are enough to see your way by.

My liteflux LF2 on its lowest setting (similar to photon freedom on lower setting, but without any visible flickering) is my most used light.

You could also try a yellow/amber led. That's much easier on the eyes than white, but its color sits in the crossover between the red and green receptors in your eye, so you get higher "resolution" since both sets of receptors instead of just one are responding to the light.

Liteflux LF2,3,4,5, EDC (Novatac and HDS), and Photon Proton are a few with aluminum bodies that will go pretty close to that low a level.

You might want to wait for the new Photon Rex.

paulr said:

You could also try a yellow/amber led. That's much easier on the eyes than white, but its color sits in the crossover between the red and green receptors in your eye, so you get higher "resolution" since both sets of receptors instead of just one are responding to the light.

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I did a test a while back where I took different colored coin cell lights and read extremely fine print with them in a dark room. The following were my results in order from best to worst resolution:

green - by far the sharpest
amber
white
UV - caused the page to fluoresce a soft blue.
blue
red - fairly poor in terms of fine resolution
violet - uttlery worthless

paulr and 2xtrinity, I'm intrigued by the amber LED thought. Amber LEDs have a very low Vf, so I could also get a very long runtime with amber LEDs.

I may have milky modify an L1 with an amber LED and custom extra-ultra-low tailcap mod. Loooooong runtime with good resolution for navigation/close task work.

Any thoughts?

Try a turquoise Photon. My favorite. Lot's of discussion threads in the archives re night colors.