How low can you go? Lumens that is.

One thing that is very appealing in an EDC that sits on the nightstand at night....is the ability to click on the low mode first without cycling through night vision ruining turbo modes and such. My Olight T10 is an awesome light, but the low mode is too bright for night use. I hear that the Novatac 120p is a light that goes extremely low for that purpose. I was curious how the Nitecore defender compares as far as ultra-low output goes. I like how the Nitecore can come on the user defined mode first.

thanks,
jeff

The NDI is pretty low, but not as low as some of the ULTRAlow lights out there. I think it's about 8 lumens for the T10 and 3 lumens for the Nitecore. The lowest setting on my Nitecore still has enough throw to it to light up the far wall in a pitch black room.

Some other lights that fit your desires are:

The Photon Proton Pro, which comes on with its red LED at the dimmest setting. The white light is also adjustable to very low settings, but it comes on at the highest level.

The MTE 20 mode from dealextreme.com remembers what mode you were in when you shut it off and it has an ultralow mode.

The Novatac 120T and 120P can go down to 0.3 lumens. I'm not familiar with their user interface, so I am not sure if it can come on at that level.

The Liteflux lights can be adjusted to very low settings. Again, I'm not familiar with their user interface, so I am not sure if it can come on at that level.

All of those have good high levels and a sized to be suitable for EDC, while combining very low low levels.

Hope that helps.

Yes, you can set up a 120P to come on at it's lowest setting. But, to me that low setting is still kind of bright, very usable. I use it to get around my bedroom at night and the fiancee says it hasn't bothered her, so it must be just right. It's actually so dim you can stare right into the led without even seeing a spot.

The Novatac is much lower than the NDI. I've been using both right now on a nightstand and the NDI isn't low enough IMHO.

I use a 2002 vintage Arc AAA and feed it "dead" AAA alkalines from various remotes for when low is not low enough. These "dead" AAA's will not provide enough light for EDC but they work great by the nightstand. They also seem to last forever. I figure it's about 0.5 lumen output +/- 3 lumens of uncertainty

The SF TITAN can go very very low. So low thjat you can stare at the emitter and put it dorectly in fron of your eye and it won't feel uncomfortable. Don't know the lumens though.
bernie

The Liteflux lights can be adjusted very low (some fraction of a lumen), and can come on to that level without going through higher ones.

My litelfux lf3 is much lower than my nitecore DI. And it will go to low first,if thats how you program it.

kilgor said:

The Novatac 120T and 120P can go down to 0.3 lumens. I'm not familiar with their user interface, so I am not sure if it can come on at that level.

Click to expand...

Actually it's low is factory set to .3 lumens, but can be adjusted down to .08 lumens on the 120p and all of the HDS EDC lights. Not difficult to adjust. I get more light from a single led on my clock than my 120p at .08. This is a very low level of light, but still usable.

Ken

The lowest I've ever seen is THIS on constant glow mode. It's way dimmer than novatac's lowest mode, but if your eyes are night adapted it's enough to navigate around the house.

I use it for my bedside light and it's very nice.

Getting there is the issue with me and the LF lights though...I would buy an LF2 right now if someone would pre-program it for lowest low and highest high...my feeble mind cannot grasp their UI.

I use the NDI on my nightstand these days...works fine for me.

mudman cj said:

The Liteflux lights can be adjusted very low (some fraction of a lumen), and can come on to that level without going through higher ones.

Click to expand...

Hello Jeff,

I agree with Jzmtl. The PALight on glow mode is all the light you need to navigate around in the dark when your eyes are use to the dark. The 2 year runtime isn't all that bad either.

Tom

I find the lowest setting on my NDI is fine for navigating around my place, although my place isn't pitch black as I have LED night lights all about. I find the lowest low on the NDI to be low enough to not bother my eyes, yet gives plenty of light to see around with. I also have one of those PALight's, or whatever, uses a 9v battery, and runs forever on glow mode. I just dug it out from my desk drawer, it was a gift from my Mother years ago, before I was an official flashaholic.

NFI's low is enough for me! During the day I twist the User mode to about half-power and at night I twist it into Low. I typically sleep with it in my sweatpants.

Plenty low enough for me at night, especially with carpet in the house.. Shine it on the floor and it doesn't blind you at all.. then I just put it in the sink facing the wall away from me and it lights up the bathroom.

bltkmt said:

Getting there is the issue with me and the LF lights though...I would buy an LF2 right now if someone would pre-program it for lowest low and highest high...my feeble mind cannot grasp their UI.

I use the NDI on my nightstand these days...works fine for me.

Click to expand...

Well, I would be happy to help you out. I would hate for you to have to spend money shipping it back and forth only to have it get lost, but I am willing to program it for you if you want to go this route. Another option would be if I helped you through it over the phone. PM me if interested. Otherwise, you could look for one in the Marketplace and see if the seller will program it to your liking.

Thank you Mudman...I may take you up on the offer!

so the novatac 120p will come onto the absolute lowest setting from the off position. I would not want to have to cycle through higher levels to get to it.

It'll come on to whatever you program it to be. Max or min, or anything in between.

I use the lowest setting on my A19 Cree flupic. its low enought for bedroom work.

pak-lite on low too bright ?