indoor and out door torches your thought's

I have had a thought :naughty:
when does a torch turn from a indoor torch to a outdoor torch?
is it to bright
run time maybe?
size (OH yes it really does matter)
the size of your strike bezel
as it's down to a matter of choice is 100 lumens enongh for indoors or 200 lumens
many thanks DocD

Funny you should ask. I was just thinking about this very issue the other day after I discovered a pretty cool (and cheap $7) 1xAA led light at MicroCenter. This little guy puts out about 10 lumens (by my very rough measurement) and seems more than adequate for all indoor use. It seems that when things to be illuminated are within about 2 to 4 meters this much light is perfect. Also a single alkline battery lasts a very long time under these conditions. Unfortunately I find this light pretty useless outdoors.

For outdoor use I find that I want the full horse power of my hotter lights. Since I like single RCR 123 lights these are things like P2D, P1D, Hyperion etc.

Being a flashaholic, I find that carrying 2 lights is perfectly acceptable. However my practical streak makes me lean toward the more expensive lights (noted above) because of their multiple level output.

On the other hand, if the need arose to "loan" a light to someone else, I would much more likely give up the $7 light over the $50 light. Basically, nobody borrows my expensive lights.

Just my thoughts, sorry if I ramble.

Also depends on what kind of outdoors you're faced with. Suburban street with picket fences is different from rural road is different from Amazon jungle. 10 or so lumens is enough for indoor and 20 lumens for most outdoor where I am (suburbs). I can't imagine a scenario where I'd need 100. Only you can judge.

"Practical" is of course multi-level where I like the UI on the Fenix digitals, but many other choices exist.

More rambling - unless you actually carry a dedicated loaner, then the possibility of loaning exerts downward pressure on the price of your EDC lights, as indicated above.

The outdoors seems to have a way with sucking up almost any amount of light. I'm talking out in the country not urbanating.

For urbanating, I'd say anything midrange (20-50 lumens) should be enough.

Indoors, lower lights are perfect for most things (less than 20 lumens).

I'm still new at this game, but I'm learning that when I'm outdoors I usually want LOTS of throw. So almost by default the throwers are for outdoors and the flooders are for indoors.

However, like most things there are exceptions. I find that I can also use throwers indoors if I simply point them at the ceiling or wall instead of where I'm walking.

That being said, the flooder is best when I'm actually wanting to look at something close range without having to deal with such a narrow beam as the thrower.

I guess I went a bit off topic, but I'd say that overall it's easier for a torch to convert from outdoor to indoor than vice versa (though I haven't messed with any HID; I imagine those are outdoor only)

Retinator said:

The outdoors seems to have a way with sucking up almost any amount of light. I'm talking out in the country not urbanating.

For urbanating, I'd say anything midrange (20-50 lumens) should be enough.

Indoors, lower lights are perfect for most things (less than 20 lumens).

Click to expand...

Paradoxically I find I actually need MORE light in the suburbs than in the middle of nowhere, due to light pollution. In the middle of nowhere, if there is a full moon, I need no flashlight. If there is no moon, I can use a light of a couple lumens and reproduce moonlight intensity and get around. In the city the full moon disappears in the background noise, and I actually need >500 lumens just to tell what color my car is in a lot with 100% low pressure sodium lamps :sick2:

Indoors, I find I'm most likely to just use a bright light and ceiling bounce. Works if for some reason power is off (ie, I'm screwing around with wirint and have the circuit breakers off) or if I'm in a part of the room that isn't covered well by the room lights (like hooking computers under tables etc)

2xTrinity said:

Paradoxically I find I actually need MORE light in the suburbs than in the middle of nowhere, due to light pollution. In the middle of nowhere, if there is a full moon, I need no flashlight. If there is no moon, I can use a light of a couple lumens and reproduce moonlight intensity and get around. In the city the full moon disappears in the background noise, and I actually need >500 lumens just to tell what color my car is in a lot with 100% low pressure sodium lamps :sick2:

Indoors, I find I'm most likely to just use a bright light and ceiling bounce. Works if for some reason power is off (ie, I'm screwing around with wirint and have the circuit breakers off) or if I'm in a part of the room that isn't covered well by the room lights (like hooking computers under tables etc)

Click to expand...

Pretty much sums it up for me. I can't say I have a light that is too bright to be used indoors (including my HID) and with the light pollution I tend to need more rather than less. So something can be too dim for outdoors but nothing can be too bright for indoors.
I was initially going to say maybe I have poor night vision but no, I suspect the light pollution always ruins it.