Lumens VS UI whats more important to you?

I see how Nitecore d10, ex10 and the liteflux lights are VERY popular but are not very bright and the lightflux is floody..It seems that alot actually preffer UI to brightness?

I rate my nitecore EX10 as bright enough for urban edc
I do like the piston drive and UI though
I also carry a Sabrewolf modded P7 rcr123 that is a scorcher

Given the current enormous brightness we now have with the new and efficeint high power LEDs UI and quality of design and construction are even more important than they were back then in the old days.
It is very easy to make a bright light. It is very difficult to make a good light. Good means a light that is not only top quality but also adapted t othe mission I want to use it for, especially in terms of interface.

This is however a very personal choice. Where I want it KISS, others may well enjoy whiz bang UIs for whatever strange reason :nana:

bernie

STi said:

I see how Nitecore d10, ex10 and the liteflux lights are VERY popular but are not very bright...

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Compared to what?

gswitter said:

Compared to what?

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+1 :thinking:. The Nitecores and Litleflux are in the same category of brightness as many other single cell lights and any differences may only be noticeable if compared side by side.

Between UI and Lumens I would take UI. At the end of the day all lights produce light but if you use a light frequently in various light conditions, a good intuitive UI makes things easier. Having said that though I have not come accross a UI that I could not use or become accustomed to but others are more particular or have different preferences.

UI

If I can't cycle thru the dang settings or generally figure out how to run it then it really doesn't matter what brightness it tops out at. I'd rather have a low low than a high high anyway.

After seeing how low lumens is ample to light up a dark trail, brightness is not the most important factor compare to an easy-to-use UI. But of course, ideally it should be the best of both worlds, user-friendly UI and hi lumens (only if it has low setting as well).

Zeruel said:

After seeing how low lumens is ample to light up a dark trail, brightness is not the most important factor compare to an easy-to-use UI. But of course, ideally it should be the best of both worlds, user-friendly UI and hi lumens (only if it has low setting as well).

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+1

Depends on the flashlight and what I intend to use it for.

For a EDC, I want multi modes and a good UI.
For walking through the woods, playing and showing off, I dont
care about UI, just off, on, and lots and lots of lumens.

LUMENS!

I dont know you guys but, a higher high is better than a lower low. I've never ran out of batteries in any aituation, i keep spares in my car, in my house, in everywhere i would possibly need to stay and use my flashlight. So why use a low mode? To keep night vision? you don't need it, you have your flashlight!!!

When there were only maglites, nobody complained about the brightness. Now that we have lighter, brighter, smaller and longer running led lights, some people want very low modes.

I'd prefer to depend on a single bright flashlight and keep some spares, than carrying many lights (one for general, one for low mode and another one for lower low mode) with no spares.

I'll take UI over a small gain in lumens any day!

"more important to you"...

In comparing flashlights, I'd say neither is more important to me. :thinking:

In comparing people, I'd say that I probably put more importance on UI than the average Joe.

A flashlight is about light, the direct answer to your question is lumens (the choice thereof) is more important to me than the user interface.

When I say the choice there of I mean simply how many total lumens I want and not necessarily the ability to select 13 modes in one light. If I want a low lumen light, that's what I will buy, if I want a high lumens light that is what I will buy. If it has a fancy complicated microprocessor based operating system rather than on/off/ or on high/low/off, then I won't buy it.

I bought a couple of 700 lumens lights because of the lumen output not the UI. I carry the EDC I carry because of the useful lumens output not the UI.

You should have made this a poll with 2 questions.

Do you select a light based on the lumens it has versus what you want?

Do you select a light based on the features of the user interface?

It's fun to see how many lumens we can get out of a flashlight, but in reality many of the lights are far brighter than needed for most things. The Liteflux LF3XT for example isn't the brightest CR123 light out there, but for an EDC generally used for close range tasks I rarely need the full output. Most the time I use the lowest setting, or a medium setting. I get a lot more battery life this way too. If I were going for max lumens all the time I'd be running my batteries down much faster and blinding myself a lot.

A good Multi is hard to ignore , just chose the light level for the job and be happy . FOr gawds sake , I just wish Strobe and SOS would go the way of the Dodo ..

Kiessling said:

Given the current enormous brightness we now have with the new and efficeint high power LEDs UI and quality of design and construction are even more important than they were back then in the old days.
It is very easy to make a bright light. It is very difficult to make a good light. Good means a light that is not only top quality but also adapted t othe mission I want to use it for, especially in terms of interface.

This is however a very personal choice. Where I want it KISS, others may well enjoy whiz bang UIs for whatever strange reason :nana:

bernie

Click to expand...

I echo your sentiments. :twothumbs

UI.

If the light is a pain in the *** the use, I won't use it.

A light can always be made brighter. It is much more difficult to improve a poorly engineered light.

I get a kick out of whiz bang UIs. Don't normally need big lumens, so I'll gladly trade a few for more bells and whistles (of course, there's no real relationship between the two that I know).

Geoff

Is it too much to ask for both? Although not many manufacturers seem to realize it, lots of lumens and a good UI are not mutually exclusive.

used to be not so long ago... than an Xbin was the holy grail of LED lights. with the fab MR-X's mutant Xbin putting out 250+ lumens out the front end. MR-X's run was well under 25 units... a very exclusive club indeed.

now compare that to today's offerings. it's now common place for LED lights to put out 250+ lumens.

prior to Cree's jump in efficiency... nicely binned 3watt Luxeons were already putting out more light than was needed for most EDC activities.

60 lumens covers 99% of any closeup needs. anymore starts getting too bright for closeup work.

lumens used to be equally important to User Interface. but with advent of cheap lumens everywhere. UI has grown to be more important.

My EDC for the last year or so has been Titan. which IMHO has the world's best UI. twist to dial to what every level desired. what I find is most of the time 10-25 lumens is used. seldom is the full 60 lumens needed. just like seldom is Titan super low level used at 3 lumens (tent duties).