Candlepower vs. lumens?

milkyspit

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Sep 21, 2002
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This has probably been addressed before, and it's probably not even an exact conversion, but is there a reasonable rule of thumb for converting between candlepower and lux? I have a Pelican Laser Pro 4D incandescent light that specifies its output as 80,000 candlepower, but this means nothing to me when I compare it to the Surefire lights' lux ratings. How can I make sense of these ratings and hopefully have a clue as to where they stand relative to each other?
 

Rothrandir

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Aug 17, 2002
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they are two completely different things, and as such, cannot be directly compared.

as you likely know, candlepower is a measurement of light at a given point.
lumens is a measure of overall light.

as such, you can have a laser, which has extremely high candle power and extremely few lumens.
or you can have a ledlight, or a surefire-type light that has much fewer candlepower, but more lumens.
of course, for lighting use, you'd wouldn't pick the laser /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

that's a crude example, and comparing a laser to a normal flashlight isn't exactly fair, but you get the idea of the measurements.

lights that have long throw tend to be measured with candlepower, because it makes them look brighter (and it's just a good way to tell how far they throw..), whereas lights not intended for extra-long throw tend to be measured in lumens.

of course, how lights are rated varies, but cp and lumens are two measurements to describe different two different things (i think i said that above /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif )
 

FalconFX

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Nov 1, 2002
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Davis, CA
Shinning the beams at a white wall, and then taking the LUX measurements of the light that's bouncing from that wall should give you a general idea of the intensity of light a flashlight has. Beyond that, there's no direct comparison...
 
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