What is the highest amount of lumens you usually need?

randomlugia

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Hey, I have been thinking about getting my first good light. Right now I just have P7's from dealextreme, but I'm past the "wow" light stage, and I'd like to know the most lumens you guys have ever needed. Thanks!
 

rookiedaddy

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highest amount of lumens I usually need?
indoor: < 10 lumens
outdoor: < 160 lumens

but I want...
indoor: full flood ceiling bounce > 800 lumens
outdoor: TIR with > 3000 lumens

:devil:
 

Jash

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2-5 lumens is usually more than enough when getting up in the night for toilet treks and whatever.

60 lumens is usually enough to get me through most daily needs.

400-600 when taking the dog for a walk at night, depends on which light I take. It could be less, but if you've got it, use it!

If I need any more than that I call 000 (emergency number in Oz).
 

Roger999

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Most I use in pitch darkness indoors(as in a home not a giant factory) is 20lumens.
Outside in pitch dark: 80lumens(I only use incans when outside though)
 

gcbryan

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For me a XP-G is about right. At night outside I use it on medium and after a while on low. Low is good indoors at night.

High is fine for a few minutes searching for things indoors or outdoors.

I have a MC-E dive light that I've tried outside as well. It's overkill for me.

After that it's about throw for specialized situations. I have no interest in SST-50's and 90's . For diving more focused light is better up to about 2200 lumens.
 

jhc37013

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Inside 2-5 lumens, outside I usually use 85-100 this is the general mode for most lights I use. General mode on Eagletac, high on Fenix, medium on Jetbeam Jet-I Pro.
 

PeaceOfMind

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60% of the time: < 3 lumens
95% of the time: < 10 lumens
98% of the time: < 80 lumens
99.5% of the time: < 200 lumens

i.e. basically low lumens usually covers it for me, except for random cases where I really need some throw. Having ~200 lumens available would cover the vast vast majority of cases for me. Having 80 available is also nearly always enough.
 

Yoda4561

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Practically speaking, I usually don't feel underequipped with any 60-100 lumen light, preferably with a medium flood pattern. As a minimum, 30 lumens or so in the right beam pattern will get the job done. Now that said, I "prefer" lights in the 200+ lumen range in a medium flood, the brighter the better really. You can walk around the house without hitting walls or tripping over stuff with less of course, but that doesn't seem to be what you're interested in.
 

strinq

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Seriously?
I usually 'need' as much light as I can get. :D

Practically?
Indoors, 5-10 lumens for walking around.
50-200 lumens for a blackout.

Outdoors, 50 lumens for hiking with some ambient light. 20-30 lumens in pitch darkness. 200+ lumens for seeing things far away (throwy lumens).
 

Arcus Diabolus

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about 60-100 is useful enough for most task indoors or outdoors for me since that is relatively what my most powerful lights can deliver. If I would buy something like 200 lumens or more it would mostly be for showing off.
 

Locoboy5150

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Whatever my Fenix LD20 puts out in all four different modes is all that I really need for 99.99% of my daily tasks indoors and outdoors.
 

kramer5150

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~5L with night adapted vision, navigating around in the dark.
~100L, floody beam general use around the house and camp site (within 35 feet)
100-150L, tight spot beam for outdoor use at farther distances.
150L++, tight spot beam for seeing WAY out.... the more Lumens/Lux the better.
 

Colorblinded

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Whatever my Fenix LD20 puts out in all four different modes is all that I really need for 99.99% of my daily tasks indoors and outdoors.
Generally speaking I'd say that sums it up nicely (and agrees with a lot of posts in this thread) although at times I like a low that's lower than the LD20 can offer.

You didn't do well in maths did you? :nana:

Hmm read it again. Made sense to me.
 

Tally-ho

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You didn't do well in maths did you? :nana:

By saying
60% of the time: < 3 lumens
95% of the time: < 10 lumens
98% of the time: < 80 lumens
99.5% of the time: < 200 lumens
He's cumulating time under an amount of lumens so he is quite right to telling it like he did.

He probably meant:
60% of the time: 3 Lm or less.
35% of the time: more than 3 Lm to 10 Lm (so cumulated time under 10 Lm is 95% of the time)
3% of the time: more than 10 Lm to 80 Lm
1.5 % of the time: more than 80 Lm to 200 Lm


Anyway...
With an XP-G.R5, XR-E.R2 and XR-E.Q3 (neutral) because I usually don't need more:
Indoor: celling bounce in mid or low. Low-low when walking indoor.
Outdoor: mainly for hikings, low or mid. High for recognition if really needed but I prefer to keep my night adapted vision. Mid to max for shorter hikings when saving runtime battery is less important.
Max for night bicycle rides especially with friends who are using MC-E. I'm going to switch to MC-E.
 
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Art

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I would like to see your calculations for that :crackup:

I dont need more then 40 to 60lumens most of the time... in very dark places even less.

Obviously sometimes we need as much as we have available :twothumbs
 

kaichu dento

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I'd say that as a general rule, if a light has an honest 100 lumens with the ability to go down very low that that would be good enough for me.

Three lights I have that come very close to being all I need, even when carried alone, are my Ra Clicky, LF2XTi and Draco because they all have enough controllable light to get me through the day/night.
 

Chrontius

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If I can't get by with 1 lumen, I need around ten. If ten's not enough, a thousand or so. For seeing if there's someone skulking in my backyard, I feel undergunned at a (conservative) thousand from a nice 6-cell Eneloop-ROP with minimal resistance fixes. For getting up for a drink of water, I usually find a lumen too bright, and 1/3 or so is just right for seeing what's at my feet.
 
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