New guy with and old question: What is the BRIGHTEST LED production flashlight?

Bullylite74

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 30, 2010
Messages
5
Location
Tacoma - Washington
Hello All-

I am brand-new to this great forum. I can not believe the collective knowledge of this group. I thought I loved flashlights...I know now I am a "new born" in this game.

My question is an old one & probably has been beat to death in other posts, but:

As of today, (right now...) What is the brightest LED flashlight offered on the market today?

I get the feeling reading posts in the custom forum pages that the true fan-technicians are home-brewing brighter lights than the production market.

I wonder, with all the manufacturing abilities at big industry's finger tips, why light output seems tame compared to what someone with the know-how and passion can make in their garage. I find that very curious.

As always, I thank you in advance for your time, information, opinions & shared insight.
 

ti-force

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
1,266
Location
Georgia, U.S.
Manufacturers have a lot more to take into consideration than just making an extremely bright light. The light has to be safe, reliable, it needs to have good regulation, a UI that will work for the majority of customers who are in the market for such a light, etc., etc. Home-brew modders (like myself :D) don't really have to meet these requirements because we build them for ourselves, not thousands of customers who might possibly abuse and neglect the light, and possibly injure themselves or others, which would quickly put you in the middle of a lawsuit.

While I'm not sure what the absolute brightest production LED light is, I'm pretty sure an Olight SR90 would be pretty close. The Lambdalight Varapower 2000 is very bright, but I don't think that's considered a production light. Olight just released their SR91, which isn't as bright as the SR90, but it's not nearly as MASSIVE either. 4sevens is currently developing an S12 and an S18, which should both be very bright LED lights.

Something else you need to take into consideration is what kind of beam profile you're after. Do you want a tight beam that will throw hundreds of yards, or do you want a floody beam that will light up everything in front of you?

Oh yeah,
:welcome:
 
Last edited:

yalskey

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
571
Location
Baltimore, Maryland
Manufacturers have a lot more to take into consideration than just making an extremely bright light. The light has to be safe, reliable, it needs to have good regulation, a UI that will work for the majority of customers who are in the market for such a light, etc., etc. Home-brew modders (like myself :D) don't really have to meet these requirements because we build them for ourselves, not thousands of customers who might possibly abuse and neglect the light, and possibly injure themselves or others, which would quickly put you in the middle of a lawsuit.

While I'm not sure what the absolute brightest production LED light is, I'm pretty sure an Olight SR90 would be pretty close. The Lambdalight Varapower 2000 is very bright, but I don't think that's considered a production light. Olight just released their SR91, which isn't as bright as the SR90, but it's not nearly as MASSIVE either. 4sevens is currently developing an S12 and an S18, which should both be very bright LED lights.

Something else you need to take into consideration is what kind of beam profile you're after. Do you want a tight beam that will throw hundreds of yards, or do you want a floody beam that will light up everything in front of you?

Oh yeah,
:welcome:

Said with class and wisdom. Nice. http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/images/smilies/happy14.gif
 

StarHalo

Flashaholic
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
10,927
Location
California Republic
I wonder, with all the manufacturing abilities at big industry's finger tips, why light output seems tame compared to what someone with the know-how and passion can make in their garage. I find that very curious.

Because flashaholics don't mind using non-commercial batteries that require specialized safety handling techniques that will provide maybe ten minutes of light in a flashlight that will burn your hand if left on for about 30 seconds. :tinfoil:

If you want big-gun light, you should look to the HID format for a relatively realistic package (stretching "realistic" since it's too bright to use in any urban/suburban setting), that'll get you over 3000 lumens for ~1 hour. Or if you just want ludicrous unrealistic output, as described above, check out the hotwire incandescent Mags/lights.

If you want LED specifically, the aforementioned production SR90 is right up there with the handmade Elektrolumens' MCE III Drop-in, ~2200 lumens. The same builder also has 3,000 lumen and 10,800 lumen LED models..
 
Last edited:

ImGeo

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
117
Following what they said: don't just look for the brightest.

If you want a huge light that doesn't fit in your pocket, you can get about 2000 lumens with a LED. Of if you want more power, get a HID.

For "pocketable" lights, you can get quite a few hundred lumens. However, it also depends on the beam (how condensed is the beam?) And using different power sources (li-ion 18650 uncommon batteries, VS regular nimh AA batteries).

And of course, you'd want a light that you like--not one that is just bright. Look at the UI (user interface, or how it changes modes), weight, shape, look, feel and fit, simplicity of use, forward or reverse clicky (do a search to see the difference), and beam shape...

Welcome to CPF, and realize that if you can't control yourself, you'll end up with 10 lights and friends who think you're crazy for spending so much on a flashlight.
 

Dances with Flashlight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 28, 2005
Messages
1,397
Location
Glendale, Arizona
Manufacturers have a lot more to take into consideration than just making an extremely bright light.

+1 And you can add a host of other factors in addition to those already mentioned: R&D time and costs, rapidfire technological developments, availability of emitters & suitable optics, power requirements & battery limitations, marketing & demand, pricing, inventories, and on and on.

In addition, it's really important to qualify "brightness" either in terms of total lumen output or in terms of relative candlepower/lux - they aren't the same.

and :welcome:
 

kramer5150

Flashaholic
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
6,328
Location
Palo Alto, CA
Xtar D31
Xtar D30
ST-90
Fore-mentioned Elekreolumens and Lambda (Although many would not really consider these to be mass production)
 

abarth_1200

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
1,015
Location
Scotland
The thing that will surprise you most out of everything is the amount of light and functionality you can get out of something not much bigger than the tiny battery powering it, that was my biggest wow when I got into this forum.

:welcome:
 

bigchelis

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
3,604
Location
Prunedale, CA
I have tested many LED lights that claim 2000 lumens, but they fall short by at least 500 lumens and then drop from there.

I had a chance to test 2 of Electrolumens tripple MC-E drop-ins rated at 2200 lumens.

One made 900 briefly and the other was way less.

One thing is to claim the 2000~13k plus lumens another is to prove it. Via new cell chemistries we can in theory make 100 watt LED lights, but will they deliver tens of thousands of lumens = probably no more then a 50 watt light.

The good thing is that time is on our side. As we get more efficient LED's one day we will look back at 30 watt/ 2100 OTF lumens and think "thats it"
 

T-Slot

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Messages
6
http://www.light-reviews.com/olight_sr90/


When a light has a "low" mode of over 300 lumens, it should be a good enough hint of what it's capable of. As far as LED's go, the SR90 puts out an extremely large amount of light from a single emitter, all thanks to the new SST-90 LED by Luminus. While the official data sheet shows the SST-90 capable of a maximum of 2200 lumens, practical output measure after considering optical and heat losses still puts it at an impressive 1382 lumens.
 

recDNA

Flashaholic
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
8,761
I'm shocked lumen output is so low! I really thought this beast put out 2000 lumens! OTOH the lux reading of over 72,000 sounds goooood.
 

bigchelis

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
3,604
Location
Prunedale, CA
Did you test the Olight SR90?


I sure did. It was 1480ish OTF and 1200ish at 3 minutes.

For being a huge tank type search light I would have expencted flat output.


PCC made a 3D SSR-90 Mag with huge 2.5in Aluminum slug. It is wired DD and pulls 4.88A off 4 NiMH C Tenergy cells. He is bumping up the current and using copper next.


1580ish OTF at turn-on and 1550ish OTF at 4 minutes, I know its not production but if the average joe can do this why cant Olight.:poke:
 

JimH

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 8, 2004
Messages
2,714
Location
San Jose, CA
The SR90 is the only LED light I've ever encountered, or even heard of, that will turn off a street light (the kind with the light sensor on the top). Based on experience with mine, it's also built like a tank. :twothumbs
 

bigchelis

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
3,604
Location
Prunedale, CA
Olight says that the SR90 puts out 2200 lumens. 2200, 1480, 1200...they're all the same right? :shakehead



Im pretty sure..2200 emitter lumens.

Then I get it and it puts out 1480ish at 1 sec, but drops from there. Its a shame really. Or is it. At least it gives out 95k lux at 1 meter on me.:party:

So, it at least is a searchlight. At that price and size I would have switched to HIDE:oops:
 

Mathiashogevold

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
Messages
381
Location
Norway
What about the new Wisled Tactical? :whistle:
2600 lumens in BOOST mode, 2300 lumens in high.. one of the most powerful mass-produced LED flashlights made until now, i guess :)

You should also remember that WiseLED uses REAL lumens, not Emitter lumens, just check www.wiseled.com
 
Last edited:
Top