Cell phone's camera flash LED as a light anyone?

Anyone ever end up using their cell phones as a light?

While I don't have an edc light yet, I'm still surprised sometimes when friends don't bring a flashlight when we go places we know will be dark.
I went with a couple people to climb a rocky hill that overlooks the city when you reach the top. Surprising I was the only person to bring a flashlight. It wasn't anything amazing, but easily nicer and brighter than the typical $2 light or maglight. I end up passing the flashlight over to someone else and using the LED flash on my android phone as a second light.

I'd usually rather not waste the batteries on my phone, but I've found having a flashlight app on my phone surprisingly useful in various occasions. It's just shown me how useful always having a light can be.

I have an iPhone with a flashlight app and have used it on several occasions.

Its good if you need light immediately and already have the phone in your hand.

Even have a shortcut so I can access the light from the lockscreen.:thumbsup:

EDIT: forgot to Welcome you to CPF! Welcome!

I love it and use mine on my Droid Incredible dual LED all the time. It's as floody as you can get and with the Cyanogen Rom loaded up I have what's called "high-brightness" and with my eyes it's equal to my Fenix LD01 on high! which is amazing for a phone! :welcome:

One thing you should consider with these camera flash LEDs is that they were made to be on for less than a second. They probably have no heatsinking at all, so don't use them too long.

My phone has a dedicated flashlight which has an awful beam but is really useful as a backup.

Any light is better than no light at all.
A couple of times, the light emitted from my cellphone screen was more than enough for me to do what I needed to do.

I agree that phone LEDs are probably not heatsinked, but more to the point, most phones have less battery capacity than a single cr123 and have to run the phone hardware and the LEDs so yes it is handy, but not designed for extended use, and will absolutely kill battery life. I would prefer having a working phone rather than light in an emergency

Spending the phone's battery life with the light might actually prevent one from finding him/herself in an emergency. But sure, depends on the situation..

Yes i use a phone app,3 mode version and i find it really handy and would not be without it.

Serial Chiller said:

One thing you should consider with these camera flash LEDs is that they were made to be on for less than a second. They probably have no heatsinking at all, so don't use them too long.

My phone has a dedicated flashlight which has an awful beam but is really useful as a backup.

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[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, san-serif]Wie gehts and which phone has a dedicated [/FONT][FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, san-serif]flash light[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, san-serif] as i am interested.[/FONT]

My question is, with bright capable flashlights now being the size of your pinky finger (Maratac AAA, Fenix LD01, Streamlight Microstream, etc.), why would anyone who is "into" flashlights not always have a flashlight on them? Sure, I'd love to carry a 2xCR123 light around all the time, but it's not always convenient, especially in the warmer seasons. But I have no excuse not to slip my Maratac AAA Rev 3 into my pocket. Even if I don't, I always have a Fenix EO5 on my keychain.

I have a friend who has been using his iPhone flashlight app to see into dark spaces behind computers at his job. I convinced him to get a Maratac AAA, and he is amazed at how much more effective he is at this part of his job!

drgnclwk said:

Anyone ever end up using their cell phones as a light? While I don't have an edc light yet, I'm still surprised sometimes when friends don't bring a flashlight when we go places we know will be dark. I went with a couple people to climb a rocky hill that overlooks the city when you reach the top. Surprising I was the only person to bring a flashlight. It wasn't anything amazing, but easily nicer and brighter than the typical $2 light or maglight. I end up passing the flashlight over to someone else and using the LED flash on my android phone as a second light. I'd usually rather not waste the batteries on my phone, but I've found having a flashlight app on my phone surprisingly useful in various occasions. It's just shown me how useful always having a light can be.

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There is a 10 page thread in the general forum about this. Lots of opinions. (just realized someone bumped a 3 year old thread)

I use it when I need light for a short period of the time and the iPhone is near by. I have to say its pretty handy, but its not my "main light"

When I ascend the stairs going to bed or coming down early in the morning I use mine. It works fine for finding my way. Sure it's not as good as any of my flashlights but I leave my solar force L2P beside the bed for my wife if she needs it. All my other lights are too bright to use in a pitch black house

Phone is almost always on my person, almost never discharged below 50%, recharged daily, and has a nice even flood. I find I use it often for task work indoors since it's more convenient than fishing the keychain out of my pocket and trying to twist the flashlight on. With an android widget, I can run the light without the screen on, which doesn't affect battery life much at all.

There are two basic light levels that the camera itself uses - a few hundred lumens for ~100ms as a flash and a few tens of lumens for use as a video light; flashlight apps always use the video light levels, thus heatsinking concerns are pretty academic.

Throw is anemic and of course the phone is more fragile than most flashlights so it switch-hits with the keychain EDC. A flashlight app adds a capability to the average smartphone that costs pretty much nothing to have available.

My feelings of using a smartphone as a Flashlight, or for that matter...as a Swiss army knife of all trades...
1.) Need a good light...Buy a Flashlight!
2.) Need real Camera...Buy a real Camera!
3.) Want to video record all the time....Buy a real HD Vidcam! Like a pocket Handicam, or an all weather camera that has decent video! Highly recommend an Fuji XP 200!

groutboy_1 said:

My feelings of using a smartphone as a Flashlight, or for that matter...as a Swiss army knife of all trades...
1.) Need a good light...Buy a Flashlight!
2.) Need real Camera...Buy a real Camera!
3.) Want to video record all the time....Buy a real HD Vidcam! Like a pocket Handicam, or an all weather camera that has decent video! Highly recommend an Fuji XP 200!

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We went through a lot of this in the previous thread on the subject. The purpose-built devices you mention generally out-perform a smartphone, but are nowhere near as handy or useful day-to-day as a smartphone, thus the average person is less likely to have them on their person at all times. A mediocre tool you happen to have is infinitely better than a superior tool that's not available.

I realize that this is CPF and thus the responses will tend towards use one of your EDC flashlights - sometimes melodramatically so implying that using your cellphone for anything other than mission-critical life-saving critical-emergency communication will endanger the lives of you and your loved ones - but it really costs next to nothing to have the capability available and in some instances can be more useful than the typical reflector EDC that throws a nice spot but generates little flood/spill.

That being said I concur that single-AAA lights are ridiculously capable, inexpensive, and clip onto a keychain easily enough.

Today's cell phones are convergence devices. Contacts manager, text pager and phone combined happened about 20 years ago. The fact that you can do so much more today, simply increases the usefulness.

Nokia (and some others) have had a dedicated flashlight LED in many of their entry level phone models for more than 10 years. Sold in many developing countries, they are the defacto flashlight. I have seen children using them to walk home. Some mechanics, fishermen and police officers use them daily. But those Nokias are like cockroaches, they just won't die.

I downloaded a flashlight app that even has an SOS and three frequencies of strobe. I never use it, though, just there in case I really need it.

As I type this using my old LG L9 using Taptalk (which crashes here and there). It has ok Video playback, and Dual-Core GPU for light gaming (Plants vs Zombies 2 and Williams pinball...) And is an okay texting, and communication tool...It will never replace these!!!! Some of my favorite EDCs to packrat!
(Not including, HP Amd A8 laptop, Google Nexus tablet, laptop carry bag for all the goodies! )

groutboy_1 said:

As I type this using my old LG L9 using Taptalk (which crashes here and there). It has ok Video playback, and Dual-Core GPU for light gaming (Plants vs Zombies 2 and Williams pinball...) And is an okay texting, and communication tool...It will never replace these!!!! Some of my favorite EDCs to packrat!
(Not including, HP Amd A8 laptop, Google Nexus tablet, laptop carry bag for all the goodies!

)

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What film are you in next? :nana: