Which brightness setting(s) do you use most often with your light(s)?

I have only 2 LED lights, but I've tried out the various brightness settings in different places and different situations. With my Jetbeam BC-10, it has only 2 settings; Low-30L, and high-270L. I've found that the low(30L) setting is perfectly fine for most situations. I can walk around outside on our 1.5 acre heavily wooded property while walking the dog at night with the BC-10 set on low and I can see just fine, although it doesnt have a very wide spill beam. On 30L low, I can clearly see things 70 feet away. With the iTp Polestar, it has 3 settings; Low-12L, Med-160L, High-700L. I've noticed that it's 12L low setting is almost completely useless for anything other than spotting something closeby, because it wastes some of its light on it's wide spill beam, so that 12L doesnt do much. However, it's 160L medium setting is great for spotting longer distance stuff with its bright spot, but also good at illuminating a wide close-up area with it's spill beam. I dont even need high. But I am disappointed that the Polestar doesn't have a 4th setting of around 35-45 lumens, which would be very useful, and the batteries would last longer too. In my next light, a mid sized model that runs on 2, 123's or 1, 18650, I want infinite adjustibility, so that 'I' can decide which brightness settings are best for my situations. What settings do you use the most? Are you at all concerned with battery life when using your light, so that you usually set it at the lowest possible setting?

Like you I mostly use the lower settings.
If I take a walk with the dog (or without the dog!) all I need is to see the ground a few meters in front of me so let's say 10-30 lumens is fine.
Sometimes I use my light for some task just in front of me and I prefer less. If I use my light indoors at night I want as low as possible.
It happens that I want throw but that's just for short bursts.
If I'm in the woods and it's pitch dark it doesn't take very much light to se enough.
Runtime is no problem for me. A set of batteries/a charge lasts for weeks or months.
If I go camping or similar when I expect more use I bring more batteries of course.

Too much light is a liability.
The most use I can see from a light is one that will let you hold it down to the trail on a low setting and then instantly give you access to a higher level for lifting the light up momentarily to see farther away, and then go back to low for the trail without losing your own sensitivity (close objects shining back the flood can be a problem too), too much light and you've relatively blinded yourself for quite some time.
Anybody knows the receptivity/time log scale or whatnot chime in.

Normally its either medium with my CL1H + SSC P50 (Nailbender) dropin or absolutely minimum low with my LF2XT. Basically depending on whether I'm outdoors checking a dark corner or indoors navigating at night determines which light I reach for. I find I'm changing modes frequently though.

Camping/hiking/midnight restroom trips is mostly low modes. Med/high modes is used when Im working and need to light up an already lit up room. Sometimes the sunlight that comes in the rooms just isnt enough or doesnt hit the right spots, same goes for overhead lighting. Those 60watt bulbs just suck. Also when working on my car I use med/high mode (depends on the light used). All modes have their uses, it just depends on the jobs/tasks being done

My Light Culture is centered way over on the dim side.

I have my lights on either VERY low around camp or in the tent or as high as I can with a decent run time for a night walk (3hrs ish)

Simple... all or nothing!!

I am atypical, and use the maximum mode almost exclusively, regardless of the light I'm using (the brightest I have is my S12, which I always keep on high, and I have a number of other XP-G lights that I always use on Max)

Depends which torch I'm using. If i'm using my aspherical lights they're always on high so I can see as far as possible, if I'm using my ITP headlamp it'll usually be on medium, I find low too dim for walking about (without treading in a present from the dogs) and high drains the battery too quickly, same with my ITP A3. Because these lights are used for fairly specific tasks they don't see much mode variation, however my Fenix LD20 is used for a variety of things and I realy don't know what mode it is in the most, for walking about I alternate between medium and high, for looking at close stuff (reading, tinkering with other torches, etc...) I use low and for showing off turbo.

I honestly use 3 Lumens most of the time. This is the perfect amount of light for me to use at night or early in the morning to not wake up the wife and kids. I ceiling bounce this brightness to get dressed in the morning. Although candling my Clicky is sometimes precarious, Hah!

Honestly, I use more light that I need most of the time because it is available.... It would be nice if companies would focus on beam quality, run times and other junk like that but that stuff doesn't sell... having the brightest light does so realistically I can't blame them for focusing on lumens vs. the other things I mentioned. A light that had a .5, 5, 25, and say a 50 lumen light would be great with the lower modes having multiple day run times. I wish my E05 had a lower mode that would allow at least a 12-24 hr run time at perhaps 5 lm or so.

Vast Majority of my flashlight use is Less Than 10 Lumens.


Must admit -- I am quite surprised to see so many fellow CPF'ers who agree with me !



Amazing how much i can (and do) accomplish, with just a Lumen or two.



Give it a try. It's a real Eye-Opener.

(pun intended)

:candle:
_

It depends but as most have said either low or medium unless it's a "thrower" and then high. I'm not too worried about run time but too much light for the situation is generally just irritating so I don't do that.

What i really like about HDS is level 1 (0.07Lu.) moonlight mode and I do use it at night for bathroom etc. Level 16 (13Lu.) is great for dressing early am. identifying colors etc. this is probably my most used level but i do use moonlight every night. And when you want a lot more light, it's just a click away - Henry got this one 'spot on'.

I'm a big fan of the HDS 200T. Clicky; it's an all day EDC. It goes from the pocket to the night stand then back to the pocket. :thumbsup:

My EDC torch is a Sunwayman V20C. I find the light produced by the XM-L LED to be much less "harsh" and just very "useable" even at max output (438 lumens). As a result, I rarely need to turn it down and wind up leaving it at max all the time.

My primary light is a Cree XML with the Shinning Beam 1.4a three mode driver. I carry the little beast in my pocket and though I have never had a problem with it turning on accidentally, I keep it on low just in case.

When using the light I rarely go above low or medium. I think of it like a car that has NOS, lots of power on tap but rarely need much of it.

I find the light produced by the XM-L LED to be much less "harsh" and just very "useable" even at max output (438 lumens).

Click to expand...

It has less lux than the xp-g versions, it's the lux in the hotspot that blinds you, not the lumens.
My zebralight h30 with no hotspot is less blinding on 2 lumens than my quark turbos moonlight mode (0,2 lumens).

Personally I prefer to move around on low output in the range of 15 to 30 lumen, and go on max when I need to see far. I also realized that whenever I needed the max output, it is usually for short bursts of only a few seconds, enough to make out what I needed to see. That is why I prefer lights with interface like the two level twisty offered by Surefire, and either the HDS clicky or rotary where I usually set it to a lower output levels. When more light is needed for me to see further, I just depress the clicky switch for a momentary burst and then letting go to get back to the last output. With Zebralight, all I need do is clicky it off from medium or low and click again for max output.

For use in the room, I like lights that go way down to like 1 lumen or less so that I don't disturb my wife who is a light sleeper. That is why I love the Surefire T1A, HDS clicky and rotary, and my Zebralights.

There is also a scientific reason to using low output most of the time other than saving battery power. Our irises react to light. The more light there is the more it will contract so we don't go blind. By moving around on max output all the time, we cause our irises to contract so much that we ended up getting tunnel vision and limit what we can see on longer distances. By using a lower output for my night walks I actually minimizes the amount of contraction on my irises so that when I hit the max burst I could instantly see much further because the irises now allow more light to pass through.

4-60 lumens. This enough for me in most situations. I do use lower and higher in certain situations.