When did you realise it's not all about the throw or millions of lumens

It took me at least 3 years before the penny dropped & i realised the best lights don't have to be long throwing lumen kings
i was wondering if thats a long time to come to my sense's.How long did it take you?

Here is my tiny flashlight chronology: Maglite 3D-->MTE SSC-P7-C-->Eagletac M3C4 XP-G R5 triple--> 47's Quark 123² NW XP-G R4
Some time after getting the Quark I sold the Eagletac, because I didn't have use for it.

So the Eagletac triple M3C4 cured me somehow.

But it depends on the usage scenario.

My next lights might be the HDS rotary, but I think I'll get a Zebralight Sc600 sometime nonetheless.

The 5 minutes it took me to look up my account balance online.

nutcracker said:

Here is my tiny flashlight chronology: Maglite 3D-->MTE SSC-P7-C-->Eagletac M3C4 XP-G R5 triple--> 47's Quark 123² NW XP-G R4
Some time after getting the Quark I sold the Eagletac, because I didn't have use for it.

So the Eagletac triple M3C4 cured me somehow.

But it depends on the usage scenario.


My next lights might be the HDS rotary, but I think I'll get a Zebralight Sc600 sometime nonetheless.

Click to expand...

I've got the HDS rotary & its brilliant i can't stand to be without it

I'll just leave this here.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?225375-Brightness-Isn-t-Everything

I learned fairly early about that, but it took me a while before I really admitted to myself that I like flood beams much better, and find them a lot more useful.

My first serious light was a HDS U60GT about six years ago. I still have it and carry it. It does the job for me, even if it does have an outdated emitter. 60 lumens max is plenty for EDC, and I normally use between 10-30 lumens the most, and sometimes I even use the moonlight setting. I would like the better runtimes from the newer lights though. Eventually, I'll upgrade it.
My HDS leans toward a throwy type beam, and it's okay for most things.
But most of my more recent purchases have been flood beams. Mostly Malkoff Wildcats, V1, V2, and V3.

Once I bought my first $20 Headlamp with Zoom and lever-controlled continuous brightness adjustment (Lenser H7 clone), I realised -
- I no longer had to carry separate Flood and Spot lights
- I no longer had to fumble about pressing a button to get the brightness I wanted
- I no longer had to give up one hand to hold a torch

Just starting to find that out now - found my very 'throwy' Romisen RC-G2 does indeed chuck a beam very far for a 1AA device - but with a tiny hotspot and very little spill. I'm finding lights that are more of a compromise between throw and flood more useful, so far one of the best is my comparatively 'old' Nitecore Extreme Infinity brilliant for this. Got some more (secondhand) lights including a Novatac Storm, Nitecore EZaa (warm - will be my first 'warm' tone light) and a more up to date EX11.2 incoming from that states and an EagleTac P10a2 from this side of the pond coming so will have more to evaluate soon! Looking forward to seeing how they stack up

nutcracker said:

Here is my tiny flashlight chronology: Maglite 3D-->MTE SSC-P7-C-->Eagletac M3C4 XP-G R5 triple--> 47's Quark 123² NW XP-G R4
Some time after getting the Quark I sold the Eagletac, because I didn't have use for it.

So the Eagletac triple M3C4 cured me somehow.

But it depends on the usage scenario.

My next lights might be the HDS rotary, but I think I'll get a Zebralight Sc600 sometime nonetheless.

Click to expand...

Same thing happened to me. I started with smaller light that had moderate throw about 100 yards, then got one with more lumens and more throw, then another, then another. Finally I got the Eagletac M3C4, at first and still to this day I was blown away by how bright it was. Then for some reason after that I started buying any and ever cheap led light with 5 or less lumens, been using them ever since. But every once in a while I'll get the urge to go outside and turn night into day :0)

When I bought a neutral drop-in for my 6P. About a year and a half after finding CPF.

Although I have to add that as a mechanic, I have always used lower modes to avoid glare.

This first time I needed a runtime longer than the life of the battery!
Runtime was a lot more important than output specially with no other light pollution.
In my instance is was a 10 hour power failure. My Safelight http://www.safe-light.com/ became my and my kids best friend.

I am one of 5 houses on 75 acres so I need throw - lots of throw. That said, that is only for outside. I love a nice floody neutral tint for inside the house and close-up work inside or outside. I realized pretty quickly that I needed both types of lights. My biggest thrower (for outside) is about 120k lux @ 1 meter and I still need more. My throwers are useless inside the house though.

After two 5mm lights (including a River Rock 2C) with its Aspherical lens. Wanting more power... I purchased a 1st Gen 2D MagLite, and then a Lowes Task Force 3W 2C.. Hated both of them!! (returned the Lowes after playing with it for only a few minutes). Somehow the 1st gen Minimag Led's overall balance really grew on me. Onto a Fenix L2D and then several Quarks. Love the moonlight and 3-4 lumen settings. It is nice to have 200 lumens if needed.

2 years and thousands of dollars! I am on record as a malkoff fanboy. A m61 or m61L is all anyone needs.
Something in that battery config and size anyways.

Reliability, decent runtime and enough light for a distance you can react in is all we need.

I carry a hand held on my many hunting and fishing adventures. For my use, throw can be important and I was pretty thrilled when I upgraded my R2 dropins to XML's. The XML gives me great spread and really good throw. It's nice to have both in one light!!!

Never really been into the big blasters. With only a couple older exceptions all my lights are one cell. I want to able to easily pocket carry. And, even more important is a low that's less than 5 lumens, preferably no more than 1-2. The fact that the small lights are generally cheaper factors highly, too.

Geoff

I still like a lot of lights... but I have learned that at least a Neutral tint is the way to go.... Cool beams are overall brighter but losing 7% isn't significant when you gain a more useful beam, IMHO. That said... my newest light is a P-Rocket with the neutral tint... has 3 modes... although I wish it had a lower low but with nice throw and a huge flood it's kinda like the best of both worlds.

I finally realized it three years ago when I found myself mostly using the low mode on my variable-output lights. As for mega-throw, I don't need it while indoors; all of my TIR-optic SureFires have diffusers on them.

I wanted throw because my dog ran all over the yard......but the small beam with no spill had my flashlight running more than the dog

I wanted big lumens to show off....But the glare made it useless for closeup work, replacing batteries suck, and my night vision was shot

Now I rarely use more than 80-100 lumens with 10-50 to be the norm

After building a bunch of bright hotwires, I discovered that except for one they were all too bright to work on the car or under the sink. At home I always carry a Surefire G2 with 3.7v incandescent bulb and 17670 battery. Bright enough. Good color rendition. I usually reach for a low-lumen light now.