LED Flashlight Questions

Hi Folks,
Thanks in advance for considering the following questions on LED flashlights. I am an electronics engineer, but not knowledgeable in the lighting field. Generic observations and questions:

It seems that the trend in LED flashlights is toward ever brighter lumen output. In fact most standard size flashlights available today qualify as tactical, considering that they can damage the retina.

My 40 lumen output, 3-D cell unit seems plenty bright to me, and I am sometimes unable to see objects clearly in the dark, due to the intensity of the reflected light from this brightness level. The manufacturer now offers a 220 lumen cartridge for my flashlight. A few years ago that would be considered a weapon in itself, and will too bright to light up a dark room for house clearing and the like. Perfect for immobilizing a bad guy, though.

Why do many manufacturers provide zero technical information about their products other than lumen output? How frustrating.

Now that LED drive electronics are easily available, are all high quality products using this technology to regulate the drive current to their modules? If so, electronic control is seldom specified along with the ability to run in reduced output mode. Frustrating.

I would like to see more discussion on manufacturer's sites and on the forum about survival flashlights as opposed to high power "tactical" flashlights. Even the lantern forum seems focused on high output lanterns. After all, in total darkness it only takes a tiny bit of light to be useful inside a camping tent or in a power outage situation at home. Add to that the advantage of having your low power lantern mode last a long long time!

Thanks for a great forum and unlimited information!
King7

I think it comes down to bigger numbers = better. Just like memory or processor speed in computers, pixel count in cameras, etc. Luckily, we have a great resource here in CPF with many excellent reviews that get into the esoteric details that a normal consumer would have little interest in.

Welcome to CPF (and hold onto your wallet)

Howdy King7, and welcome to CPF.
I've got a feeling that once you start looking around, you'll see that many of the manufacturers here provide a LOT of information about their lights, including drive electronics etc.

To get you started, here are some excellent flashlight review sites:
http://www.light-reviews.com/reviews.html
http://www.flashlightreviews.ca
http://www.lygte-info.dk/review/Reviews UK.html

And you might as well begin learning about rechargeable batteries, as we use a lot of those around here as well:
Battery University:
http://batteryuniversity.com/

Also, learn how to use the Google Search Box located at the top left of most CPF pages, as it is your key to finding out about anything imaginable concerning flashlights. Just leave it check marked for"CPF Only" and it will limit it's search to relevant CPF threads. For instance, I typed in "survival lights" and got this page full of CPF threads:
http://www.google.com/search?q=survival+lights&sitesearch=www.candlepowerforums.com

By the way, I think you'll find that there are are many lights available that cater to those of us who, like you, appreciate the ability to light our way with a tiny amount of light. There are also a few lights that can go very bright AND very dim (the Zebralight SC600 comes to mind).

So, grab a cup of coffee and start reading. You're in for a treat!

I'll just add that even though I too am more interested in low modes than ultra high modes everyone has a different use for their flashlight. I don't need to go out in my backyard at night with a 1000 lumen light but someone in a large cave might.

All lights that aren't direct drive have some electronics and many are constant current regulated for constant output but some aren't and sometimes that's by choice as well. In a survival light (since you've mentioned that use) it would be more important to have longer runtime than an constant output with an abrupt cut-off.

You're right that most manufacturers with lights in your local stores don't provide a lot of technical info. Most people (not on CPF) don't understand that technical info anyway.