How accurate are the LED flashlight manufacturers' brightness claims?

HighlanderNorth said:

I have not seen this posted much here so far, but I've read and heard a few people say that many/most of the LED flashlight manufacturers greatly exaggerate the brightness of their lights.

I've been happy with the lights I've bought so far, and they seem pretty bright. Also, when I compare the brightness levels of different lights to each other, and compare the claimed brightness in lumens, I have not really seen much of a discrepancy... But......If looking at a beam that is supposedly 200 lumens, I am not able to say, "hey, that's not 200 lumens, that's only 187 lumens!":naughty:

What do you think?

Click to expand...

ergotelis said:

Most of the manufacturers have adopted the ansi/fl1 standard but still, their products seem to be overrated. So far in my tests, have found a lot of flashlights to be dramatically out of specs, unfortunately.

Click to expand...

asdalton said:

Exaggerated output is much less of a problem now than it was a few years ago.

I did see a serious offender today in the store--a Stanley LED spotlight advertised at "520 lumens" but containing only a single Cree XR-E. You can cut that claim in half, at least.

Click to expand...

coyote said:

i trust manufacturers descriptions 100%

why would they lie?

in fact, i believe everything everyone ever told me. i'm that kinda guy... :duh2:

Click to expand...