Do you quickly get used to brighter lights?

Forever I used Mags each night at work. For 6 months I used a Rayovac 130 or 160 lumen 2 C cell. Now, for probably a month, I've been using my TK41 in place of those lights on a nightly basis. I let a coworker borrow the TK41 last night and I grabbed my trusty ol' Rayovac. It was SOOO dim. I couldn't see anything. Seeing as how I couldn't (see), I had the fix, fresh cells. Fired it up...no brighter :thumbsdow When my co-worker (who had the TK and usually uses a Mag) came back, I asked him if my Rayovac seemed broken. If it seemed dimmer than it should be. He didn't think so. I insisted and compared it next to the TK41. He said "no man, that other light is pretty bright"

I instantly got the impression he felt like I was showing off my TK so I didn't say another word. Truth be told, I can never work with sub 200 lumen lights again and still be efficient. I don't see how I managed so long like that. My eyes cannot decipher the things I need to look for from a distance without my flashaholic toys. I'm actually a little concerned as I'm going to be switching to the TK70 in the next night or two, and I'm afraid I'll become dependent on this as well, making my TK41 "useless" for many aspects of my work.

Do you guys go through this? Do you upgrade to brighter lights then find yourself not being able to use lights with less output? I'm wondering if it's just me, or if maybe it's the things I look for at work (hard to find!), ooor maybe that's just how you define a flashaholic. Thoughts? Thanks!

fiberguy said:

Forever I used Mags each night at work. For 6 months I used a Rayovac 130 or 160 lumen 2 C cell. Now, for probably a month, I've been using my TK41 in place of those lights on a nightly basis. I let a coworker borrow the TK41 last night and I grabbed my trusty ol' Rayovac. It was SOOO dim. I couldn't see anything. Seeing as how I couldn't (see), I had the fix, fresh cells. Fired it up...no brighter :thumbsdow When my co-worker (who had the TK and usually uses a Mag) came back, I asked him if my Rayovac seemed broken. If it seemed dimmer than it should be. He didn't think so. I insisted and compared it next to the TK41. He said "no man, that other light is pretty bright"

I instantly got the impression he felt like I was showing off my TK so I didn't say another word. Truth be told, I can never work with sub 200 lumen lights again and still be efficient. I don't see how I managed so long like that. My eyes cannot decipher the things I need to look for from a distance without my flashaholic toys. I'm actually a little concerned as I'm going to be switching to the TK70 in the next night or two, and I'm afraid I'll become dependent on this as well, making my TK41 "useless" for many aspects of my work.

Do you guys go through this? Do you upgrade to brighter lights then find yourself not being able to use lights with less output? I'm wondering if it's just me, or if maybe it's the things I look for at work (hard to find!), ooor maybe that's just how you define a flashaholic. Thoughts? Thanks!

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This is a sick, sick place. Exactly one week after my first visit, I had a TK41 in my happy paws. The next day every Mag Light I have (8) went into the "Gift/trade/loan" box and the one 4 D cell I kept got a TeraLux 1000 Lumen upgrade!

That said, I EDC a Malkoff MD2 with a 260 lumen M61 drop-in and High/Low ring. I have an HDS E120 as my backup. I use the Low setting most times for close-up work or the 42 lumen setting on the HDS mostly. I use the TK-41 and TeraLux-Mag-Of-Blinding-the-neighbors, if I'm checking out noises at night or if the power goes out and I wanna bounce off the 24 ft. ceilings at home.

The key is using as few lumens as possible to complete your task; I could easily fire up the HID during a power outage and have 3000+ lumens of room lighting, but it'd only last ~40 minutes, and then my adjusted eyes would definitely be unable to see anything. If I use ~100 LED lumens to light everything up just enough, I get several hours of lighting, and I can see much better in partially-lit areas.

The high output lights are fun, but you'll find once you're actually trying to accomplish something, you almost never need more than a fraction of what the light is capable of..

yeah i never feel the problem in brighter lights. i always get used to them...

You do get used to brighter lights, after messing around with hid spotlights for a while I got my first car and was appalled by the headlights, I had to check that some joker hadn't replaced them with a couple of maglite solitaires. Suffice to say the 45 year old sealed beams will be replaced with some proper lights when funding allows

StarHalo said:

The key is using as few lumens as possible to complete your task; I could easily fire up the HID during a power outage and have 3000+ lumens of room lighting, but it'd only last ~40 minutes, and then my adjusted eyes would definitely be unable to see anything. If I use ~100 LED lumens to light everything up just enough, I get several hours of lighting, and I can see much better in partially-lit areas.

The high output lights are fun, but you'll find once you're actually trying to accomplish something, you almost never need more than a fraction of what the light is capable of..

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I'm 100% with you on that. Sometimes I need to read information up close and you'll never catch me on a setting above low. The problem I deal with in many situations is that you can never have too much light. The limitation on light would be residences. If I'm in a commercial or industrial area, I'll blast every lumen at my disposal. The more light I have the more likely I am to see what I need, meaning the faster I can proceed with my work. Less light means I have to cover more ground which costs time. I guess by giving myself enough light to be efficient I've allowed my eyes to become lazy. I mean, surely I'm better with more light than I was without it, but at the same time I'll be worse with less light than I previously was.

A good comparison would be as follows: You're given several acres to search for a dark grey T-shirt (splice point) on the ground at 2 AM. You may spot it relatively easily, in the grass, right next to the road, with a pair of jeans, shoes, socks, and a ball cap right next to it. Or it may be all alone, 15 feet deep beyond the tree line or buried under grass clippings and mulch. These are the situations where I use my power lights, and it seems to happen on a nightly basis. Most splice points are right out near the street, exactly at the address listed, well marked, etc. Then there's that one.. its a mile from the address, sodded over, you'll never find without a professional locator and a shovel. I spend hours/week looking for something in between those two examples. Maybe it's in someone's back yard. maybe it's partially buried with grass clippings and/or dead leaves. Whatever the case may be, I can cover more ground visually with more light (and less walking), making it possible to cover greater acreage in less time.

So yeah, judging by what you guys seem to think, I'm SOL. It's just gonna get more and more expensive from here. I don't know if I should be sad about the expense it may incur or excited about my new toys to look forward to. Wonder what's on the marketplace today...

Well a work light is a different situation entirely; you should buy whatever will help you be most productive with no other limiting criteria. The aforementioned HID would work well for you in non-residential areas - it throws a visible hotspot a half mile away and has a 160 degree spill that lights up everything around you. All I have to do to see what's on entire street is point the light directly down it, everything on both sides is lit like daylight, and if there's an object I'm supposed to see within the distance limit of my vision, I'll see it plainly. There isn't any weaker/older light I'd want for this purpose, but I'm not using this work light for anything else, so it's not like it's disappointing that my EDC can't light entire hillsides..

StarHalo said:

Well a work light is a different situation entirely; you should buy whatever will help you be most productive with no other limiting criteria. The aforementioned HID would work well for you in non-residential areas - it throws a visible hotspot a half mile away and has a 160 degree spill that lights up everything around you. All I have to do to see what's on entire street is point the light directly down it, everything on both sides is lit like daylight, and if there's an object I'm supposed to see within the distance limit of my vision, I'll see it plainly. There isn't any weaker/older light I'd want for this purpose, but I'm not using this work light for anything else, so it's not like it's disappointing that my EDC can't light entire hillsides..

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Completely agree. If you need it for your job, you need it. It's not unreasonable if you're searching for a smallish object in a 2 acre open area to use a HID.

To a certain extent, yes, eyes do adjust when you carry a brighter light. However, the biggest advantage I notice is that brighter lights are able to "fill" dark corners that the light can't shine directly into, because brighter light can bounce off more intermediate surfaces before becoming too dim to be useful. In that instance a brighter light is better for seeing without having to flick the light around to move the hotspot from one place to another.

I have a light for *almost* every purpose. Most tasks need 100 lumens or so. But... when you need light.... you need bright light. None of my Maglites has gone untouched. Lots of bright LEDs too! Right now I'm charging batteries for my Thrunite TN31 which has a control ring for any level of light needed.

I had the same issue back then but now I got over it. Basically the mindset of "battery time" will kick in soon because you will soon find out the problem with running higher lumen, just like the TM11, 2000 lumens, but highest mode with 4 batteries only run 1 hr or so. What then after it? If you go one step lower you get a few hours, and one step down, more hours. Save batteries is like saving money kind of thing (even it's free to recharge) but then, it feels safer to have reserved battery time AND also a backup light "just in case"... the feeling of secure and safe is what you need.

Sometimes you will want to just fire all the high lumens though, and let me tell you what --JUST DO IT! it's fun!

but then, later on you will surely go to a different stage that you start to ENJOY doing lower lumen as well, it's a "stage" and "transition" thing, part of the flashlight fun journey thing.

I've been there too, only using my 800 lumen lights on turbo for a while, until I almost got fined by a police officer for blinding other people on the road, thus causing danger.

After that day I only carried <200 lumen lights for a month (Fenix LD25, E21 and E11) and rediscovered their usefulness.

Nowadays I always carry a small light, a medium sized light, and one of my power lights. I always start using one of the smaller lights if I need light, and only switch to the big lights if I really need to.
Or just to show off, of course.

Depends on what you need the new light for I suppose. I use it to find my way in the woods when it's dark. I like the 6 lumens of my ITP SA2 as it allows me to circumvent puddles and spot obstacles without impairing my adapted eyes too much and take away my (natural) night vision. Newer lights are usually above 10 lumens on their lowest setting, which is not really what I want (not counting the ultra-low <1 lm settings).
So for me technical progress would be to have have longer lasting batteries while having relatively low light output.

Sadly, you have described the hallmark symptom of dwindlingphotonilia, which can
lead to chronic MLD (More Lumens Disease).
Typically the patient also suffers from TWS (Thin Wallet Syndrome) from purchasing
powerful flashlights in a desperate attempt to thwart the increasing tolerance of the
eye to higher levels of luminance.
It is known to be highly contagious and often spread by word of mouth.
There is no known cure, but the process may be slowed by avoiding contact with CPF.

The brighter the better. The new leds that are out there are just incredible.
:thinking:

TORCH_BOY said:

The brighter the better. The new leds that are out there are just incredible.
:thinking:

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Not always... anything above a handful of Lumens for up close book work/inspections reflects right back at you, not terribly efficient and a tad counter productive, mind you there's a time and a place for everything and some of my lights are more efficient than a (work supplied) 50w spotlight so I'll use my stuff instead (especially my HIDs), this allows for better use of my time whilst working in a task oriented mode :devil:

bob4apple said:

Sadly, you have described the hallmark symptom of dwindlingphotonilia, which can
lead to chronic MLD (More Lumens Disease).
Typically the patient also suffers from TWS (Thin Wallet Syndrome) from purchasing
powerful flashlights in a desperate attempt to thwart the increasing tolerance of the
eye to higher levels of luminance.
It is known to be highly contagious and often spread by word of mouth.
There is no known cure, but the process may be slowed by avoiding contact with CPF.

Click to expand...

Jetbeam PC10, roughly $70
TK 41 set up, roughly $150
TK 70 set up, roughly $250
Watching jaw after jaw drop.... priceless.

There's some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's VISA!


This place is a slippery, slippery slope of evil. I feel maxed out at the TK70; I can't justify spending significantly more money for not-that-many-more lumens.

I need a new LED to be developed or something.

fiberguy said:

I feel maxed out at the TK70; I can't justify spending significantly more money for not-that-many-more lumens.

I need a new LED to be developed or something.

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$50 more buys you 3500 lumens..

Try one of those HID lights. They have a warm-up time, but noting matches their output or efficiency just yet.

Most are bigger then LED lights, but they output is also sized to match (not speaking from experience, looking to build my first HID light).

that 3500 is sick but sucks, the look of it in blue is already toylish, plus the thing is like those latern lights, not even "flashlight" like a tube, sucks on that one. They should make the tiny monster size stuff with 5 XML bulb in a plumb flower shape design and maybe that can give you a nice power torch.