Question about I-mini from ShiningBeam.com

I bought an I-mini from ShiningBeam.com mainly due to the infinite brightness adjustment. I need a flashlight that is bright enough, but at the same time I want one that is safe around my 2 years old boy.

The I-mini seems to fit the bill, since the brightness can be adjusted down to 7 lumen, and the UI for adjusting the brightness is hidden enough that I don't think my son can figure it out within a short time (i.e. if he find it in my bag without me knowing).

Anyway after I received it I am a bit surprised by the limited range of adjustment for the brightness. It *seems* to me that even at the lowest setting the light is still very bright, and the difference between the two ends of the adjustment is very minimal. Now I have to admit I have absolutely no idea how bright is 7 lumen, but I was hoping that at the lowest setting it will be dim enough so that a child can look into the light without causing any eye damage.

Can anyone give me an idea how bright is 7 lumen? For those who actually own this flashlight, can you comment on the range on yours?

I'm guessing you're running it on Alkaline batteries, Eneloops or L91 Lithium Primaries? I keep a 14500 li-ion in mine and there is a pretty wide range of adjustment. The low is still higher than I'd like, but there's a decent range.

On any of the first battery types I listed the range is more narrow, but the low is still too bright to comfortably look at the LED. The ramping isn't as smooth either. It locks on high for a few seconds and then quickly ramps down to the lowest setting.

A decent 1xAAA flashlight with 5mm LED will put out around 10~12 lumens, and that's usually enough for most low-light tasks. 7 lumens come quite close, and that's nowhere low enough for a person to look directly into the emitter without blinding oneself.

To be able to look directly into the emitter, you need to go into the sub-lumen range, and even then you will want to go lower than 0.2 lumens. Unfortunately, sub-lumen outputs are luxury among flashlights.

Your I-mini will not be suitable for the job, as you will need to program it every time when you need another output.

What you want is something like a Quark Tactical, which has a moonlight mode at 0.2 lumens and can be programmed to have two outputs, for when the head is tightened or loosened. Program it to max when the head is tightened and moonlight when loosened, and carry it with the head loosened until you need the power.

csi said:

Can anyone give me an idea how bright is 7 lumen? For those who actually own this flashlight, can you comment on the range on yours?

Click to expand...

7-9 Lumens is about the same as one of those mini-mags with a xenon bulb (on fresh batteries)

the I-mini is 7-245.. so yeah... the difference between 1500 and 245 isn't all that impressive.. it's noticeable, but there's no 'wow' factor to it