Brightness memory, what is your chosen default?

techwg

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
1,268
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United Kingdom
With lights like the PD32 etc you can choose what your brightness is going to be each time you turn it on. What do you prefer to have your lights set to? Do you have yours on maximum? 1 down from maximum? Lowest? I am interested in also hearing your reasons for the brightness mode you leave yours on.

I typically leave my lights set to maximum by default and then only turn down if the situation does not require full light. However I have pondered if there is any advantage on using a slightly lower level as the default. Maybe it is more "tactical" to misrepresent the brightness capacity of your light, only to be able to double your lumens at a single push!

Interested in this, I am...
 

Norm

Retired Administrator
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Jun 13, 2006
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Australia
Hard to answer it depends on which light we're talking about, my EDC is always on high, my ENC (night) is always on it's lowest setting.

Norm
 

StarHalo

Flashaholic
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Dec 4, 2007
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California Republic
If you're using the light in any situation that's dark enough that your eyes have to adjust, you should start low and then dial up as needed; starting high will momentarily cause you to lose your night vision.
 

mvyrmnd

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Sep 4, 2009
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Australia
My EDC is start on low, no memory.

My bigger lights are start on High, no memory.
 

bemymonkey

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Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
29
I prefer my lights to start on low, so as not to startle the people around me or blind myself when I'm looking for something. It's a bit annoying on my multimode lights with mode memory - every time I turn 'em off I have to switch back to low first...

Prefer lights that start on low and have no mode memory - but a quick way to get to the highest output mode without clicking multiple times (hence the D25LC2 Clicky as my EDC).
 

Swedpat

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Jan 5, 2008
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Boden, Sweden
It depends on the situation and the light. My PD32UE I mostly have on the 140lm level which is a good compromise between adequate brightness for most situations and long runtime.
At night I can have the same light on the nightstand on the lowest of 9lm. Usually I have even lower brightness light for the nightstand, though.

Fenix TK15S2 I usually have on the highest 400lm setting. Even if the possibility of lower modes the beam character of this light isn't good for low brightness at short distance, so this light I mostly use at more distance and therefore 400lm.
 
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
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I used to always start off on the highest setting until a few people borrowed my light. Not expecting the power it had they flashed themselves by looking at things too closely while turning it on, and then id feel bad. Now I just leave it on the lowest and a quick 3 clicks gets me to where I like it.
 
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