Am i very picky?? :(

Hey !

I just picked up my first Qualitybranded torch, which is a Nitecore MH25. I totally loved it from the start, ive only owned Ultrafire before, oohh the quality.. And they cant even compare to each other.
I thought that Ultrafire was great quality for the money, but now when ive played around with my Nitecore, i understand that the quality on Ultrafire SUXXXX.
Best thing is that i got an extra 18650 2300mAh battery with, dont know why i got 2 in the package, but usually you only get one?
Well..

It says that the MH25 is 860Lumens and 236m Beam distance. And i have VERY hard to believe that. Okey its still daylight outside, and i tried to shine around with it inside, but i feel it wont be that bright.
Or am i just very picky? Or is it possible that the light can be Underpowered in some way?
In my eyes my Ultrafire WF502B is as bright as the MH25, but i havent compared them outside yet, becuase its daylight..

I am not sure Picky is what I would call it?

Why exactly do you doubt the lumens claim,are you a Human Lux Meter?
Really I am asking how you have decided this?

I know that the way our eyes perceive or react to light intensity is something we learn through time if at all and I have been at this a long time but would be hard pressed to gauge a lights brightness,inside ,during daylight at all.

Haha human lux meter, that was funny. Funny man xD
Well, i compared the WF502B and the MH25 against my wall, and from what i could tell, they had pretty much the same brightness, except that the MH25 was a tighter Beam, which means it throws longer. But other from that it was very close to eachother.

Try them in the dark.

Try ceiling bounce

TouchOfRed said:

Hey !

I just picked up my first Qualitybranded torch, which is a Nitecore MH25. I totally loved it from the start, ive only owned Ultrafire before, oohh the quality.. And they cant even compare to each other.
I thought that Ultrafire was great quality for the money, but now when ive played around with my Nitecore, i understand that the quality on Ultrafire SUXXXX.
Best thing is that i got an extra 18650 2300mAh battery with, dont know why i got 2 in the package, but usually you only get one?
Well..

It says that the MH25 is 860Lumens and 236m Beam distance. And i have VERY hard to believe that. Okey its still daylight outside, and i tried to shine around with it inside, but i feel it wont be that bright.
Or am i just very picky? Or is it possible that the light can be Underpowered in some way?
In my eyes my Ultrafire WF502B is as bright as the MH25, but i havent compared them outside yet, becuase its daylight..

Click to expand...

In answer to your question, you are not very picky, you just are not able to judge the brightness of a flashlight. This is not your failing, simply one of human anatomy.

Even my genuine, measured 5000lm OTF HID light looks unimpressive in daylight.

Wait until after dark and it should come to life.

Even areas with bright street lighting can make flashlights not look great. They have upgraded my local street lighting recently and these make lights up to 800lm look not much. Go away from these lights and 'oh yeah' there are the lumens!

Thats just the reality.
Manufacteres hype up lumen numbers, making everything new sound so mutch brighter than the old. Everytime a new bin or led comes everyone is hyped about that little % bump in output.. And the new stuff are brighter. Problem is that you need about 4 times the amount of lumens before your eyes precive it as twice as bright. A 800 lumen light will not look twice as bright as a 400 lumen, not even close. So if you buy a 800 lumen light and expect it to look 4 times brighter than a 200, and twice as bright as a 400 in a linar way, then you will be dissapointed when you meet the reality with a more logaritmic lumen scale .
Go into a dark room. Shine the lights at the sealing one at the time. The one with most lumen should light up all of the room the most. Look at the floor or something, dont look at the beam at all.

TouchOfRed said:

Haha human lux meter, that was funny. Funny man xD
Well, i compared the WF502B and the MH25 against my wall, and from what i could tell, they had pretty much the same brightness, except that the MH25 was a tighter Beam, which means it throws longer. But other from that it was very close to eachother.

Click to expand...

Once the hot spot is bright "enough" you really can't tell if it gets brighter. The brightness of the light reflecting back to your eyes is called the Lux. You can't SEE lumens. Lumens is a measure of the light leaving the LED. If that light didn't come BACK to your eyes...you would not see ANYTHING.

So, if one hot spot a meter away had 10,000 lux, and the other had 20,000 lux, you might see them as being the same brightness, as your eye is a lousy lux meter. Essentially, once your retina is overloaded...everything is "the same" from that point onwards/and brighter.

You mentioned one had a larger spot. It requires more lumens to do that...as the lumens are concentrated to make a tighter beam, and spread out to make a floodier beam. If the lumens were like gallons of water, the DEPTH of that water on your target would be the LUX you could SEE.

So, a SMALLER spot does not always mean a light throws further...unless the total lumens are the same.

More lumens doesn't mean the light throws further either, unless the focus is the same, and so forth.


I can add lumens to a light that throws say 100', so before I add lumens, it might put a 10' circle of light at 100'....but after I add lumens, it might put a 20' circle of light at 100', but the LUX might be the same, and so forth.


This is why, outside in the DARK....you can shine the lights at something far enough away to see a lux difference. For example, the 10k lux light might not be able to show you stuff the 20k lux light was able to ...IF you can find a target far enough away to be between the two ranges.



You might also find that the light have the SAME range, but the nitecore simply shows you more of what's out there at a time, with a larger circle of light, etc.

You can even find that the el cheapo light CAN throw further, or even be pumping out more lumens. The difference in quality can also include how LONG it lasts, if it still works if you drop in on the ground a few times or into puddles, etc.