Firefly/sub lumens?? Why?

I don't get it. My Olight S1 and my zebra lights S52 and SC600 II and III have very low firefly modes, which I find completely useless. I can't even grab a pair of socks the right color in the morning with it. I get that it doesn't disturb other people around you, but if you can't see what you're doing, what good is it? I see people hung up a lot on new lights because the firefly isn't a true sub lumen. What do you use yours for?

I think their main intended use is the crazy long runtime you can achieve using the firefly mode. Like if your stranded in the wilderness you can have at least some light without worrying about your battery dying.

Insane runtime. Preserve night vision. Not wake the Mrs. Everyone's needs are different.

I use mine as a night light! Also to read in the dark, sometimes, when my eyes have adjusted to the dark already.

Inspection of electrical connectors (provides enough light to see inside of a connector without a bright glare off gold plated contact pins)

To move around in the dark without waking people. I use it more than any other mode.

I use the moonlight on my s1 to clip my baby girls fingernails when she is asleep or to look in her ears and mouth. I use the sublumen modes on my other lights for similar

I use sub lumen modes all the time. I'll admit that the lowest level on my zebras is really too low to be useful for me, but that next step up, 0.06lm is great for the sorts of usages you describe. Moonlight modes are a requirement for me in an edc-style light.

The ultra low firefly modes are good to leave on all night. You can find your light in the dark and it will take months before the battery will be discharged.

In the middle of the night 1+ lumens is quite bright, and prone to waking others up. Having something lower is quite handy for providing enough light to move around without stepping on, or running into something, but not so much as to disturb.

It will depend partly on where you live and the degree of light pollution as well. At my school apartment for example, the light that bleeds in from around the shade is like a full moon every damn night from the streetlights. At home however, I can wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to see anything at all, complete blackness. So the firefly mode is handy to move around without waking myself up too much. Also useful for reading up close and not being blinded by the reflection.

Its perfect for when I am on my covert CIA missions breaking into al ISIS over seas and going through their file cabinets in the middle of the night yo

I love these sub lumen modes for camping in the deep woods, it gives you enough light in the dark without messing with your night vision.

Not everyone has the same personal preferences and that's cool. I prefer 2ish lumen low modes better than sub 1 lumen firefly but like the forever light potential of firefly modes for my survivalist fantasies.

Ultra low modes are a "make or break" when it comes time to the purchase a new light. Gotta have it. But that's just me. The firefly modes are perhaps my most oft used other than high.

i find moonlight mode useful for getting out of bed while the wife is still asleep. i work night shift, and my nights off i wake up at all kinds of hours. with that said, i have 2 lights that have moonlight mode. thats more than enough for me. i hate having too many modes in a light, and the majority of lights that have moonlight seem to be 4+ modes, or it seems they have a more advanced UI. for a general use light i just prefer high/low.

DMS1970 said:

I don't get it. My Olight S1 and my zebra lights S52 and SC600 II and III have very low firefly modes, which I find completely useless. I can't even grab a pair of socks the right color in the morning with it. I get that it doesn't disturb other people around you, but if you can't see what you're doing, what good is it? I see people hung up a lot on new lights because the firefly isn't a true sub lumen. What do you use yours for?

Click to expand...

If you don't mind my asking, how old are you? How good is your night vision?

Moon light's usability highly depends on the person using it. I can make my way around my house with the .01 lumen mode of my Zebralight H502W and that's pure flood. I can also charge the glow in the dark "reflector" and see alright with that too with adjusted eyes.

I've never smoked in my life (that can effect your night vision) and I am somewhat young (29) so I have pretty good night vision.

CelticCross74 and Woods Walker, lol!
If you haven't watched mhanlen's knife and light reviews, I think you would enjoy his faux tactical sarcasm.

I tend to agree with the OP regarding sublumen, but a like a low mode. Any light from a hardware store will underperform. When I buy a light it is for performance or because it's compact and efficient. If I need one to sneak around my own house I have plenty of others to choose from.

I like setting the light on low when I have to put my stuff down. It is also nice to be able to navigate without disturbing others. We are used to 40+ lumen "low" modes in big box store lights, which I suspect is just a 50% pwm most of the time. It is hardly any better IMO because it usually less than doubles the runtime.
I agree that 0.25 lumens is not enough (in many flashlights) to see good color, or to navigate rough terrain. What it is enough for is to walk around level places, look in a bag, light up the tent exit, etc.

When it is pitch black and you bounce 0.01 lumens off of a white ceiling it is almost too bright for a night light.
Depending on the light I find .25-2 lumens more than enough for reading.
Also depending on the light you are looking at 6-60 days straight with .25 lumens, so using it on all night long is no big deal.

Here are a few examples:
Camping in a trailer in the desert we had all of the kids in one trailer and the adults in another. To provide enough light I stood my Thrunite T10 on the shelf pointing at the ceiling. When I set it up before the sun set it was barely visible but it was plenty bright after dark. I ran it twice for over 12 hours on one battery and still had plenty to use high mode on the way out.

Last night in a hotel room I woke up and I had to get a drink of water and turn on the AC. I grabbed my EL CAP. and slowly turned it up to ~0.1 lumens. Well the bathroom kindly had automatic lights . After turning that off I went to get some ice in the hallway and realized they run the lights 24/7 :duck:. Luckily I managed to preserve my night vision by squinting.

Some things I noticed are that warmer light is less annoying to sleeping people, despite being able to go through the eyelids better. I think this has to do with the fact that the cooler lights are more like daylight and are associated with being awake.
It is possible to sleep with over .25 lumens bouncing around but I tended to wake up more often, and floody light is better to not disturb.

Sub-lumen levels are very bright when there is no light pollution. I didn't appreciate this until a trip to the middle-of-nowhere in Montana USA, which was an place of incredible beauty and majesty, but absolutely dark if the moon wasn't out. An HDS light on its lowest level acted as our night light, and it was startlingly bright when I got up in the middle of the night. I would have liked even lower levels in that instance, but before that moment I thought the low levels on the HDS were laughably unusable.

Illumination is amazingly relative ...