do we need over 1000 lumens?

do you think we need more then 1000 lumens reason I ask is at the campground my ge 550 lumen latern lite the whole camp ground I rather have more run time then lumens

raggie said:

do you think we need more then 1000 lumens reason I ask is at the campground my ge 550 lumen latern lite the whole camp ground I rather have more run time then lumens

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Right tool for the job-kinda question really. I'm not sure I really see myself *needing* more than 1000 lumen, but having good use for it? Probably.

Thinking about times when you want both range and flood for example. While 1000 lumen in a thrower is a lot, that same amount of light is spread out a lot more if you use a floody light.

Around the campground you don't really need that much light, and your eyes are hopefully already dark-adapted.

Think about a path rather than around the campground. Say you find a steep incline, that you'll have to half-walk half-climb up.

It's not hard to imagine a narrow thrower lighting up only parts of the hillside, but leaving out the whole picture.

It's also not hard to imagine a floody light not reaching all the way, especially if other members of the group are killing your night vision. Could be kinda bad to have to just gamble on a path, then having to figure out your next move after climbing up into darkness.

A floody high lumen light, could come in handy, and give you a better chance or lighting up the whole path for your whole group.

That said, it's not something I seem myself normally using, and certainly not *needing* often. In fact, I'm swapping my EDC light because the 8-900 lumens or some such is more than I'll need daytime, and I'd rather have high CRI instead.

Disclaimer; I've never owned a light with more than 1000 lumens, so I'm not speaking from a volume of experience here. I am getting in on the Klarus G20 group-buy though.

Generally no, work uses i am good at 200 or less of floody hi cri. Home even less usually, round house or outside does not require high outputs for me.

But where is the fun in that!!! 15k+ of tk75vnQ70 lighting up a field.............makes me

And 1000lm cant do this from the rc40vnT (8000/500kcd)

raggie said:

do you think we need more then 1000 lumens reason I ask is at the campground my ge 550 lumen latern lite the whole camp ground I rather have more run time then lumens

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But do you really need more than an incan Mini Maglite?

Or a watch capable of 100m submersion.

A car that can do over 100mph.

A TV bigger than 15"

good points everyone.

Chicken Drumstick said:

But do you really need more than an incan Mini Maglite?

Or a watch capable of 100m submersion.

A car that can do over 100mph.

A TV bigger than 15"

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SILENCE YOU! :scowl:

raggie said:

do you think we need more then 1000 lumens reason I ask is at the campground my ge 550 lumen latern lite the whole camp ground I rather have more run time then lumens

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raggie,
I agree with the point that I think you are trying to make.

The problem as I see it with lanterns is that the more lumens they put out, generally there is more glare from them as a single point of light. Some handle that better, and usually have to be larger in order to do so. So a single 1000 lumen lantern would have to have a large surface area to spread out the lumen output or it will be glary.

My preference, I guess for a camping situation would be to have multiple 200-300 lumen lanterns in multiple locations, rather than one 1000 lumen one.

I'll take run time and reliability over lumens. I think 1000 plus lumens can be useful in a search and rescue scenerio. Other than that I think it's a bit over kill.

You mean, I don't need my 12,000 lumen TN36UTvn?

Maybe not, but I want it!

I think the main thing is LED technology can easily do 1000 lumens vs 500 with not a huge difference in price and with a multi mode driver you can have a 500 200 and 50 lumen mode also. There are times when 1000 lumens is handy think of a 60 watt incan bulb and the output of it in your house and a lamp. i do however agree with current LED and battery technology an inexpensive lantern that does 1000 lumens isn't going to be great at runtime at that level at all.

All in how it is focused and utilized. Battery type also helps determine whether you have a 1000 lumen flash or a light.

I personally like triple optics which are relatively floody, so having 1000 lumens on tap gives it some serious floodlight punch for a pocketable EDC even though most night use is ML indoors or low outdoors and medium in daytime.

With a good optic/reflector setup, 1000 lumens is great so long as it is not your only mode.

I abide by the principal that it's better to have something and not need it than need something and not have it. That being said, I don't really think one needs more than 1000 lumens. Let's say you're in bear country and it's getting close to bed time. It helps to have a lot of light so you and your camp mates can clean up, wash dishes, check the table and other common areas for food and other scented items, collect them and still have enough light while you're rearranging the contents of the bear box so you can squeeze everything in. In my experience, something in the neighborhood of 500-800 lumens should be more than sufficient. When it comes to cooking and food prep, either a dome-style lantern or one where the globe can be removed and hung above you works and I find that 250 lumens is more than enough. For situations where you need to light a large area, i.e.-a group campsite and there are a lot of people moving around after dark, playing games, doing things, etc a lot of light is helpful but I feel multiple lanterns, spreading the light over a larger area is more efficient than one lantern blasting out as many lumens as possible. For general chilling, much less is necessary especially if you want to preserve your night vision. Sometimes, I like to just turn everything off and look at the stars while unwinding before bed. As mentioned above, reflector design and light spread is more important as well as the color of the light. Warm white is mellow and pleasing to the eyes, but not as bright. Cool white is fine, but the more blue it is, the less useful. Neutral white is best IMHO. Having a decent spaced range of light level modes is ideal.

Or you could just bring multiple lanterns for every purpose like I do.

It's also important to be respectful of your neighbors. Just don't be like the folks running a super bright lantern that blinds you 25 yards away. I swear, I've seen folks gathered around their Coleman Northstar on full blast playing cards inches away. WTH?!?

Another way of looking at it, if you have a light (multi cell) that is capable of 3000 or 10000lm for example, you can usually run it at 1000lm for long periods with the run times as well. Now take this light and run it at say 200lm. Instead of 6hrs run time, you could have double or triple the run time(just an example). Ideal for situations where light is required for long periods(power outage ) . So although multi cell lights can kick out crazy amounts of light, they also have other advantages for run times and heat dissipation over single cell lights.

I also believe in better to have and not need than to need and not have.

It may be fair to say most enthusiasts want more lumens with the greater divide existing between throw and flood preferences. I have a van and a sedan and select the vehicle best suited for the task.

For my EDC use I recently acquired a Torchlab v5 triple from Oveready to cover my needs from sub lumen 🕯extended run time to "set the backyard on fire [emoji91]" when I let the dogs out in the evening. That said, 95+% of my flashlight use employs output levels of 200 lumens or below.

I say give me 300 lumens and 744 hours runtime

I want to manufacturers keep pushing the crazy "high/turbo/burst" modes so that I have more reasonable, useful medium modes.

markr6 said:

I want to manufacturers keep pushing the crazy "high/turbo/burst" modes so that I have more reasonable, useful medium modes.

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Too bad many of them are putting in super low modes with no medium modes so you end up with OUCH that is bright or EEK I can barely see my hand in front of my face.

Lynx_Arc said:

Too bad many of them are putting in super low modes with no medium modes so you end up with OUCH that is bright or EEK I can barely see my hand in front of my face.

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That's not good either! I stay away from those.

Lynx_Arc said:

Too bad many of them are putting in super low modes with no medium modes so you end up with OUCH that is bright or EEK I can barely see my hand in front of my face.

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That's my biggest pet peeve. At least there are "infinitely adjustable" lanterns where you can dial it in, like a gas lantern but that seems to be more of an option than the norm.

raggie33 said:

do you think we need more then 1000 lumens reason I ask is at the campground my ge 550 lumen latern lite the whole camp ground I rather have more run time then lumens

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I would agree with Terje. For general campground use or daytime EDC, probably not. For SAR or using as a stun light against a threat, I would say more is better.

We had a guy checking car doors in our hood that was caught on IR Security cam and would like to lite him up with that 12k lumen light that was mentioned above.

-lars