Assuming the lumen ratings are by a reputable company, how many lumens do you feel is too many in a flashlight for use investigating bumps in the night? The concern is blinding yourself with the light reflecting off white walls.

No reasonable amount (even 1200) is too many. Beam shape is more important. A 200 lumen spot could blind you, an 800 lumen flood wouldn’t. It is hard to find more floody beam patterns though, Elzetta offers a flood head and Surefire has a new model with a floodier beam.

Surefire Intellibeam works exceptionally well at reducing the blinding reflections while providing lots of light were needed.

I was actually considering that 1000 lumen Streamlight Protac. No idea about the spot vs flood on it. None of my current lights are over the 200s.

depends on usage. Like others said the flood will not blind you, but if you want blinding, go full tilt. Max lumens possible.

I've got a few handhelds in the 600-800 range that work pretty nicely. Also got a few in the 1,000-1,2000 range that work well also. TLR1-HL 800 lumen models on the house guns.

If you're two feet from a white wall in absolute darkness and fire any of those up, yeah, it's going to dazzle you for a second, but your eyes quickly adjust. It's absolutely not the same thing as having the light shined in your face at house distances. I don't really think there's such a thing as "too bright" of a flashlight and I think the concern over that has been seriously overblown, especially given what most people are using as indoor flashlights. In other words, a Nightcore Tiny Monster might be just a bit much at 4,000 lumens, but having not tried one indoors, I couldn't say.

My InForce APL is 200 lumens and that seems sufficient. The InForce WML on my AR is 400, and doesn't seem too much.

I think it depends somewhat on the environment. Smaller rooms, like in my home, those numbers seem sufficient. Bigger rooms, like where I used to work, heck, 1k lumens wouldn't be too much.

That depends on how big your rooms are and how your property is laid out.

My bedside light is around 80 lumens, I believe. It does a good job of lighting up my room without producing significant glare. I also have a light that maxes at 360 lumens. It definitely produces some glare off white walls, but not what I would call blinding.

If you anticipate having to check outside your home, a brighter light might be warranted, but for my needs the 360-lumen light works.

I can't say from personal experiences beyond that as my 360-lumen light is the brightest I've used (I've also used a Magcharger light some 20 years ago, but I don't know what it's lumen rating was...it was really, bright, though...it could light up an entire room by shining it on the ceiling).

I've used a 1K SF Fury in my apartment with white walls without blinding myself. I've also blinded a room full Iraqi soldiers with an 80 lumen P6. It's more about how you use it then how many lumens you are throwing.

My Fenix PD35 Tac is in the 1,000 lumen range and I had my wife test it on me in the strobe mode and it just about put me to my knees, I kid you not. I don't know how anyone could function under that condition.

Conversely, I tried it while holding it and yes, it is a little debilitating but not enough to render me incapable of doing what needs doing in a defensive situation.

Jim

Keep in mind dark adapted eyes or eyes fresh open from sleep are pretty sensitive to any light. I mean reading my cell phone is fairly uncomfortable if I do it middle of the night after sleep.

What I am getting at is 60 lumens or 600 if you are coming out of a dead sleep I would imagine it will be unpleasant but the difference is you know it’s coming vs another not expecting it.

Easy way to figure this out for an individual. Grab whatever flashlight you have, preferably with a little juice behind it (not the 1982 mini mag on weak batteries) set an alarm for 3AM or whatever wake up, grab light give the house a flash/walk around flashing / using the light. This will be totally different then simply using it awake and frosty but dark adapted in my experience.

I do not recommend jumping out of bed and shining a 600 lumen light accidentally into your standing mirror. That is.....unpleasant.

Just remember that is lots of low light strategies and training and differences of opinion so it’s worth getting some training and reading on various tactics.

Many lights on today's market have a range of 1 (or even .01)lm and then stages or infinite steps to max. Frequently there will be a direct access to turbo or strobe mode from whatever memorized level you have it. So, set it at the lowest mode while on the bed table so you can get going without announcing your presence. then, when facing the perp close your eyes, bang the button and do what you need to.

IMO, it matters little. I have a 800 lumen for a bedside at night. When I switch it on, it’s usually pointed at a corner in the ceiling. That generally gives me a nice ambient light that covers the room. So for me, it’s a matter not of lumens, but how I direct the light. Bouncing it off walls or the floor, I don’t have any issues with loosing my night sight by too bright a light. Whereas I’d have no problem using my beside or my 1K lumen EDC light directly in the eyes of an intruder.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Easy way to figure this out for an individual. Grab whatever flashlight you have, preferably with a little juice behind it (not the 1982 mini mag on weak batteries) set an alarm for 3AM or whatever wake up, grab light give the house a flash/walk around flashing / using the light. This will be totally different then simply using it awake and frosty but dark adapted in my experience.

There was a night about six months or so ago that that our cats woke us up with a loud banging thud around that time of morning. I don't know what they did, but it sure didn't sound like cats playing, it sounded like someone had kicked in a door. Into the hallway I went, fresh out of a deep sleep and lit the hallway up with the 800 lumen light on the rifle and approached the living room. The instant the light went on was a bit of a shocker, but my eyes adapted far faster to the light than I would have imagined. The Maine coon on top of the smaller tabby was all I saw, both of them squinting at me as if the sun had somehow risen in the hallway.

I checked everything, concluded it was the cats, and mentally noted that 800 lumens was definitely not debilitating to use in a house in pitch dark coming out of the dead sleep. At least for me. And yes, our walls are white.

quote:

Originally posted by M-11:
So, set it at the lowest mode while on the bed table so you can get going without announcing your presence. then, when facing the perp close your eyes, bang the button and do what you need to.

This is what I do with my Olights. They stay on firefly mode unless I think I need the flamethrower, and then it's a quick double tap on the button.

If you have to apply the four firearm safety rules to the use of your flashlight, you might have too many lumens.

Buy a light that has an adjustable ring for brightness. Once you have a good light with that you will have a hard time going back.

With the ring you can adjust the levels before you turn the light on. Most other lights have to be on and then you cycle through different levels using different interfaces depending on the light manufacturer or even model.

The ring is a no brainer and will keep you from blinding yourself on initial turn on and still have plenty of power to crank it up if you are outside.

I've found 80-120 lumens works fine. I was using a Fury but wanted simple "press button on high, release button turns off" (vs the 15 lumen then 500 with a second press). I found the 500 lumens overwhelming (I have a smallish condo) so I switched to a 6PX (back when they were only 120 lumens) and it works fine.

My serious use guns for duty and defense have 500-800 lumen lights on them. My usual handheld lights are 400-900 lumens.

I don't find that any of them are too much for indoor use.

I have a Streamlight Strain with 500 Lumens. I've never needed anything brighter. The same light served me well for the last 2 years of my LE career (I'd lost a similar light that I'd carried for years).

I use 150-200 in the house. Just don’t need anything more. Outside, 650.