PSA from Elzetta: Understanding Lumens & Tactical Flashlight Beam Patterns
First it was “Candella,” now the hot marketing and technical race is for the most “Lumens.” So just what are lumens and why are they important (or in some cases, unimportant)? How do they relate to brightness and/or intensity? What about directivity and diffusion?
Elzetta flashlights breaks it down “Barney-style” talking about how lumens is a measure of total light output and how that impacts your light selection.
Class dismissed.
One of TFB's resident Jarheads, Nathan now works within the firearms industry. A consecutive Marine rifle and pistol expert, he enjoys local 3-gun, NFA, gunsmithing, MSR's, & high-speed gear. Nathan has traveled to over 30 countries working with US DoD & foreign MoDs.The above post is my opinion and does not reflect the views of any company or organization.
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maybe i need to come up with a new measeurement and sell it to a light company so they can have the best... out of all the competition.
Speaking from over a decade of technical experience in the flat panel display industry (emitted AND reflected light), I would like to point out that while his definition of lumens is correct, it's really still not as cut and dried as he makes it out to be. Claimed lumens are based on measuring equipment and under conditions that varies tremendously from one manufacturer to the next. While there is an industry standard in how to measure them, there is no industry standard in what to make those measurements with and under what conditions. In other words, no two flashlight, flat panel TV manufacturers, etc, use the same measuring equipment and test environments---which can greatly skew the results one way or the next. For example, how far away from the light is the measuring equipment? what is the color of the paint on the walls in the room which will reflect that light and subtly affect the sensor's readings? etc. Reporting measured lumens is not a scientific process, because the testing between brand A and brand B aren't ever done under identical laboratory conditions.