Can somebody give me an idea what the difference between .04 and 3 lumens is? Examples would help like maybe a candle in the room, one of those dx keychain lights you get ten for five bucks or maybe a mini maglite. The ThruNite Ti has piqued my interest and I was wondering which one to get.
0.04 vs 3 lumens -
Sorry this the best picture I have
Contrary to what others experience, firefly is surprisingly useful to me and surprisingly not as dim as one may think, specially on those frequent bathroom trips in the middle of the night since I have Crohn’s.
Yeah, I find this to be the best use for firefly mode. Walking around in a house in the middle of the night.
I have two Thrunite lights with the low,low lumen firefly mode. Perception is different with everyone and a lot depends on genetics and age. For me, the really low firefly modes are only really usable for late at night, say when you wake up in the middle of the night. Your eyes have to be adjusted to total darkness. After seeing .04, 3 lumens seems quite bright, probably closer to a small candle, but it's different since the light is focused vs spread out like a candle. You can easily read with 3 lumens, or find your way around the house without tripping.
To me, the firefly is more of a novelty - cool to be able to see the LED lit up. I don't really use it that much. 3 lumens I'll use.
The difference is 2.96 lumens 
How many degrees of freedom are included in your calculation :nerd_face:
PI… somewhere between three and four, and highly irrational…
[Homer] mmm pie [/Homer]
I doubt the Ti is only 3 lumens. Mine seems brighter
Less than 1 lumen is definitely the hot ticket for sneaking to the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking the significant other, old dudes pee a lot.
Seems to be that way to me too. Firefly is good in preserving night vision but so what? 99% of the time 3 lumens can work just fine. It’s not like you cannot go to the bathroom using 3 lumens instead of .04. How long does it take to regain night vision after exposure to 3 lumens anyway?
I have a 3 lumen model and tested it in my integrated sphere. Surprisingly, low is exactly 3 lumen and high was 80 lumen instead of the rated 60. I use ordinary alkaline AAA cells in it.
+1 you gotta have it. 3 lumens works for me but a sub lumen light is so much better for that use.
What’s the difference in practical usage between 0.04 and 3 lumens? Waking up the wife or kids! I use my 0.04 lumen FireFly mode every morning to avoid disturbing them. I can shine the 0.04 lumens right at my wife’s face from 12 inches away while she’s sleeping and she won’t stir. If I use 3 lumens pointing at the floor she yells at me to turn the light off. Likewise, my daughter used to wake up when I walked past her room on my way to the kitchen using the 3 lumen lights and now I don’t disturb her, neither. Is it so dim that I can barely function using it? No, not at all. It’s dim enough that colors are difficult to make out if they’re close, but, even at 3 lumens it would be difficult to make out the difference between navy blue and black. I’ve found that it’s still bright enough that I don’t need dark adjusted eyes to use it. The light seemingly gets a tiny bit brighter as my eyes adjust, but, I’m not groping around in the dark with this light turned on after turning off the room light. Coming into a dark room from bright sunlight, though, even the 60 lumens is not enough.
I’ve got a black 3/60 lumen Ti sitting there, NIB, that I’m not using. If anyone buys a FF Ti after reading this post and deems it too dim for them please PM me and I’ll trade for the FF version. This offer is limited to the first person who PMs me to do the swap and posts here that they want to take advantage of it.
LOL texaspyro 
So I can read with 3 and not with .04. I think that settles it for me!
Are you sure? This picture I just took with the 0.04 lumens and the picture looks dimmer than what my eyes see. Mind you, I took this picture in a linen closet so my eyes were not dark adjusted and the light was three inches to the left of the hotspot.
I can read with either one, but 3 is more like using a lamp and the other is more like a shared candle over on a table where the light or the book have to be held just right.
I think the rule of thumb would be to go with the 3 lumens unless you want less for a purpose. 3 is pretty bright after your eyes have adapted, but a lot of people will use a light right after coming out of light and that is when 3 is fine.
To me, the .04 firefly (or E’s .002A) is for a more stealthy light use, very close work, or for very long periods of time in the dark.
Some talk about linear increases in brightness. The difference in brightness between .04 and .08, then between .08 and .16, then the difference between .16 and .32 lumens etc till you get to 3 lumens. Each time a visible increase (visible increase is usually 40% or more)
So it’d appear three five or six times brighter too the eye, even though it’s quite abit brighter in reality. Does that make sense ?
Editing now ^ sorry. Missed a decimal
it's 4 times brighter
.04 x4> .16lumens ... twice as bright
.16x4 = .64 lumens..... 3 times
.64x4 = 3 lumens.... 4 times as bright
3 lumens is a very nice usable low
I like firefly lights but i think the 3 / 60 lumens makes much more sense .
On the other hand these lights are cheap enough and nice enough to ...just buy both .
The question about cheapo light outputs .. they are generally about 10 lumens if it's a nichia.....and mini mags are 7 lumens .
So 3 lumens is going to be pretty close to a mini mag just a little dimmer
cuz it takes 4 times the lumens to see a doubling in brightness
if you`re using the light to shine in your wife`s face at night to see her beautiful face then the .04 lumen version is what you want…if you`re looking to get into the house late at night (because it is a key chain after all) then get the 3 lumen version…3 lumens is perfect coming home late at night which I use mine for…if I have to pee at night I use my h600 on low (0.1 lumen)…I get where the firefly guys are coming from, but using this light as a keychain light with firefly is useless IMO…