I often see people post that they want a light to have an ultra-low "low" mode. OK, that's fine. But why? I'm curious why you need such a low mode? I understand the run-time will be much longer, but what exactly are you using this super-low mode for? The ONLY time I would want a super-low mode is if my house has a power outage and I need to make the batteries last (but even then that is not a big deal as I have enough lights to last a month of a power outage).
I use my lights daily and have never been in a situation where I thought "I need a lower low mode."
My EDC Zeno E03 is supposed to be about 90 lumens on low. That is about perfect for normal EDC use. I cannot even imagine a time when I would need 10-20 lumens.
I'm not trying to stir the pot, just trying to understand why people need such a low level light.
When reading at night. A map for example, while camping. If you are using the light to illuminate the map you are reading, it will not only be much easier on your eyes having a very low mode, it will allow you to regain your night vision much faster.
Try pointing a 90 lumen mode at a light piece of paper at night. I was surprised too how much nicer it is to have a 'moonlight' mode for this purpose. It is much less straining on the eyes :)
when I'm hunting. A spotlight/weapon light is great for finding prey, but nothing beats a really dim headlamp for watching your step and reloading........without spooking everything in the area.
Walking around at night without waking up your companions, reading stuff, or use as a night light while sleeping. A ton of uses in different situations.
Part of it depends on what you are doing and how you use your light and part of it depends on individual expectations.
If I'm outside at night I just need enough light to see where I'm going. Some people under the exact same conditions feel more comfortable lighting things up around them so it will feel more like they're inside their house with the lights on.
To that extent it's a personal thing. I prefer lower lights so that I don't stand out and so it's easier on the eyes.
Part of it is to keep the battery and therefore flashlight/headlamp size smaller with a decent runtime.
When hiking at night 30 lumens or less is generally about right with the occasional need to go up to 100 lumens. When sitting around outside or in a tent .2 lumens seems around right. When moving around my patio or around a camp site 2-3 lumens is fine.
A small flashlight might put out 100 lumens for an hour or so but will put out 50 lumens for 2 hours and 25 lumens for 4 hours but after your eyes adjust 25 lumens won't seem like a hardship at all.
To me there's nothing more tiring than using a light for a long period outside at night that is brighter than necessary.
If you haven't had many lights with defined lower levels you should play around with one sometime and you might be surprised.
I've got a Zebralight headlamp that has levels of 200,100,30,7,2.5, and .2 lumens. You can easily go walk the dog in the dark with 30 lumens and if you go down to 7 lumens in most cases you still have plenty of light and will probably think that you are at 20 lumens instead of 7.
I have a 18650 XP-G general purpose/around the house light that is 300 lumens on high, 100 on medium and 3 lumens on low. If I go out in the yard at night to check on something and put that on high it's ridiculous. If I need to go out later at night to take out the trash I use it on low rather than risk shining it in neighbors windows or drawing attention to myself.
On the other hand I use my dive light mainly on high. If you use a flashlight for work maybe you don't have an occasion to use a lower low. It depends :)
I would say most budget lights on cheap AA output too much on average. you wouldnt want to read anything at night with such bright light. Also it is harder for your eyes to get used to the dark again after looking at a bright light. this is also one of the reason I prefer a flood light to a throw... which finally brings me to my original subject title as I would then need (slightly) more lumens for a flood light.
On camping/hunting at night. When reading a map or going through my backpack trying to find something. Navigating to outhouse at our cabin (which doesn't have electricity anyways) at night half asleep when I don't want to attack my eyes with dozens of lumens. Navigating in my home at night. Doing anything that needs light in the dark without harrassing others or drawing too much attention.
In my opinion, 1 lumen is way too much as lowest mode. Something like 0,2 is ok, 0,0something even better. My DMM doesn't even register the current draw on lowest mode on my lights which have customized drivers for really low low.
Sometimes I read these ultra-low things and wonder, when people are unhappy with flashlights not having low-enough modes. More likely 0,00something.
Why not use a dimmer or dark flood-lens to get it low enough :)
Once I had this LL-copy Headlight from DX.
It had the absolute lowest low I have ever seen. Slide switch could be adjusted to zero. When on ultimate low, it could illuminate wall up to 1" of distance. In total darkness... That´s low.
I've posted this pic before somewhere here in a review or something, but here it goes again. On the right is 4Sevens Quark 18650 Turbo on moonlight. Ansi-rated for 0,2 lumens OTF. Left one is my modded TF-801 with U2 XML and homebrew software in the driver. Don't know the exposure time etc settings, that's taken with the automatic program in my crap camera. That's about as low as I want my lows to be. In dark - I mean actual dark, not the city-lights-shining-kind of dark - that's enough for most my purposes. And if not, it does 700 lumens also...
Speaking of uses for a ultra low <0.2lm mode. Reading in darkness, navigating in darkness without totally killing night vision and waking everybody. There are plenty of uses for a ultra low mode. Not every light benefits from a ultra low mode though.
I tend to use a flashlight at night instead of turning lights on in the house. You would be amazed at how bright .2 lumen is when your eyes are adjusted to the dark.
I have a few lights that don't see enough use because the low is too bright. I don't like being blinded by too much. During the daytime or outside it isn't as much of an issue.
I also have two kids and a real dim light is ideal to put them in bed without stepping on toys.
Basically, I like to have the option to run a flashlight for many days on a single battery. It seems to satisfy a sort of inner OCD tendency I have. I have been through some long power outages, and even 1 lumen is surprisingly bright on a truly dark night, especially inside the house. I don't always use the lowest mode, but it's sure nice to know it's there if I need it.
at work as a night (7p-7a) respiratory therapist i use the low on the shiningbeam s-mini 20-30 times a shift.
checking ventilators without waking patients, tracking settings on clipboard templates without turning on the lights, checking pupil reactions on neuro patients without blinding them. i use a flashlight on low 10 times as much as on high.
having now used a LOT of the new lights, it is MUCH more useful to me to have a low,low than ANY kind of strobe or s.o.s. setting and will not buy any more lights with these settings. the only time i can think i actually used the strobe setting on any light in the last two years was crossing a large street late at night and strobed my R5-A3 so i would be visible.
the 0.5 lm on my zebralight h31 is nice to have..you really don't think you would use it and most times you don't, but it's nice to have when you are adjusted to the dark and don't want to wake anyone up or read a map/paper..
Especially an efficient low. My V10A goes much lower than my Quark, but the Quark has a much more efficient circuit that will run days longer in the moon mode. Not budget lights, but they make a good illustration.
I like my S-Mini, but the low on it keeps me from using it most of the time. It is nice outside and during the day, but the low is too high for me walking around the house in the middle of the night. Probably wouldn't be as bad if you were working, but I prefer much dimmer when I don't want to be "flashed" awake.
Thats the important thing. If it goes lower just for the sake of going low, I’m not interested. I like a pretty low low, but I’ve never preferred the sub-lumen outputs. 1, 2, or 3 lumens is good for me. I like L1 on the SC51.
Personally, I don't really need one. It's more of a "nice to have" feature for me. Sort of like power seats in a car. Not necessary and not a dealbreaker when unavailable, but it's nice nonetheless.
