The possible eye damage depends from the brightness of the light (lux) at the target not from lumens. And when someone has dark adjusted eyes, their pupils are wide open, letting a lot of light in to the eye when suddenly flashed at.
Everyone knows that looking at the sun is very bad for the eyes, so here’s a few lux readings of the sun, according to the wikipedia:
120,000 lux Brightest sunlight
110,000 lux Bright sunlight
20,000 lux Shade illuminated by entire clear blue sky, midday
Sunlight has wider amount of different wavelenghts in it, so that is a factor too, but those might give some idea. For example the Olight UT lights will beat the sun in brightness according to the specs.
Accidents do happen, but people with powerful flashlights should consider other people, when blasting away. Try not to illuminate other people’s faces, even with spill beam, if possible. If you are in a group where other people only have low power lights, you should try to use similar output level. If you blast away with 1000lumens, while others are trying to see their way with 20 lumen maglites, you will blind them, and they wont see anything with their own lights anymore.
To answer the question: No, luckily I have not yet been yelled at for using my lights. If wife’s nagging does not count
I still have the brightest light in the park, just started riding at night recently. People turn around scared when they see a bright light coming up behind them, and that is with only a triple Nichia S2. Nobody yelled at me yet, just some ohhhs and aaahs of admiration :bigsmile:
Lux reading from a flashlight drops quickly with distance. A 200,000 candela light is only 2000 lux at 10m. Damage an eye, unlikely, surprise someone enough to piss them off, sure.
Years ago with one of my first lights. A very low output, very purple, AA “3W police light”
It was highly suspicious that I was walking around with a flashlight. :_(
I did have some very bright 18650 lights back then, I was so glad I did not have one of those in my pocket and was playing with that. Can’t imagine what they would have thought with that.
I’d say you’re either trolling here, or failing to try or unable to put yourself in the place of the people who are getting your light in their face.
All they know is — suddenly they’re blinded and disoriented.
Being suddenly blinded in the dark is all it takes for someone to fall over something and break a leg or get cut or get an eye poked out on a branch.
Or for you to get blamed when that happens.
You’ve discovered that you can incapacitate people at a distance, and say they’re homeless or people you think are homeless, or “bums” or “drunks”
And you feel like you’ve got a tool that can reach out and touch them and they can’t touch you back and you’re innocent of any evil intent.
Try taking a modest floody light, a few give-away simple lights, and some blankets and sandwiches to give away the next time you go out and see if you feel any different after that.
I’ve known people in and around Portland for fifty years, I worked many decades ago in the community mental health area when Nixon had cut all the funding for all publicly supported mental hospitals.
That dumped a generation of people out onto the streets —- or into their unprepared family homes.
That started a cascade of damage — families collapsed burdened by taking in relatives they couldn’t cope with.
It’s only gotten worse since then.
I’ve had quite a few complaints on the old Romisen RC-N3 I leave on my bike.
“It’s too bright.”
“That strobe is going to give everyone a seizure.”
I usually say you should see the newer brighter ones I left at home so they won’t be stolen.
(Portland also)
Troll? Why is that the go to insult on the internet? Is it so hard to believe people are real anymore?
Ignore the several jokes I and and others have made and look at the facts. There are more homeless on the Springwater bike corridor at night than anyone else, it’s the homeless highway. You can google it. It’s not that hard to recognize most of them. And apart from my choice of words, I’ve stated I think I use quite a lot of consideration when using my new bright lights. low modes, for the most part, and almost always use the spill to illuminate. I’m always aware of where my beam is, or where I’m sweeping it. I used to work at a local gun range and I feel some of that safety easily transfers over. I’m not going to stop using them because a harmless accident of illumination might happen, or because some people use threats as easy as breathing. That kind of behavior has never invoked my sympathy.
I’ve never given anyone a close range full faceful of hotspot either, except myself, and that’s where real disorientation comes from. The people I’ve met that have gotten angry, seem to be either simply surprised at being lit up, accidentally, or they have gotten a glancing, often off angle far from full intensity view of the beam. And if they replied like a semi-normal person and not a drunk, or threatened to beat me up or worse, I’m sure my sympathy would kick in and I’d feel worse than I do for it.
See I do admit, maybe this is part of the problem. I could’ve read your post, ignored the slights, and apologized profusely for offending. Keep your head down and all. But I tend to answer confrontation a bit more directly.
I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong. I’m keeping safe in a notoriously not safe area, apart from the not keeping my head down very well. And I’m not a bleeding heart. I’ve got tons of family on the streets right now, for mental health reasons, including my grandfather and uncle and more than one cousin. They can’t stay with us, we’ve tried for years, they’re always getting in fights and getting the police called, and/or constantly stealing. I don’t just sympathize well with angry people, and like I said, maybe that’s part of the problem. See I am little self aware.
One of the benefits of using a TwoFish style handlebar mount is the ability to easily aim the beam down where there are people , and easily aim the beam back up for more distance when you are not in a location to bother people .
My little brother really likes head lamps, and they’ve got a swivel so I’ve advised him to always have it angled down. They’re also older less efficient cree emitters so they’re not as bright as the new handhelds I have.
I don’t like him walking on these particular trails near our home by himself though. Especially lately with my experiences on them. He’s disabled and I don’t want him coming home with a black eye and a split lip like I had to deal with during our high school years.
Yeah, I go camping “so far back in the forest you’re coming out the other side” — and I tell people who light up strangers that they should at least be smart enough to hold the damn light out to the side, at arm’s length, not in line with their body, because eventually they’ll light up someone who will shoot at it. A word to the wise, usually not heard very well.
It’s God’s country; responsibility for the people in it is yet to be determined.
Instead of arguing with the “Transient Americans”, maybe you should have gotten off your bike and apologized to them. Then maybe sit around a burning barrel and sing Kumbaya and other assorted folk songs followed by a drum circle session. Maybe give them some money so they can buy some food (honest they swear) or arrange for them to get rides to the methadone clinic.
Maybe in the future you could use a SkyRay King modded with warm white or amber LEDs ? It could have a more calming effect on the “Transient Americans” and prevent incidents like this. Cool white appears to have the opposite effect.
