Rotary light intensity dial - which way is up...?

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

There are a few headlamps with rotary dials that I know of. One is the Sofirn HS21 - the front dial changes modes. Another one is the recent Wurkkos HD16 - the dial here balances the Spot and Flood contributions to the mix. And there is the Nibo HL1000 - the light I spotted in the recently-discussed Project Farm Video. In the latter headlamp, the rotary dial indeed adjusts the light intensity.

The question is: to increase the brightness, which way is more intuitive - clockwise or counterclock wise?

There are two opposing analogies that come to mind:

  • you turn dials clock wise to increase volume in a radio or rpm in a coffee grinder, or,
  • you turn dials counter clock wise to open things up, such as the amount of water coming out your shower.

The Nibo HL1000 chose the second scheme. I would probably vote for the first.

What would you find more intuitive ergonomically in the spirit of the venerable ‘don’t make me think’ approach?

I will find it more intuitive and easier to remember if the:
  • light intensity increased when I turn the dial clock-wise.
  • light intensity increased when I turn the dial counter clock-wise.
0 voters
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2

As a radial control is a piece of electronics, this is what I’d favor. Clockwise for greater is standard on both knobs and dial indicators.

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4

Right hand rule dictates turning clockwise threads a screw into a board.

5

Yep, I prefer clockwise for greater as well. :grin:

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6

Here is a bonus question: clockwise or counter clockwise is easy to define for the side dial.

How about the front dial: is clockwise considered when lookin at the front of the light or clockwise when the light is on your head and you look from the perspective of being behind the light?

I even have a camera whose aperture ring turning direction is programmable, but with cameras that’s even more confusing because increasing apertures, which increase the amount of captured light but decrease the depth of field are designated by decreasing numerical values, which may also be seen as increasing as they are really denominators in reciprocals.

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7

It’s even better if you compare Nikon to other companies, since they like to have it reversed.

8

I thought about this same thing. I does depend on the perspective, doesn’t it?

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9

I would go with clockwise in relation to the hand turning the dial, so from a front looking back perspective, as the hand will be “looking” towards the back.

10

But the hand is not doing the controlling…the brain is. SO with a front mounted switch, the brain and eyes see the opposite. So shouldn’t we make the rotary switch appear to adhere to convention from the brains side of things?

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11

One way of thinking about it is that, if there is a headlamp with two dials - side and front, and you use the right hand to adjust them both, if we go by the above poll and assign clock-wise to the side dial as meaning ‘increase’, it may be logical and intuitive if the same wrist movement would ‘increase’ something when used on front dial. Meaning that CW direction would be defined as looking at the front end of the light, not from behind.

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