I’ve been using loads of the 3 AAA LED flashlights I get at trade shows (with 9 LEDs - 8 in a circle with 1 in the center. I thought those were bright… but then saw a Mini maglite (2 AA) LED. WOW! Not sure if that was the pro or pro + and want to get one of those.
Anyone know how many lumens these promo LED flashlights put out? Is there an app to measure it?
The pro+ has the variable light levels but slightly less LEDs vs. the Pro that has the 1 brightness but more lumens.
Any comment on are the extra lumens noticable / worth it for the loss of the variable light levels? and the Pro is ‘simpler’ - the plus has electtronics to get the variable brightness, etc. seems a potential point of failure? but I like the push on / off rather than twist.
Any thoughts?
I’m just looking for the most light in the smallest package : ) What about the solitaire 37 lumens? seems much lower than the mini pro, but I don’t have a reference point on the amount of lumens. any help? thanks!
Lumens follow a logarithmic scale, four times less lumens will look roughly half as bright. You can get better, smaller and brighter AAA lights than the maglite solitaire on the forum.
Jetbeam - up to 480 lumens!? on a single AA!? WOW! The solitaire says it does 37 ?! (with 1 AAA) seems even pitiful : )
OK,
a) I was reading some threads about bootleg flashlights on the forums here. gearbest and the seller are legit? Price seems low when googling that model from other websites
b) I didn’t mention, but I have some Staples rewards money to spend and Staples.com only has Maglite. Although I keep thinking to buy popular things at staples with the rewards money, sell those on ebay and take the money and buy what I want, where I want. Like the Jet…
True, but it still produces 150 Lumens from a single AA.
It has a good driver and LED.
And it’s cheap, but good quality.
(Although i will be putting a Nichia 219C in it,because the XP-G2 it has is rather cold white and low CRI)
thanks. Any chance there’s an app for that? lumens is total brightness, right? So I guess you’d have to somehow capture all the light. and the camera on a cell phone would likely be overloaded with that much light / can’t distinguish between 100 and 400 - just too bright : )
no app, phones can measure footcandles but yes you do have to collect all the light somehow
usually this is done in a big milk jug painted white, to collect and evenly distribute the light, then a sensor measuring brightness at one spot, then a calculation based on the total area times the spot brightness times a magic factor
Without any equipment you can really only do a ceiling bounce test, i.e. compare a few lights (of known lumens) when pointing them at the ceiling. It would capture all the light and reflect it back at the room, so you'd know which light has more lumens regardless of how wide/focused the beam is.
A few of the 3×AAA 9×LED lights I've handled were even less than 20 lumens of terrible blue light, so it's hard to tell how many lumens yours have.
The light Jerommel posted is probably a very good choice. Make sure you pay with paypal or similar on gearbest because the vendor does sometimes pull "surprises" on people. I've only had succesful and quick deliveries from China (like most people) but a 1% of packages can go missing/deliver damaged etc. Paypal means a secure full refund if anything is wrong.
245 lumens from 2×AA is very little, and I think the mini pro uses plastic reflector and lens, most here would say it's not worth the price at all (unless you intend to re-sell it and buy something else, for example look at the Lumintop ED25 group buy)
I googled the lumintop ED25 group buy and found the thread for that (and asked for a link / coupon).
But here we’re talking lumens and the page for that flashlight talks of lux and lm (lm is about 1/2 of lux in a quick glance). lm is the abbreviation for lumens from what I can tell.
yeah, I guess I should just resell the maglite and get a better one you guys recommend here.
but then I’m stymied by being able to get anything at staples but not knowing what will sell quick on ebay and close to what I paid at staples.
starting to piece things together… so sometimes the specs talk of lumens based on the 14500 battery which is more power / higher voltage than a standard AA?!
Again, I have loads of AA and AAA - duracell and harbor freight. maybe not the best but cause I have loads of them, I can change them out after just a little use.
That said, what would you say of the flashlights mentioned / others that might have been left out - what would you say is the brightest’ using alkaline AA or AAA (1 or 2) and at $20 or so or less?
The jet is $14, but uses 1 AA and the specs are based on the 14500. As Jerommel says, it puts out 150
Manker T01 - nice but too expensive
Lumintop ED25 - $20 and supposedly bright, but can’t tell what the lm is on alkaline batteries.
Is the Lumintop ED25 a special / new product? when I google it, I don’t find people mentioning it in reviews or other stores selling it.
Reselling the maglight will probably not work as you hoped.
For example, minimaglight pro on Staples is 26.99 + tax.
It can be bought on ebay for 22.99 including shipping.
For yours to stand out and actually sell quickly, you would need to have an even lower price.
Let’s say 20.99 including shipping. Then subtract 13.5% for ebay and paypal fees. That’s 2.83.
Now you’re at 18.13, but you’ve still got to ship it. Most common method is Usps priority
mail @ 5.95. You net less than $13 for your troubles.
The mini mag is not bad for what it is, however it IS expensive for what it is.
The pro is 226 lumens and the pro+ is 245.
There will be no visible difference between the two brightnesses.
But keep in mind these levels will lower as the battery depletes, after the first 15 minutes
it will be at or below 200. So keep a supply of fresh batteries.
Many people here like Eneloop rechargeables.
I would just use the Staples credit to get (and keep) the mini mag.
It will be much better than the trade show lights you are referring to.
If you like flashlights and want something brighter, take your time and read here. After a bit you will get a feel for the terminology and different aspects of different lights (there is no consensus on what light is best) Li-ion powered lights are much more powerful than their alkaline powered counterparts and there are so many threads here to direct you to something several times brighter than the maglite for the same or lower cost.
Yes, they’re 3.0 to 4.2Volts (charge to 4.2 and discharge to 3.0 Volts)
They can deliver the needed current (Amperes) too.
They’re rechargeable Lithium ion batteries.
But when you use themin a AA / 14500 flashlight,you need to have low voltage protection, because the driver in an AA / 14500 light will totally drain it to far below 2.5 Volts and then you can write them off, recycle them…
An AA / 14500 light can work on 0.8 to 4.3 Volts, when it’s under around 2 Volts battery Voltage it will boost / step up the Voltage, because an LED works around 3.2 Volts.
Alkalines work fine, especially in short periods of use, like a minute or 2 at a time.
I like to use NiMH rechargeable AA and AAA.
They are better at long termhigher current.
AND, the don’t leak acid when they’re discharged.
Leaking batteries ruin flashlights.
Jetbeam is the best bang for the bucks.
The Klarus MI7 is nice and bright too, but not cheap.
But there is a topic with a coupon code for the Klarus, maybe interesting to consider.
There’s also a deal for Skilhunt H15 angle light you may find attractive (i did, it’s a beauty). Not sure if the deal is still on though.
But obviously they all are brightest on 14500.
Those harbor freight freebies are around 35 Lumens… IIRC.
I will do a ceiling bounce tonight against some of my other better known lights (Fenix, 4Sevens, Surefire etc). I am pretty sure I can find Fenix or 4Sevens in my collection that has something close by which to compare.
No there is really no way to quantifiably / accurately measure Lumens. You can ball park it with a ceiling bounce. But even then you need known reference lights by which to compare.
Also, we don’t know if you want the minimag because of it’s size, or because of the price/available amount of Staples credit. There are similarly sized lights that run on a li-ion cell called an 18650. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the alkaline/14500 lights unless you specifically need something that small. There are some pretty small 18650 lights and this opens up the possibilities tremendously, both for price and brightness. I won’t recommend a specific one, but for $20 or less you can have about 1000 lumens in a compact flashlight. Good cells for it around $5 each and a charger can be had for another $5. Just something to consider.
Surfed the staples site wow their pricing is through the roof. I guess they have to pay for the Staples center somehow. IIRC they are a motorsports sponsor too.
the only thing there that (to me) looked even remotely worth buying is this pelican.
