What is the brightest red LED flash light out there?

[angerdan]

RED LED with 340lm for just $22 - even the Wolf-Eyes T3 II has just 270lm and did cost $140

Brinyte B158 Flashlight GB- Ordering is a GO with coupon, all details in the OP! Updated: 12-09-15

12-01-15 Update: Now that the group buy has been going for a few weeks, you can order away. I don’t know how long the prices will stay, but I’ll update this in case they change. Gear Best has been a bit conservative on the quantites they have ordered. So expect a week-ish, sometimes before shipping. Or more or less, I don’t know Here is the official mod thread for the light. People will soon be getting them, so I guess it’s good to have a fresh thread to post all the mods in. NEW UPDATE- PLEASE…

[hank]

Remember the eye generally is much less sensitive to light at the red and violet ends of the visible spectrum than to the middle (green)
so you have to be putting 5x the power, with the example below, to get what looks equally bright:

the photopic sensitivity of the human eye to monochromatic light at 490 nm amounts to 20% of its sensitivity at 555 nm. As a consequence, when a source of monochromatic light at 490 nm emits five times as much power (expressed in watts) than an otherwise identical source of monochromatic light at 555 nm, both sources produce the impression of same “brightness” to the human eye.

Spectral sensitivity of the human eye

and another set of numbers:

We see only from violet to red. Infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) are just outside our ability to see. The eye is most sensitive to yellow-green light (550 nm). At the same power, 670 nm red light is only 3 percent as bright.

(this is also why those 405nm “blu-ray” lasers are so dangerous — most older people can barely see the visible spot at all (kids have clearer lenses, they get yellower with age) but the photons are extremely energetic hitting the retina

EDIT, always worth looking this stuff up; even a dim green laser (frequency-doubled infrared, defective IR filter) can hurt, don’t rely on perceived brightness, you might have

“a dim visible green light while outputting 20 mW of IR (four times the U.S. legal limit)

http://www.laserpointersafety.com/laser-hazards_head-eyes/laser-hazards_head-eyes.html

But — main point here is you have to put 5x as much power through a red LED for it to seem as bright as the usual flashlight does.

[CarpentryHero]

I’m not up on the percentages but don’t count on the colour of the laser to save your retina.
Anything over 100mw wear laser goggles.