Buying A Flashlight - A Flashlight Guide

Having the correct flashlight for the correct job is important. Using a 5 lumens keychain torch for search and rescue probably won't help much and using a 12000 lumens flood torch (such as the Wuben A9) is going to be more than what you need for when locking a gate at night.  So first, let's look at some important torch related definitions:

Lumens

Lumens (lm) is how much light is emitted.  More lumens means more brightness.  Approximate examples: birthday candle-1 lumen, phone flashlight-80 lumens, 40 watt incandescent (filament) bulb-460 lumens, 60 watt incandescent bulb- 800 lumens, 4 foot 32 watt T8 tube light-2500 lumens, HID car headlight-3000 lumens.  (This means that the Wuben A9 is 4 times brighter than a HID car headlamp!)

On a bright day, in a hot country, each square metre outdoors has approximately 133,200 lumens.  The Sun itself is 3.62×10^28 lumens i.e. 36,200 trillion-trillion lumens! That's why you can't directly look at it!

Throw

Throw is the maximum beam distance measured in metres.   

Candela

Approximately 1 candela = 12.57 lumens

Lumens does not consider the spread of the light being emitted in degrees, whereas candela does. For example, a standard fluorescent lighting device that emits a wide-spread beam can have a rating of 1,700 lumens and 135 candelas. But if the light emitted from this apparatus is narrowed and made to shine within a 20-degree beam, then its candela value will increase to 18,000.

The term candela is derived from abbreviating the phrase 'candle power'. It is a measure of intensity, rather than brightness. Lumens and candela get confused like 'voltage' does with 'current'. In simple terms, more intense light (higher candela) will travel further than weaker intensity light (lower candela).

The intensity of light reduces according to the 'inverse square' law.   This means that if you shine a flashlight on an object 20 meters away and then shine it on an object 10 meters away (half the distance), the nearer object will be 2^2 (2 squared) times brighter i.e. 4 times brighter.

Long distance flashlights with a concentrated beam spot have higher candela than floodlights which spread the beam.

Lux

'Lux' (lx) is another way of measuring light intensity.  It is an abbreviation of 'luminous flux'.  One lux is equal to one lumen per square meter (lux = lumens/m^2).  For example, full daylight has around 10,000 lux, an overcast day, 1000 lux, full moon, 0.1 lux and quarter moon, 0.01 lux. Lasers have lower lumens but high lux, so throw very far (but with a very small beam). Floodlights have higher lumens, but lower lux, so don't throw as far (but light up wide areas). Lux changes by the distance the lit up area is from the light source.

BUT as flashlights are designed to be carried and not stay in a fixed position, lux can be overlooked when considering the best flashlight for you.  

Other considerations

Obviously you would want to consider value for money, along with run time, impact resistance (normally measured using the '1m drop test'), water resistance using the IP system, size, weight, materials and battery type (i.e if they can be charged with USB C and can be replaced).  

Since 2009, most torch major brands now include performance data on their packaging, these are known as 'ANSI FL1' standards and ensure that models of flashlights are tested and rated in the same way.  Light output in lumens, beam distance, run time, impact resistance and water resistance are included in these standards.

See what Wuben offers below

Please contact us on service@wubenlight.com for any queries - we would love to advise you, hear your suggestions and might be able to give you a coupon!

EDC (Every Day Carry)

All of our EDC flashlight have High, Medium, Low, SOS and Strobe modes, are made of aluminium alloy and are IP68 rated i.e. they can be submerged 2m underwater for 1 hour!8x23kmo