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Commonly abbreviated as the ANSI FL1 Standard, the ANSI/NEMA FL 1-2009 Standard is a set of flashlight performance guidelines. Before the introduction of these standards, you may have seen a variety of phrases on flashlight packaging, such as these:
Light Output vs. Peak Beam Intensity Although higher output seems like it should correspond to higher intensity, a light with more lumens is not necessarily “brighter.” Here’s why:
So, which is more important? Light output can be thought of as “raw material,” but it’s how that light is dispersed that determines usefulness. For example, a fluorescent lamp has high output but low intensity (a dispersed, or flood, beam), whereas a laser and has low output but high intensity (a focused, or spot, beam).
Both are useful for their intended purposes, but neither would make a good flashlight. Thus, the candela per lumen (cd/lm) ratio can be used to determine if a flashlight has a spot- or flood-type beam.
As a reference, well-focused spot beams can be over 100 cd/lm, tactical flashlights are typically between 20-100 cd/lm, and work lights are less than 10 cd/lm.
Peak Beam Intensity vs. Perceived Brightness
Brightness, as we think of it in everyday terms, is actually a difficult measurement to grasp numerically. While 10,000cd will appear brighter than 5,000cd, it will not appear twice as bright. The reason is because our perception of brightness is non-linear, meaning that “twice the intensity” will not appear “twice as bright.”
Keeping this non-linear relationship in mind is important for making Peak Beam Intensity comparisons, and a rough estimate is that for a light to appear twice as bright to the eye, four times the intensity is required.
Beam Distance Beam distance is calculated from peak beam intensity, so there is actually no new information here. In addition, a full moon on a clear night is not really a useful amount of light, so don’t put too much weight on this specification.
Here’s a trick question: when is a 1.5V battery actually 1.5 volts? Ideally, always, but an alkaline battery’s voltage decreases as it discharges, so it would almost never be 1.5 volts. This is why LED flashlights require complex electronics, but not all flashlights behave the same way. To capture this behavior, runtime must be presented as a graph, which is not required by the FL1 Standard.
LED-Resource Abbreviations
Here’s a list of abbreviations for battery types:
Lumens | LIGHT OUTPUT - 200 Lumens on average of 3 testing samples, Peak Output is around 250 Lumens on one test |
BEAM INTENSITY | 150 Meter in distance = 500 Feet in range, it means this Lantern will be visible with this range. |
Run Time | runs on 3 AA battery will give you about 10H of continues lighting power |
Water Resistance [IPX Rating] | IPX4 – water-resistant, or water splashed from all directions |
Impact Resistance [Meter] | Impact resistance is tested with drops onto a concrete surface at the specified height with all intended accessories, including batteries, installed. |
Lumens | LIGHT OUTPUT - 200 Lumens on average of 3 testing samples, Peak Output is around 250 Lumens on one test |
BEAM INTENSITY | 150 Meter in distance = 500 Feet in range, it means this Lantern will be visible with this range. |
Run Time | runs on 3 AA battery will give you about 10H of continues lighting power |
Water Resistance [IPX Rating] | IPX4 – water-resistant, or water splashed from all directions |
Impact Resistance [Meter] | Impact resistance is tested with drops onto a concrete surface at the specified height with all intended accessories, including batteries, installed. |