Moonlight and Firefly Modes on Flashlights. What those about?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ย. 2024
- A good moonlight or firefly mode in a flashlight is a thing that gets me excited. And makes other people say what the hell is wrong with you. And other people say, you don’t sound very excited. Ok maybe I’m not as emotive as other TH-cam bros, but I have feelings too.
So what is a good moonlight mode? And is a firefly mode any different? Well first, that depends on you. Second I used to think a firefly was lower, but since manufacturers seem to use them interchangeablely from .01 lumens to 5 lumens, Armytek- not I don’t think there’s a distinct agreed upon definition.
Let me share with you my opinion though. A good moonlight mode for me, is one that is under a lumen… actually less than half a lumen. More like a Zebralight, Armytek, and Olight. My favorite lights give me a few options from, .01 lumens to 5 ish lumens… Let’s say you wake up from a deep sleep at night, and you’re camping… something less than .5 lumens more like a 10th of a lumen . It’s the perfect piss light, because it doesn’t disturb your camping buddy or hostage, and it doesn’t make your eyes hurt when you turn it on. The ultralowest of these modes will also allow you keep your eyes adjusted to the night too. A moonlight mode is usually enough to allow you to see the ground or inside of a bag dimly, but a little too dim for reading without straining your eyes. Moonlight modes are also very efficient and can get you out of an emergency if your lost in a dark place, and need to conserve battery. Moonlight modes and low modes if they’re efficient can last for months of continuous output.
Sometimes you need a bit more light though, and brands like Zebralight allow you to program modes from a few selections.
Now flashlights will often vary between model to model on what a moonlight mode is, because of different factors like batteries, drivers, and LED emitters- but here are some of my favorites. The Armytek Predator Pro v2.5 … The Zebralight SC600 MkIII HI, the Manker MK34 either my lowest or second lowest surprisingly when you consider it can also put out 5000 lumens… My Olight S2 copper… I have 5 or 6 olights, and for some reason this is the lowest. My Armytek Tiara A1 Pro… it’s either this or the Manker MK34… Amy My Armytek Wizards.
Anyway… your eyes are really what matters though, so you’ll need to try out a few options from the list of manufacturers to see what works best for you. And on the other hand, you may be one of those people who like to wake up and use 1000 lumens- and thing moonlight modes are stupid. That’s fine too. But as far as I’m concerned Usually anything in the under 1 lumen range can be considered a moonlight mode, although Nitecore has some in the mid 1 lumen range… so maybe those work best for you. If you like this video, subscribe, like comment, and watch my other videos. Thanks for watching.
I use moonlight mode when I have to get up during the night to use bathroom. I try not to wake my wife by stepping on the cats as I move about. My eyes adjust well in moonlight mode. As far as your voice and not sounding enthusiastic? Your voice and reviews rock on man. Along with your humor, please don't change a thing. You should be hitting the 100k sub mark instead of 10k.
Keep up the great work.
+The Shanester thanks man! 100k seems like 10 years away- at the pace I'm getting subscribers. Yeah... it's Moonlight here at night too- it keeps me from waking the baby when I need to hit the bathroom.
I use moonlight mode for the bathroom as well, which is why tail standing is so important. I don't use the red emitter for bathroom runs because I can't tell if someone else peed and forgot to flush.
@@AdvancedKnifeBro seems like your predictions will be 2 years off :) only 8,1 k away so 1 year at max
Bro, your videos are straight addictive to me for some reason. It's nice to see somebody else other than me cares about a decent moonlight/firefly mode. Nice.
Thanks man! If a light doesn't have a low or moonlight mode- I don't like it as much.
Nice review! I am a huge fan of moonlight or sub-1 lumen modes. I would say that 80% of my EDC light usage is moonlight. Keep up the great vids.
+GPKNIVES thanks man! Me too- I use them to navigate the house in the dark mostly.
Except when you have an emergency, that's the most used mode.
I laugh out loud at least 1 time in every video. So good
+Tovarish Works awesome! I tried to make it short and to the point- hopefully it expounds on things I touch upon in my reviews. I plan on doing more with dumb jokes!
Keep up the good work bro, love the humor. Reviews with just the facts can sometimes be boring and reviews with no commentary are boring and AKWARD!
+kwilin19 I try to keep it interesting! Thanks man!
I use moonlight every night to check on the baby. seems like even 5-10 lumens can make them stir. moonlight is great for the car too. nothing like blasting a few hundred lumens in an enclosed area.
+Bushcraft412 yeah... I get that. I use my edc to read orders in dark meeting rooms at work. Often times 2-3 lumens is too bright on a white piece of paper 6 inches away.
So glad I’m not the only moonlight mode fan!
well done and entertaining as always, love your style!
+BirdShot IV thanks a ton man!
as a scout i can say it's the worst and you are out camping then while going to the bathroom someone comes your way shining their obnoxiously bright flashlight in your face
True dat!
when I was in the hospital for 25 days mostly all of feb I used the moonlight quite a bit to, as you said, not disturb others. Since my eyes were alrighty adjusted to the night it was plenty. Before that I wasn't so sure I needed it but sometimes the lowest mode is still too strong.
Thank goodness this is starting to creep into the flashlight world. When the Chinese decided to make Torches for the American 'Flashlight' market. I wish they hadn't taken this term literally. FLASH FLASH FLASH! I have a pile of flashlights that I'd love to trade the SOS and Strobe mode, for one single Moonlight mode.
+Steve Kluver I hate strobes.
These strobe modes are maddening : - )
I hate them as well. I see some new flashlights that are just about to come down the pipeline, are coming with dual mode sets. One of those sets, is lacking both the strobe and SOS mode, and include moonlight on the non-strobe side of the two. So we are in a transition stage.
Also, I forget to mention earlier, how fantastic those Moon (as in Man on the moon) shots looked, and fit in with the theme of this video. That you had at the very beginning, and at the end of this video. Great work there as well!
You’d love the venerable Thrunite Ti3v2 for its .04lm firefly mode lasting 115 hours.
I’d love a 2lm low mode light for clipping on a hat for reading but it’s very difficult to find such a light.
2 lumens seems perfect for night reading.
When camping or in a hotel I keep my tiara on in low moonlight all night. Just enough light to make out shapes and uses virtually no power. Once outside I'll use high moonlight to move around.
Like you, I'm all about those sub-0.5 lumen moonlight modes. And tacos. You like tacos right? Sure you do!
+marshalllaw123 if I'm not mistaken- way back when you were looking for a good penlight with a low mode- did you ever find a good one?
Advanced Knife Bro sadly not yet. Seems like everyone is making the short fat multipurpose lights with great features, but skinny penlights aren't getting much love. I keep hoping though!
They are sorely lacking indeed, I think the lowest one that I briefly had in my collection was a Fenix E99Ti.
Didn't really like the tint and it has been given away as a gift at some point, out of the AAA pen light style types I guess I have the Preon P2 (with Nichia 219B, illuminationsupply had these at some point) and an Eagletac D25AAA (also the Nichia version) have the most decent low outputs.
But even those low outputs are higher than I wish they'd be, of all my compact torches that do have a reasonable max output for their class I think the Nitecore Tip CRI does the best job.
+Extra stuff the Nitecore TIP CRI has a nice low mode. Gotta try an eagletac one day.
+marshalllaw123 yeah I hear ya... hopefully one of these days. Good to know, to keep up the search.
The Tiara A1 moonlight mode seems like it would also be ideal for leaving it on so you could find it in the tent. Not bright enough to keep you awake like some blinking locator modes. In my opinion, firefly should be lower than moonlight, with firefly being 0.5 or less, and moonlight being from 0.5 to 1. The Nitecore EC4s "moonlight" mode is TWO lumens, which should actually be called dusk mode or "car headlight with a bad ground" mode. However, 2 lumens is bright enough to find your way around the woods at night, and if you use for 6 hours per night, you're good for 54 days.
+Altema22 yes it's more like a beacon to find it at night. I sometimes leave it on at night to find it. Those blinking switches are annoying and I'm glad this version of the tiara doesn't have it. That green lift is brighter than the moonlight mode.
When you’re away from home and “require” a night light, my Zebra is my best friend for beating back the dark. 😇
Imagine that you are lost in a cave. The moonlight mode will probably save your life, because its light will be enough in total darkness, and the battery consumption is minimal and enough for a long time. Exactly the same situation with the possible for the day of doom, when the light of the flashlight is for the first time as important as a good knife, matches and water with food.
P.S. Sorry for my English.
I agree man. Your English is very good.
For me, it is hard to beat red illumination for a moonlight mode. That's why the Surefire Aviator is IMO the ultimate EDC flashlight. Technology has come a long way, and there are many brighter/smaller/less expensive lights out there, but since I have become accustomed to that red secondary beam I just haven't found anything else that will suffice
I've had a few lights with red beams, but those were all in the mid single digit lumen range- which was too bright. That Tiara though is about as dim a light there is. Probably too dim.
I'm beginning to get used to the red lights. Had an Eveready I picked up as a curio with a dedicated red emitter, and the red was the first mode at turn on (no memory). My current EDC is the peanut sized EC11 because it will light up an entire 1,400 seat auditorium, and you have direct access to red from off. Ok, make that a very large peanut...
Altema22 I also have that light, and it is a gem...
Fantastic video!! I too see the usefulness of moonlight/firefly. I'm not a sub lumens guy though, more like 1 to 5 Do you know if there are any flashlights out there that do a whole range of brightness settings for moonlight ?
in a hostige situation you dont want to use the moonlight mode, you want tubo mode so the hostige is temoprarly blinded and cant see youre face, but those are just details.....
+maram Ovidiu good info!
Well you don't have to worry about it if you tied them up properly!
I wonder how you feel about the Red led vs the green vs moonlight ? Whats best ? or the advantages of each
It depends on the lumen amount. Trying to find a low enough red or green led is hard to do... most lights with red or green outputs have outputs over 5-6 lumens. I’ve rarely tested a light with a low enough mode to be usable. And I don’t think I’ve come across a test on TH-cam with a person who actually has solid recommendations about colored LEDs and at what lumens are appropriate. I can say though that for my eyes a month a moonlight under .1 lumen will allow me to still retain my night vision. I don’t dabble in the colored language because I have found ones that work in standard LEDs.
@@AdvancedKnifeBro I read a pdf by the FAA about night vision for pilot training and they do have recommendations for instrument lighting and that may applied to other circumstances.
You should see the new Haikelite MT03 V.2, lowest moonlight I've ever seen! It doesn't even register on my lightbox!
+highflyer011 I didn't know they had a V2 out.
Yep, I don't know if any retailers carry it yet though, but a few of us on BLF that complained about the original MT03 (from the group buy) got a replacement. In version 2, the modes are all spaced out perfectly. The moonlight mode is unbelievably low, and they fixed the issue with the driver so that it is a legit 10,000 lumens on turbo. I did a ceiling bounce test (as the MT03 maxed out my lightbox reading) against the Convoy L6, and the L6 recorded a 12.5 and the new MT03 registered a 40.5!!!
+highflyer011 great to hear!
I consider under 5 lumen's moon light, under 1 lumen fire fly. Difference between a full moon and a dim half half moon.
👍
very like cool
+Caique&Tacy luan&lima thank like you!
Nice review. I found it very " Illumenating."
Moonlight for me is from 0.1lm to 1lm, because that is the most radiant moonlight I have (Olight S30). Firefly is less than that, down to 0.03lm, the dimmest I have experience with (Thrunite Ti3). But that is just a personal set of parameters.
The best I've had so far is the moonlight on the Thrunite TN12 2014, which is stated to be around 0.3lm (I have an Olight S1 with a very similar mode, but can't remember the specs and plain am not a fan of the S1 in general). Bright enough to navigate, but dim enough not to break NV in the slightest. The S30 is a bit too bright for my indoors, the S2 is much too dim (firefly instead of moonlight which is strange for an 18650 EDC; good safety nightlight for children though), the Thrunite T10 is _just_ below the sweet spot, and the Ti3's firefly barely reaches the minimum to compete, even if I do like it in concept.
+Dinner-fork tongue yeah... my favorite is probably my S2 copper... maybe zebralight. The armyteks are good too... although the tiara may be too dim. Headlamps are mostly planted on your head, so if they're too dim, like the tiara- you might have a hard time seeing the ground.
I want a low lumen that will garner me low light and high light? How do achieve this? (I'm joking and also drunk)Loving your vids as always! I'm still drunk :)
+liljack8421 thanks man! Drunks the way to be!
Sub-lumen rocks bruh!
some would say you emote too much
+JiRahb likestheinternet some might.