I've been working on a project to depict "real world" use and performance of EDC lights from a personal security perspective.
Most people encounter "low light" environments every day, which we'll define as one with enough light for safe footing and navigation without the use of a flashlight. The level of light can vary from brightly-lit to just barely enough light to see.
It's under these lighting conditions that my goal is to illustrate the use and performance of EDC lights to maintain SA and enable the detection of potential threats.
The lights used for these series of photos were a BG v.2 18350 (1,000 lumens, 12k candela) and an E2HT 18350 (500 lumens, 35k candela). The "bad guy" is an ISPC target armed with a plastic training knife.
A Canon DSLR was used with a 17-40L lens set at 17 mm (24 mm equivalent). For each series the exposure was locked in manual mode, set to replicate as closely as possible what was seen with the naked eye.
Series 1 - Bright
This series of photos was taken in a brightly-lit parking lot, distance to target about 30 feet. Though the light level is more than enough to see everything within it, the challenge could be back-lighting where a person might be clearly seen in silhouette but important detail cannot be discerned;
With the BG v.2 18350, the light is pointed downward to avoid a confrontational blast-to-the-eyes but to get enough light on the subject to see some detail;
With the subject identified as a threat, the center of the beam was placed directly on the target;
Same series with the E2HT 18350;
Series 2 - Typical Lighting
These photos were taken at a local supermarket, with lighting typical of what's used in large parking lots. Distance to target is about 40 feet. Once again, we detect the presence of another person in the cart collection bin but there is not enough light to see any detail;
Starting with the BG v.2 18350, the light is aimed low for the non-offending look and then moved directly on-target in the second photo;
Same series with the E2HT 18350;
Series 3 - Low Lighting
This series was taken in a dimly-lit parking lot with abundant dark areas, distance to target about 75 feet.
I placed our bad guy in a dark area under a tree. The target could not be seen at all without additional light.
Note - there were no "light-down" photos taken in this series.
Observations
- In the typical "low-light" conditions as defined at the start of this post, brighter spill does little to aid SA. It's only when we move into very low-light conditions (Series 3) does the brighter spill gain some advantage. In all cases, the high-candela light more brightly illuminates the target regardless of range.
- The transition from center hot spot to spill is shorter and more well defined with the typical high-candela beam pattern. This proves useful for the "light low" threat assessment without getting an offensive amount of light into the subject's eyes.
Conclusions
- For traversing a space that is in total darkness, a high-lumen light with a broad beam and bright spill is a definite advantage.
- For identifying threats in the typical low-light environment, a high-candela light is a definite advantage.
I hope you found this post useful!