How to choose a gun light

When purchasing a gun light, whether it is from a brand such as Cloud Defensive or ModLite, you will usually see these three units of light: Lumens, Candela, and Lux. These three are all units that describe light. What's the difference? Let the editor try to explain it to everyone. If I don't explain it well, please correct me and give me guidance. Thank you!

Lumens: A measure of the total amount of light output from a light source in all directions. Simply put, it is a unit of overall brightness. The higher the Lumens value, the brighter the overall brightness. That is to say, how bright this gun light can make an area or room become depends on its numerical value. Depending on the type of lighting device such as a light bulb, the energy used (Watts) will be different. What is the relationship between watts and lumens? For the same 1600 lumens, LED only needs 22 watts, but ordinary fluorescent light bulbs require 100 watts. Therefore, when purchasing a gun light, the brightness of the area basically depends on the lumen value, and how long it can be used can be calculated based on the wattage value.

Candela: It is directional, a unit of light intensity visible to the human eye in a specific direction. Where there is direction, there is distance, so Candela is simply the effective distance of light in one direction. Usually we know that Candela means candlelight: 1 Candela is the measurement of the light emitted by a candle at a distance of 1 meter in a specific direction. In this way, how to improve the Candela value? It is to use the principle of refraction to refract light in all directions into the same direction, which can increase the intensity of the beam and increase the effective distance (range). The gun light uses a curved mirror around the bulb to refract the light in the same direction to form a beam and project it out. Therefore, when purchasing a gun light, if you need to illuminate a point in the distance outdoors or in the wild, you will need a high-candela Candela.

Lux: A unit of measurement for the amount of light that strikes or passes through the surface of an object. 1 lux is equal to 1 lumen on 1 square meter of surface area. In other words, the brightness of 1000 lumens towards 1 square meter is 1000 lux, but when 1000 lumens are projected into 10 square meters, there will be only 100 lux. Can we understand the relationship between Lux and Lumens? The range, distance or angle of the irradiated target will affect the Lux value.

Based on the above, Lumens is an evaluation of the brightness of the overall area or space. According to the shape of the reflector, surface refractive index and lumens, the Candela value and the distance of the beam projection can be determined. The amount of light projected onto the surface of the target is Lux.

In this way, you should be able to choose a gun light that suits you or needs to be used in different environments based on the various units describing light written in the gun light specification book. Basically, you can choose a lamp with a high lumen value indoors to quickly see the situation around the house. Outdoors, you can use a unit with a high candela value to facilitate illumination and identification of distant targets. Take ModLite as an example:
MODLITE PLHV2-18650 gun light: brightness is about 1350 lumens, light intensity is about 54,000 candelas
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MODLITE OKW-18650 gun light: The brightness is about 680 lumens and the light intensity is about 69,000 candelas. It can be seen that the PLHV2 gun light is more suitable for indoor use than the OKW gun light. The outdoor projection distance of the PLHV2 gun light is slightly lower than that of the OKW gun. lamp.