5W Luxeon LED Torch

This incredible LED torch puts to shame your dolphin torches and 1 or 2 million candlepower torches whilst being a cm slimmer than a normal torch and only a cm thicker than a AA pencil torch. It is closest to our 3.5 million candle power torch in total brightness, but with a much better, whiter, and more uniform light and using only a fraction the power. Lasts for 1.5 to 2 hours at 100% duty cycle/brightness with the four supplied Panasonic 2000mAh NiMH sub-C batteries; up to 3 hours with four of our Sanyo RC3000H 3000mAh NiMH sub-C batteries. The torch four settings, 100%, 50%, 25% (on successive pushes) and emergency flash (hold for 3 seconds) increase battery life correspondingly (1x, 2x, 4x). The torch is extremely bright - do not shine direct into eyes - and nominally 120 Lumens/75000 Lux. How bright is the torch? That's a tricky question. A rating of X candlepower or lumens should mean the total light output is equivalent to X candles, but does not specify how focussed it is. A rating of X Lux or lumens per square metre means that at the centre of the beam the light you see is equivalent to the light on a square metre surface shed by X candles a metre away, but does not specify how broad the beam is. A rating of X foot candles means that at the centre of the beam the light you see is equivalent to the light on a square foot surface shed by X candles a foot away but does not specify how broad the beam is. A foot candle is about 10 Lux as the light is concentrated on a much smaller area. X candlepower or X lumens is meant to refer to the total light in all directions, but possibly focussed down more narrowly, however manufacturers of million candlepowertorches seem to mean that the illumination over for some specific but unspecified angular beamwidth is equivalent to what would be achieved by X candles (viz. the mean something like X footcandles or X Lux). Really you need to know both the lumens and the lux, or else one of them and the angle of the beam. LED torches tend to have a very narrow beam but it depends on the lens and the number of LEDs - one LED might have a spread of between 20 and 40 degrees, a 3 or 7 LED torch usually has the LEDs aimed fairly parallel so there is not much additional spread, although there will be some spillage spreadout by the lens. The larger wattage Luxeon torches have larger lenses to spread the light out over a larger area. This torch seems roughly equivalent in brightness at the centre of its beam to a so-called 3,500,000 Candlepower Halogen torch (the light onto the surface is equivalent to what those candles would shed at the same distance), but the light is a beautifully even white light compared with the uneven yellow light of a conventional torch.