500? 600? 1,000?
I’d like to add a powerful small pocketable flashlight to my edc to dazzle would-be attackers when I go to LA to visit my daughter as she likes to go out evenings.
Any suggestions?
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I’d go with the 1000 it’s the brightest
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My wife and I have been carrying these on our key rings for over 15 years, never failed us yet. Doubles as a lethal kubaton!
Surefire L2D LED 1000 lumens at highest level!
A little pricey. Buy once, cry once.
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Go with minimum 1,000… You want as bright as possible to clearly see and hurt attacker’s eyes.
However “lumens” are not only the factor you should consider. In my opinion “candela” is also very important factor in your EDC light, epsecially outside.
More candelas, more light in a single point/spot… and that is what you need for defense.
I personally love Olight Baton series.
Right now I’m using Baton 3 Pro
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@John292 Well, looks like suggestions by popular demand is the 1000 lumens!
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Are you speaking of Los Angeles, California? I’d be more afraid of the gun laws than things that go bump in the dark.
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Just entering California as a non-resident you might get taxed 11%
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There are two ratings to consider lumens is its brightness, and candela is its intensity, penetrating power like through fog.
I would go as bright and as intense as you can find or afford.
If confronted by a (BG) bad guy, especially at night, you have a better chance to blind and disorient him plus destroy his night vision at least temporarily.
This gives you a chance to get off X, that spot that you may get shoots at, or attacks you on X, so move off it quick, if he has a gun and shots at you won’t be were you were, and he can’t follow you visually unless you are back lit.
That, and get as large, and solid a flashlight for after dark walks that you may use it to crack an assailant in their head when you just blinded them.
You may also wish to black tape any seams that might break apart on impact to keep it functional.
Of course you want a pocket size flashlight for your daytime EDC, also bright for those dark room spaces or situations like during a power outage and no outside light gets in like a windowless room, basement, smoke tower stairway in a high rise, trying to find a dark item dropped into a black hole, whatever.
In a pinch use the flashlight of you cell phone.
But, for tactical situations try to have a real flashlight handy.
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One thing iv noticed is higher lumen listed doesnt always mean its actually brighter. They can list by direct light or splash, and also some cut down pretty far after a few seconds…
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I love my NiteCore lights, all of them. They make a few specific for EDC. I use them around the yard at night and when working on vehicles. The range of products they have is extreme, and they have sales to help with pricing.
I have one of these:
They just released this:
I would say that, like a firearm, you want the one you can use the best when you need it. Flashlights can be complicated these days with multiple multi-function buttons.
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Just how small do you want/need to go?
I recently started carrying a very small Acebeam Rider 2.0 that takes a single AA sized rechargeable battery. It is rated at 1000 lumens and 2756 candela. More importantly it has a very well focused beam that keeps the majority of the light focused on your target but still gives enough spill to see what is going on around you. It is extremely blinding to look at even just reflected back from a mirror that is over 50’ away.
Because of its small size you only get the peak output for less than a minute before it throttles down to a still very painful to look at 400-500 lumens. Though most lights are similar with even the much larger lights only giving peak output for a couple of minutes before throttling down significantly.
Acebeam also makes a less expensive Pokelit Grey model. I got one on a special deal price on Amazon for only $16. Not sure if they are still offering the deal. I actually like it better from a size and shape perspective as it is a little thinner but it has less useful mid range power settings than the Rider if you need a setting that will let you see a good distance but still last long enough to hike your way through a dark forest all night long. Though the Pokelit low setting is bright enough to light the path in front of you.
Both are small and light enough to barely notice in your pocket. More importantly they have a tail switch with a memory setting so you can have the light come on in super bright mode with just one click. As a bonus they can use regular AA batteries in a pinch. Though you loose a fair amount of lumens and run time.
They are very hard to beat from a size to power ratio perspective and have a good reputation for durability.
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I would recommend having a light with a strobe function. All the brands listed in the comments above all make lights with the strobe and as mentioned in many of the comments above they are a little more expensive as they would then be considered a “tactical” light as opposed to just being a flashlight.
Another thing to consider is the power settings of your light. Logically, the higher the setting, the faster it will deplete the battery. Also, the faster the battery is depleted, the hotter the battery will get, heating up the whole flashlight. Many lights on the market have multiple settings (low, medium, high) for different uses so you can operate the light at a lower power and not drain or heat up the battery.
Back in the day, Maglite was the best thing on the market. If you had a Maglite, you were Da MAN!! Now it seems Maglite is no longer the frontrunner in the race. The quality of their products is still as good as it ever was, but the lumen rating on their lights is disproportionate with their pricing when compared to other brands. Less expensive lights are available with higher lumen rating and quality. I still have four Maglites I depend on, but I have had them FOREVER. One is an inspection light I have on my desk at the shop and the other three are the 4 D-cell lights and they are clipped inside the cupboard in the kitchen, clipped to the wall next to the shower in the bathroom and clipped inside the closet door in the master bedroom.
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Most current lights have multiple regular setting, a high brightness temporary setting, strobe, SOS, etc.
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Thanks for sharing that, good to know. 
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I agree with @Brad … Simplest is the best. Too many functions never work when your need fast response … and unfortunately “strobe” included.
Yeah, for work it’s a nice thing to have all those features… but to act quickly you need one button/ switch which does on / off only with desired effects.
The problem with strobe is that it affects both, you and the thread.
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I’ve been carrying the Streamlight ProTac 2L-X for years and love it. It’s listed as 500 lumens, but it’s blindingly bright on it’s first setting. It also has a lower light option and strobe option. If I’m working on something in the dark, I typically use the low light setting because it’s too bright on the default/highest setting. Of course I’ve also used the high setting plenty when searching in the shadows at night. And the rechargeable batteries are a huge plus too.
When I was searching for an EDC flashlight, I was convinced that “lumens” and “candela” weren’t exactly regulated and vendors could make whatever claims they wanted. You could go to a particular vendor and use those specs to compare different models of the same make. But it didn’t seem reliable when trying to compare Streamlight vs SureFire, for example. Some that I tried didn’t seem to live up to the specs. That may have changed and it might be more of an apples to apples comparison these days. But that’s why I decided to share the make & model of the flashlight I settled on and it’s been a great flashlight that gets a lot of use.
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I don’t think it has gotten to be any more apples to apples. A lot depends on who is doing the measuring, with what and how.
There are a lot of variables involved to making a good flashlight. The type of LED emitter used. The color temperature it produces - for some things cools white works best for others a warmer more yellowish light is better. How that light is focused and diffused.
Too many variables to make a decision based on a couple of numbers. There are some people who do independent standardized testing and have sample images of the light produced by each flashlight. 1lumen.com is a good place to go for comparisons. They have tested a lot of lights but not all the lights. And manufactures sometimes change things, sometimes without changing the model number to let people know there has been a change.
But there are a ton of solid options to choose from these days. Main thing a to make sure it is reliable and easy to use in a stressful situation.
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This video was posted before by @Nathan57 IIRC. It’s worth the 20 minutes to watch and directly applies to this discussion.
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I have lots of Olights. Now that it’s getting darker earlier, I’ll start carrying the M1X Striker. 1,000 lumen high setting. I don’t love the crenulated bezel. But I like the features. Most of my Olights have a momentary on feature. From any setting double click to turbo and triple click to strobe. But they also have a 0.5 lumen moonlight setting which I love for every day tasks.
Others have mentioned newer Olight models. Can’t go wrong with Olight.
I recently got my son a Fenix LD22. It’s an 800 lumen light that runs off of a proprietary lithium ion battery that is the size of two AA’s. So when the proprietary battery runs low you can pop in 2 AA’s but without the high lumen output. For the ability to supply batteries literally anywhere on the planet, it’s a great light. If I were buying a new light right now, that’s what I would buy. It also has a moonlight setting which I find super useful. That light is tactically bright, can function as a tactical light, but with the ability to use AA’a and the moonlight mode, it has overlap to grid down prepping or international travel.
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