What are the capabilities for all the different lumens?

I'm guessing 60 lumens is mainly for indoors.  How does it do outdoors in the city or the middle of nowhere?

What about 120 lumens?  How far does it go outdoors?  Is it too bright for indoors?

I say 60 for indoors and close stuff.

120+ for outside. 120 isn't too bright for indoors.

I could identify things about 80-90 yards with a Surefire 125 Lumen MN10 lamp.  A P61 120 lumen lamp could not reach nearly as far, perhaps only 50 yards or so.  A P61 120 lumen lamp is not twice as bright as a P60 lamp for example it has twice as large of a hot spot instead which does not add much in the way of throw.  Lumens are not the total picture you need to look at beam hot spot brightness and how focused the beam is.  Many 60+ Lumen LEDs wont throw past 30 yards or so.  The Gladius can throw to a good 50+ yards.  A Turbo head MN10 will outthrow a standard bezel/refector MN10 etc.  Also the ambient lighting will determine your ability to resolve things at a distance.  The brighter the area you are standing in the shorter you can reach into the darkness and identify things because your pupil is constricted.

There is a great link at candlepowerforums.com that gives the total output and throw of all flashlights available.  Gives a good idea of the beam shape and distance you can use the light to identify things relative to one another.

I use a Surefire M971XM06 on my "go to" weapon. I have a big house with a long and wide central hall that I want to light up if need be. So I use the MN16 225 lumen lamp in it, with the 97' series turbo head. It is all dependant on what you decide that you need though. My decision was based on the fact that I have a big yard in the middle of the woods that is open to about 175 yards, so I need the throw that the 225 lumen lamp, and turbo head gives me.

87 Lumens can illuminate a Red footed squirell from 87 yards away.    



My surefire G2 seems to work outside for what I use it for, which is not to trip over things in my back yard.

Thanks.  I'll go with 120 lumens.

120 Lumens if you are using Surefire lamps is a P61 and only good for 20 minutes with no additional throw to speak of.  Id go 125 or 65.

One last question: does the 120 cover a larger area?

The answer to most of these is maybe.  It depends on how it is focused.  I hate using lumens only as much as I hate using only candlepower.  Neither one by themselves is very useful.  Look at some lightbulbs the next time you are in a grocery store.  A 40 watt refridgerator bulb is something like 600 or 800 lumens.
A 105 lumen lamp from a SureFire 9P is bright and covers a wide area.  The same 105 lumens from the Turbohead is more tightly focused.  It throws further, and is brighter because more of the light is in the hot spot. Replace that 105 lumen P90 in the regular 9P with the 200 lumen P91 and it won't be all that much brighter or throw too much further, but the beam will be somewhat wider.

Generally larger reflectors focus the light into smaller, more focused, more intense, spots.

Only the hotspot of a 120 is larger than the 65 in my eye (these dont use sepreate bezels/reflectors but have them built in with the bulb unlike the MN10 and MN11 bulbs for the 9V lights).  The corona is not brighter or larger and it does not cover a wider area in a room but covers a 8 foot widde area at a certain range with the hot spot vs the 4 foot with the 65 lumen.  Upgrading to a 125 Lumen 9V Surefire with standard reflector will give the larger hotspot of the P61 (which will be more egg shaped than the P61) but gives more focused light in that hotspot and 40-50% more range too.  If you are getting a light that uses P60 and P61 lamps I suggest getting both lamps as its only about $20 for the extra lamp.  I did that and once I used the P61 right after the P60 I never used the P61 lamp again.

The better way to seek your answer is to define what you want to resolve (people, weapons, animals, signs, etc) at what range and get suggestions and do a size/weight/cost/feature comparison.  I used a M900A for years and loved the light till I had a bulb burn out and got tired of the 20+ oz weight and decided I wanted to hang a suppressor off the end of my rifle. Now its LEDs or nothing for me.