Details on the head you are using? Because my 600 lumen Scout M600 Ultra isn't that impressive by current standards. A Cloud light blows it away as far as throw.

M340 DFT

Its a hoss. Here it is compared to my fullsize rein 3.0

That was like 100 lumens, right? Felt like the Eye of freaking Sauron back then. That and the gargantuan Millennium Surefire that took 3x CR123 and had cooling fins and shit.

I had one of those thiccbois. 220 lumens with MN11. It was insane how bright that was. Wild. Of course...a 20 year old perceives ambient lighting about 30-40% brighter than a 40 year old, I believe, so...there's that. We lose a lot with age, subtly. Im sorry if personal attacks in tech arent allowed, but I said ahat I said.

That video just makes me want the Cloud more. Thanks for posting it. Now I just need to pony up for one of them.

The 3.0 is the hottest light Ive tested in that size factor and format so far from a quality American based company.

@gambleandlost  Yes, but it also depends.  For example I have 3 different 500lu lights with widely different purposes & patterns.

Light 1: TLR7a 500 lu, good spill, solid compact pistol light

Light 2: SF X300u, decent throw, less spill than my tlr7a, works well up to 50 yds at night

Light 3: Arisaka E3XT, 55k candela & 500 lu, good throw with a smaller hotspot, not too much spill,  this is mounted on a 16" 556 rifle


@GrizzlyAdams has it right, move them to backups & upgrade as you can.

500 Lumen lights are still relevant depending on the lights intensity (candela). I've done some night shots of several lights that are either 500 lumens or slightly over 500 lumens.

The lights that were tested were Malkoff E2XT, Modlite Legacy-Flood, and Surefire M640DFT Turbo. The images you see are approximately lighting up 50 - 60 yards away. You can see that the Malkoff E2XT has a brighter hotspot than the Modlite-Flood that has more lumens. This is due to the fact that the Malkoff E2XT head has more candela than the Modlite. Ultimately it comes down to your application. For my purposes, I need a more floody light than a throw light because I work in mostly close distances and I would prefer to light up the entire room rather than sections.

First photo is a Malkoff E2XT (500 lumens & 55,000 candela)



2nd photo is a Modlite Legacy Flood Light (850 lumens & 44,000 candela)



3rd Photo is a Surefire 600 Turbo (700 Lumens, 100,000 Candela)

Here is the question OP. Do you find your current WML lacking? My guess is probably not. 500 lumens is a decent amount, and the wide flood/spill is perfect for inside the home or shorter distances.

BINGO

More Lumens isn't always better

If I'm indoors I don't want more than 500.

Depends on how you're using it.

Yup. And my g2 was duct taped to my SAW.

I run an MN11 in my night rotation, driven by a pair of 18650 cells.  Outstanding white light and decent throw.

Paladin

The Turbo is designed for throw. I don't know of a lot of specific use cases outside of hunting, guard duty, etc, where throw is preferred to a wider beam. And I say this as someone who plans on buying a Turbo so that I can do more shooting in the winter.

Is someone getting more than 500 lumens out of a CR123? Because that would be news to me. A lot of the innovation is coming in the form of what you can do with high drain rechargeable batteries, which is also not everyone's use case. So, for example, I got a Modlite body so that I could run the mini rechareable cells with a Surefire 600DF head. So, in theory, same size as a Surefire Mini Scout, I should be able to push 1500 lumens. Well, not quite. In practice, there appears to be some vampire drain in the system, and the light is only ever at full brightness right after the battery comes off the charger. In practice, it rarely seems brighter than the 500 lumen Scout it was replacing. I love the form factor, and I may try again with their long throw head, but in practice, it was a lot of money for less convenience and borderline less performance.

The other component that's really important, especially on a weapon light is lux.  You have a light which produces 1000 or more lumens but if the light is poor focused, it will not appear bright. You want high lux which means there is great throw.

I like Malkoff M61T and M91T. The latter has 19000 lux and 700 lumens. I find it very satisfactory.

I've got surefire m600df's on 2 of my ar's, which put out 1500 lumens and 16k candela. They create a wide hotspot and corona, but don't have much reach outdoors.

I decided to try out the Cloud Defense Rein 3.0 on my latest AR, which puts out 1250 lumen and 100k candela. It has a narrower hotspot and corona than the Scout lights, but not so much as to negatively affect its usefulness. And the throw is amazing. It can light up what someone's holding further than I can see with my naked eyes.

I was hopeful about the new surefire m600dft, which puts out 700 lumen and 100k candela. The only thing that through me off was the total run time of about 2.5 hours, which sounds great, but at what cost. The throw is awesome, but the lower lumens caused the spot and corona to be very narrow. Personally, I'd rather have to swap batteries a little sooner and have a larger spot and corona.

I have a couple TLR1HLs and I think they are too bright for inside the house, but all the walls in my house are white so that just amplifies the light even more.

I own a lot of lights. The 500 lumen Surefire X300U-A and M300C are both very relevant despite not having the greatest on paper numbers. I'm not sure how Surefire does it, but both lights punch above what they should. The M300C (and the M340C) are real gems in that they are incredibly small and light, yet very functional.

That said for a general purpose rifle light it would be hard to beat the Turbo Scout Lights. They have a strong spot beam that punches out to insane distance, yet with enough spill to do indoor work. The M340DFT is my favorite rifle light at this point with the M640DFT right behind it. Surefire's Pro mounting system is awesome; no need to buy an aftermarket mount and you can rotate the light to customize where you need it. Surefire switch compatibility opens up a world of OE and aftermarket options. Like the Turbos so much I sold my PLHv2 and bought an M640DFT and a second M340DFT.

When I started my LE career a 60 or 90 lumen Surefire on your long gun was awesome.

Sure, more is better but 500 lumpen’s is very serviceable for most applications

That said my work gun has a X300 Turbo at 12 o’clock

Attached File

My 6p at 60 lumens is bright enough for home Defence. I do plan on upgrading the bulb one of these years but I still have several old bulbs new old stock.

have someone shine a 200 lumen light at you from across the living room while you shine your 60 at them. report your findings.

most manufacturers lumens claims are about as accurate as the Federal unemployment and inflation numbers.

Since the ANSI/PLATO FL1 standard was released things have improved dramatically.

I got started in the light industry independently measuring output and runtime of flashlights.  It was pretty much the wild west back in the early 2000's with manufacturers claims.

Can the light illuminate something in your yard from one end to the other? At least some of the street from your front door?

If so, I would say it’s good “enough”.

Can the light illuminate something in your yard from one end to the other? At least some of the street from your front door?

If so, I would say it’s good “enough”.

Much better to fire a firearm in a defensive situation than battle an opponent with weapon light intensity.

YMMV, best whishes.

I would have to agree with this. SD rifles and carbines I would want something better than 500 lumens.

My handguns I normally run a TLR 7A on my EDC FN 509 compact and it works great for what I need in a EDC light.

My night stand gun which is a FN 509 mid size I have a 1000 lumens TLR 1 HL which came with my compact when I bought and I like it because it will lights up enough of what I am clearing when I am moving around searching for things that go bump in the night and if I need to step out on the front or back porch it will light up my front or back yard and I can see across the street to my mothers house.

Being prior .MIL and LEO and from what others have sai back in the early days of GWOT yeah we were knocking down dudes with way less brighter lights mounted on our M4's without to much of a problem. Now as we kept rotating in and out of country we started getting better and brighter lights and we were able to start putting dudes dicks in the dirt farther out more easier. When I was still .MIL and then after retiring and LEO yeah I wanted the brightest shit I could get to turn the night into day especially when you are out by yourself and backup was anywhere from five to ten minutes out when you are out in the county on those dark as roads.

I'm in the market now to get some lights mounted on my personnel M4geries and my Remington 1100's which is a whole different headache trying to figure out what to get and where to mount them on those two unlike the 870 where you can get lights and swap out the front fore end. Again I still want the brightes lights I can get get and that I can still use CR 123's and rechargeable but that won't break the bank either.

Check out the new Streamlight HL-X Pro; 1k lumens, 50k candela, can use std CR123's instead of proprietary batteries. I own two and am very pleased with them:
Streamlight HL-X Pro

Thanks for the link and I'll check it out.

It wasn't many years ago that most everyone talking WMLs had no idea what candela is