Originally Posted by
mrbubbles
No they are not. Highly incorrect on both counts. If people buy dynamo lights on the basis of the beamshots posted by peterwhite, they are going to be awfully disappointed, especially if they're coming from a 1000 lumen setup.
I just don't like the german dynamo lights as much as you do, and you do post a lot on this forum defending them.
So I will say this for the OP in terms of reliability:
Spend over $200: buy a dynamo setup, or light & motion seca series for ultra brightness.
Spend less than $30: get yourself a 700 lumen flashlight.
In between $50-$200: anything from cygolite.
There's not a lot to add, I just don't agree with you. I was awfully disappointed buying battery lights, like I said I own about $1500 worth, including a Seca 900 and Seca 1400. I don't think Peter White's shots are the best, but they illustrate the reality that dynamo lighting is a lot better than it was years ago.
It was my experience being disappointed by non-shaped beam lights that kept claiming more and more lumens, and that they were supposedly better and better but mostly just seemed to cost more and still not quite be good enough, before using both Seca's they all seemed worse than the good shaped beam lights available today. Finally I reached 1600 lumens - running the narrower Seca 900 on high and the much wider Seca 1400 on medium, and I finally had better light than I have with a decent shaped beam light. Problem was it was to bright and no on wanted to ride with me - it was blinding if a biker in my group looked back, pedestrians would clear off the trail and yell at me, and cars seemed ticked off.
Coming from a 900 lumen setup with the Seca 900, I wasn't "awfully disappointed" when I get a Cyo mostly because of Peter White's beam shots. It wasn't as bright in the city as his shots make it look (it does actually look like his shots when you're on a path with no ambient lighting), but it was far less disappointing than receiving how powered battery lights and being disappointed again and again from them.