Originally Posted by
Praxis
Well, the DealExtreme copy says it's 900 lumens.
They claim that's "manufacturer rated". It's a SSC P7 C-bin, which appears to be rated at 7-800 lumens if I'm reading the PDF correctly on the SSC site. Obviously measured lumens would be subject to various losses, but I'd bet it's more than 2-300 lumens. Battery life on high is about an hour, which works for me.
I don't doubt that the beam could be a bit more efficient. Since it's not designed for a bike, there's a fair amount of the beam that's not illuminating the road. I'm not terribly disappointed because it still helps people see me.
Yeah, most of the lumen ratings for dynamo lights are believed to be fairly accurate, while the ratings on cheap flashlights and such are believed to be rather overblown. For example the Magicshine 900 is believed to be 400-500 lumens in real life. I seem to remember that even the best single flash putting out less light than the Magicshine, though...
And as you say, the dynamo lights tend to waste less light off to the sides.
I dunno. If you live in the twin cities in Minneapolis I'd be happy to compare my dynamo light vs your flashlight and see how they match up in real life, haha!