Well, yes and no - mostly no. Candlepower and lumens measure different aspects of light output. 1 candela = 12.57 lumens if the light is evenly dispersed in all directions.C-dub wrote:I can't even imagine how bright 760 or 900 lumens is. The little M3 light I have on my G22 seems pretty bright. I know there are much brighter lights out there. However, there is always one thing I've wondered about. What is the comparison between lumen and candlepower? I seem to recall looking around once and just got frustrated Does anyone know where in the lumen scale does 1 Million candlepower fall?
Edit: Sorry for the question. I looked again and found something different this time. It looks like a rough comparison would be 1 candela = 12.57 lumens. So, 1M candela = 79,554.5 lumens
Candlepower measures light intensity in a particular area of a particular direction at a particular distance. Flashlight manufacturers that use this unit of measure never publish the distance, size of the area measured, or direction, so the rating is not very helpful.
Lumens measure total light, and are the more commonly accepted standard, but this doesn't tell you if the light is evenly dispersed (it almost never is) or if it has hot and dim areas within the beam (which it almost always does).
Lumens are somewhat more useful for comparing flashlights from the same manufacturer if you assume they use the same testing methods for all their wares, but comparison between manufacturers based on either candlepower or lumens alone doesn't tell you what you need to know to make a good buying decision.