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Throw vs flood
Beam shape is set by the reflector, not by the emitter. It is the most consequential design decision in a flashlight and the least discussed.
By Scooter M. · Published · Updated
| # | Product | Best for | Output | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No image Acebeam L19Top pick1,650 lumens and 1,300 m of stated throw. The most efficient distance-per-lumen figure on the site, by a wide margin. | The longest reach per lumen here | 1,650 lm | Check price#ad |
| 2 | No image Streamlight MacroStream USB500 lumens, 2,000 candela, 90 m and two hours on high — every figure published per mode by the maker. That is the reason it leads. | The best-documented small EDC light here | 500 lm | Check price#ad |
| 3 | No image Streamlight ProTac HL-X1,300 lumens, 35,000 candela, 374 m, 1.5 hours, IP68, on either a rechargeable pack or two CR123A cells. Every figure published per mode. | Duty use, and the best-documented light on this site | 1,300 lm | Check price#ad |
We earn a commission if you buy through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend or the order they appear in. Full disclosure. We show a live price when we have one and the words “Check price” when we do not. We never print a number we cannot currently verify.
Two flashlights with identical emitters and identical drivers can behave completely differently, and the reason is the reflector. It decides how the same lumens are distributed, and that distribution is what you actually experience.
The parts of a beam
| Part | What it is | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Hotspot | The bright central circle from the collimated light | Reach. Peak candela is measured here. |
| Corona | The transition ring around the hotspot | Softens the edge; a smooth reflector makes it sharper |
| Spill | The wide dim light around everything | Peripheral awareness. Almost never measured. |
A thrower maximizes the hotspot at the expense of spill. A flood does the opposite. Every light on this site sits somewhere on that line, and where it sits is the most important thing about it.
What controls the shape
- Reflector diameter. The dominant factor. Peak intensity scales roughly with the square of the diameter, which is why throwers have fat heads and no small light can throw far.
- Reflector depth. A deeper reflector captures more of the emitted light into the collimated beam and less into spill.
- Emitter size. A physically smaller die is closer to a point source and collimates better. Thrower emitters are deliberately small, which is also why they produce fewer total lumens.
- Surface finish. Smooth maximizes the hotspot; orange-peel stippling smooths the beam at some cost to intensity.
- TIR optics. A molded lens instead of a reflector, giving a very clean beam with a sharp cutoff and usually little spill.
The extremes, with real numbers
| Acebeam L19 | Streamlight MacroStream | |
|---|---|---|
| Output | 1,650 lm | 500 lm |
| Beam distance | 1,300 m | 90 m |
| Candela | 422,500 (computed) | 2,000 (published) |
| Candela per lumen | 256 | 4 |
| Good at | Identifying something across a field | Lighting a room, a path, a workbench |
| Bad at | Anything within ten meters | Seeing past about eighty meters |
A factor of 211 in beam intensity between two lights whose outputs differ by about three to one. That is the whole point of this page: comparing them on lumens tells you almost nothing.
The middle ground, and why most lights live there
The Streamlight ProTac HL-X at 27 candela per lumen is a deliberately balanced beam: enough hotspot to reach 374 meters, enough spill to work indoors. Most general-purpose lights are engineered to land in roughly that region because it is the shape that is useful most often.
If you are buying one light, buy one from the middle. Buy an extreme only as a second light, for a specific job.
Which end you want
| Use | Want | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Working at arm's length | Flood | A hotspot at 40 cm is glare and hard shadow |
| Walking a path | Slight flood | Peripheral awareness matters more than reach |
| Trail running | Balanced | Hotspot to read the ground ahead, spill to see your feet |
| Searching open ground | Throw | Reach is the entire requirement |
| Lighting a campsite | Flood, or a lantern | Even light with no hard shadows |
| Identifying something distant | Throw | Candela is the only thing that matters |
Fog, dust and snow
Bad air inverts the usual advice. A tight, intense beam scatters off airborne particles and produces a bright wall of illuminated fog directly in front of you, which is worse than useless.
A wide, lower-intensity beam scatters less per unit of area and lets you see further in practice. A warmer color temperature helps too, because shorter wavelengths scatter more. This is why experienced drivers use fog lights rather than main beam.
Zoom lights
A sliding lens that moves between flood and spot sounds like the answer to this entire page. In practice it is a poor version of both: the mechanism loses a significant fraction of the output, the spot position produces a square-edged image of the emitter die rather than a clean hotspot, and the moving parts are the first thing to fail.
Two fixed lights give better light in both roles for the same money. Zoom is a reasonable choice only where one object genuinely has to do both jobs and the compromise is accepted knowingly.
The picks, in full
image
Top pick · The longest reach per lumen here
Acebeam L19
1,650 lumens and 1,300 m of stated throw. The most efficient distance-per-lumen figure on the site, by a wide margin.
1,300 m implies roughly 422,500 candela. From 1,650 lumens that is an extraordinarily concentrated beam — this light puts a higher fraction of its output into the hotspot than anything else on the site.
It is the clearest possible demonstration of why lumens are the wrong metric for reach: this light reaches nearly twice as far as the Nitecore P30i on 82 percent of its output.
The 20A cell requirement is not a detail. A beam this intense draws hard, and a standard protected 21700 will trip its own protection circuit.
What works
- 1,300 m of published throw, the longest here
- Best distance-per-lumen ratio on the site by a distance
- Ships with the high-drain cell it actually needs
What does not
- No sourced runtime, candela or IP rating
- Requires a 20A-rated cell, so a generic replacement will underperform
- Effectively no spill
Skip this ifyou do not have a genuine long-distance need. Inside 50 m it is worse than a 500-lumen pocket light.
Published specification
- Peak intensity
- not published
- Beam distance
- 1,300 mAcebeam L19 — the brand's own listing on Amazon.com (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Runtime
- not published
- Battery
- 20A-rated 21700 (included)Acebeam L19 — the brand's own listing on Amazon.com (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Weight
- not published
- Ingress
- not published
image
Pick 2 · The best-documented small EDC light here
Streamlight MacroStream USB
500 lumens, 2,000 candela, 90 m and two hours on high — every figure published per mode by the maker. That is the reason it leads.
2,000 candela and 90 m are consistent with each other, which is a better sign than it sounds. The FL1 beam distance is the square root of candela divided by 0.25 lux: the square root of 2,000 over 0.25 is 89.4 m. Streamlight's published figures check out to within a meter.
Two hours on high for 500 lumens implies roughly 2.5 watt-hours of usable energy, which is about right for a light this size. Nothing here is being oversold.
62 grams is pocketable in a way that a 21700 light is not, and that is the trade you are making against a bigger cell.
What works
- Every headline figure published per mode, and internally consistent
- 62 g with a real clip
- The arithmetic between its candela and its distance actually reconciles
What does not
- IPX4, so splash-resistant and no more
- Built-in cell rather than a replaceable 18650
- 500 lumens is modest against the 1,600-lumen headlines nearby
Skip this ifyou want reach. 2,000 candela is a close-range beam and no setting will change that.
Published specification
- Output
- 500 lmHigh. Low is 50 lm.Streamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Peak intensity
- 2,000 cdStreamlight MacroStream (500 lm, 2,000 cd) — the brand's own listing on Amazon.com (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Beam distance
- 90 mHigh. 30 m on low.Streamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Runtime
- 2 h on high, 8 h on lowStreamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Battery
- Built-in Li-ion, charges in 4 hStreamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Weight
- 62.4 g (2.2 oz)Streamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Ingress
- IPX41 m impact resistance testedStreamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
image
Pick 3 · Duty use, and the best-documented light on this site
Streamlight ProTac HL-X
1,300 lumens, 35,000 candela, 374 m, 1.5 hours, IP68, on either a rechargeable pack or two CR123A cells. Every figure published per mode.
35,000 candela and 374 m reconcile exactly: the square root of 35,000 divided by 0.25 is 374.2 m. Streamlight's numbers are internally consistent across all three modes, which is the strongest signal of a maker publishing real measurements rather than marketing figures.
1.5 hours at 1,300 lumens implies roughly 6 to 7 watt-hours of usable energy — consistent with a single 18650-class pack and with the CR123A alternative.
IP68 with 2 m impact resistance is the toughest rating in this roundup, and the reason this light shows up on so many duty belts.
What works
- Full ANSI FL1 table published per mode, and it reconciles
- Runs on a rechargeable pack or on shelf-stable CR123A lithium cells
- IP68 and 2 m impact rating
What does not
- The programming interface takes reading the manual to understand
- 162 to 176 g is heavy for pocket carry
- CR123A cells are expensive if you use it hard
Skip this ifyou want a pocket light. It is a duty-belt tool and the weight and length are built for a holster.
Published specification
- Output
- 1,300 lmHigh. Medium 420 lm, low 70 lm.Streamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Peak intensity
- 35,000 cdHigh. 11,000 cd medium, 1,800 cd low.Streamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Beam distance
- 374 mHigh. 210 m medium, 85 m low.Streamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Runtime
- 1.5 h high / 3.75 h medium / 25 h lowOn the SL-B26 pack. On CR123A: 1.25 h / 3 h / 20 h.Streamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Battery
- SL-B26 rechargeable Li-ion pack, or 2 x CR123A lithiumStreamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Weight
- 162 g with CR123A, 176 g with the packStreamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Ingress
- IP68Dust tight, waterproof to 2 m; 2 m impact resistance testedStreamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
Questions people actually ask
What is the difference between throw and flood?
Throw concentrates output into a tight hotspot for distance; flood spreads it widely for close-range coverage. Both are set by the reflector rather than by the emitter, and the same emitter can produce either.
What makes a flashlight throw further?
A larger and deeper reflector and a physically smaller emitter die. Peak intensity scales roughly with the square of the reflector diameter, which is why throwers have big heads and small lights cannot throw far.
Is throw or flood better?
Neither. They are different tools. Flood for anything within about twenty meters, throw for anything past a hundred, and a balanced beam for everything in between — which is where most general-purpose lights deliberately sit.
Why does my thrower seem useless in fog?
A tight, intense beam scatters off airborne water and dust, producing a bright wall of illuminated fog in front of you. A wider, lower-intensity beam and a warmer color temperature both perform better in bad air.
Are zoomable flashlights any good?
Rarely. The mechanism loses output, the spot position produces a square-edged image of the emitter rather than a clean hotspot, and the moving parts fail first. Two fixed lights give better light in both roles for the same money.
What is beam spill and does it matter?
The wide, dim light around the hotspot. It provides peripheral awareness and it is almost never measured or published, which is why a light can have excellent published figures and still be unpleasant to walk with.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of the documents below, read on the date shown. We do not cite other review sites, forum posts or video reviews as sources of fact.
- ANSI/PLATO FL 1 flashlight performance standard — definitions of lumens, peak beam intensity, beam distance, runtime, impact and water resistance
- Streamlight ProTac HL-X — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
- Streamlight MacroStream USB — manufacturer spec page (retrieved September 1, 2026)
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