LEDs how bright is bright

[cheapgoose]

so I'm looking to get some blue and white leds, but not sure what mcd to get?

I know there are those super super bright ones, the ones that can put a spot on the wall. so comparing to the usual power led and hdd led on your computer, how bright is the 1000mcd ones. or it'd be easier if someone can tell me how bright or what cmd the stock hdd, power leds are. so i can compare. thanks guys.

 

[stevewm]

Generally indicator LEDs (HD, Power, NIC, etc.) are around 50-300 mcd. 1000mcd would be considered bright for a indicator LED.

 

[Gaunt]

The crazy bright blue LEDs that seem to be popular lately are 3000-3500 mcd usually, just for reference.

Regular LEDs are usually in the range given by stevewm.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Gaunt
The crazy bright blue LEDs that seem to be popular lately are 3000-3500 mcd usually, just for reference.

Regular LEDs are usually in the range given by stevewm.

I saw some 10,000 mcd's at radioshack yesterday. Like streat lamps

 

[Mark R]

Don't forget that viewing angle is related to brightness - the high brightness figures are usually obtained by focusing the light into an extremely tight beam, making the LED virtually invisible from the side. These super high brightness LEDs produce no more light than the less impressive 1,000 mcd LEDs, they just focus it more tightly.

A 10,000 mcd LED will often have a viewing angle of 15 degrees or less (and is virtually invisibile side on).

I recently got some special LEDs, which are about 5,000 mcd but have a viewing angle of about 100 degrees - these produce a vast amount of light, and actually light up the room rather than just put spots on the wall - they are however, a totally different shape, because the conventional LED shape offers very poor cooling to the LED chip, therefore limiting the safe electrical current flow to a low level..