Firstly, the light starts shining immediately. I'm talking as soon as you push off, it comes on brightly. Even moving the bike slightly getting ready to push off starts the light. It uses whatever is left in the standlight capacitor for this initial light, as one foot of movement could not possibly generate that much power from the dynamo. I know this because when I first unboxed the light and turned it on, the light came on briefly, with the dynamo still in Germany.
Light extended far enough forward to allow me to ride at normal speed for the most part. Also, the path has some dangerous edges including several sharp drop-offs, so the light needed to illuminate more than just the path itself. Its light angled out wide enough to either side of the path, so I could see those dangerous areas, as well as see far enough around gentle curves in the path to maintain speed.
A few situations did require a slower than normal speed, but only a few times did I wonder which direction the path led. On sharp corners (say, greater than 45 degrees) the path ahead could not be lit adequately until the bike started making the turn, The sharper the turn the slower the speed required, unless you just YOLO it and hope the path goes where you think it goes. The other situation occurred going over small knoll type hills. The light would shine up into the air near the top, leaving an unlit black hole on the downhill side of the knoll.
Overall, the light does everything it claims, making my early morning commutes a breeze, and besides the few exceptions, at normal daytime speed. That's fairly impressive for a little bike light. The light also has a high beam mode that provides even more light. I suspect it too uses energy from the standlight. Although these aren't my pictures, they closely represent my experience. First pic is with light in normal mode and the second on high beam, as I call it.
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