Sony Computer Entertainment finally provided a way to dim the much controversial light of the DualShock 4 with Firmware update 1.7, but just how bright is each setting? Beyond3D forum user djskribbles took it upon itself to actually measure the intensity of the light in each setting, and here are the results:

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Measured the light bar on each different setting. I used a colorimeter and a spectrometer which are typically used for color calibration on displays, but they also measure luminance/light. They're probably not 100% accurate compared to a dedicated light meter, but they should be close enough. I averaged the readings with a continuous measurement between both meters.

Standard/Bright - ~37.9 candelas per squared meter (or 11.06 foot lamberts)

Medium - ~21.8 candelas per squared meter (or 6.36 foot lamberts) - 42.5% dimmer

Dim - ~11.8 candelas per squared meter (or 3.44 foot lamberts) - 68.9% dimmer

So my guesses of ~60% and ~40% lower were pretty close.

For comparison, generally ISF/THX calibrators calibrate flatpanel displays to have a peak white measurement of 30-35 foot lamberts for a dark home theater environment. VA LCD panels usually have a black level measurement between 0.012 - 0.014 foot lamberts. IPS LCD panels usually have a black level measurement between 0.04 - 0.05 foot lamberts.

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If you want to know how much glare each setting could cause on the screen if you sit close enough (which is pretty much the point of contention), NeoGAF user Shin-Ra took some interesting pictures, that you can see below, comparing each setting in different conditions.

Bright (on the same color, bright room)

1Bright

Medium (on the same color, bright room)

1Medium

Dim (on the same color, bright room)

1Dim

Bright (on black, bright room)

2bright

Medium (on black, bright room)

2medium

Dim  (on black, bright room)

2Dim

Bright (on black, dark room)

3bright

Medium (on black, dark room)

3medium

Medium (on black, dark room)

3dim

Shin-Ra specified that the pictures were taken sitting at the usual distance for a computer monitor, so if you sit far away from a big TV, you're going to see the glare much less, if at all. His gaming TV has a high gloss finish with no glass covering. 

Personally, the light never really bothered me, but now we know exactly how bright it is. What we don't know is whether Sony will make further adjustments with upcoming firmware updates, but for the moment this is what we got.