Notices

I know, I know, I am the "one man asking", but I think this could be useful for many of us.
I do not think there is an app permitting using N900 as a torch, but do you know if somebody is working on it?
I could not find anything.

TIA

Using the dual LED flash as a torch may well suck your battery and may well get the LEDs too hot and kill them, I suspect that they are being driven past their normal operating voltage/current to output such a bright light.
I also suspect it will be difficult to get them to stay on in a software program as Nokia probably doesn't like you to use them like this.

As an interim solution I suggest:
Why don't you open the browser in fullscreen and go to a blank page.
You could do this with a bookmark.
It won't exactly light your way but it might help you find the lock to get your key in the door.

If you really want to see in the dark may I suggest you get a Petzl LED headtorch. I always have one in my jacket pocket, very useful on a dark winters night, bright, small, virtually indistructable (even been underwater with it) and batterys last forever.

I don't think the LEDs will die. There's already an app like that for S60 in the Ovi store.

I was going to complai.....err......suggest such a feature when I get my device too

I had an application to do this on my Blackberry Curve 8900 and it is such a simple application, but probably one of the most useful.

The e63 had a function where if you held the space bar down for 2 seconds, the LED was turned on for a torch. i'm pretty sure something like this could be implemented.

Actually, if there is a "torch" + "camera recorder" (at the same time) feature; it would be a handy app ....

currently, i have a samsung jet, and through a service-menu you can activate the dual-led's to use them as a torch.
never heard of them burning or so.

There is liqtorch. It may not yet have arrived in maemo extras, though.
It uses the screen, not the flash light LEDs.

It would be difficult to tell how quickly you will kill the LEDs, but I am willing to bet we aren't talking the hundreds of thousands of hours an LED would normally last for, depending to what extent they are over driven it could be minutes or hundreds of hours, either way I am not testing it. Programs on ovi store should really carry this warning.

I am sure someone will eventually offer a program to do this, but my 2p worth is that you should avoid using them as a torch, otherwise nokia would have already offered it as an option or atleast allowed a light on mode for video (which is a probably a use case they have considered).

My 5800 definitely supports LED-lit video.