LeeFilters Swatch Book for $.01 from LeeFiltersUSA

What does it do? Excuse my ignorance.

It is a sample book with all the colour filters that Lee produces. These filters are usually used for theater lighting, in front of a spotlight.
Use for flashlights is limited, you can create and alter tints with them, at the cost of light output. The sample filters in this book are large enough for most smaller flashlights. For me it is a nice thing to have, but I will probably not use it much for anything.

Got the Lee filter samples from Valor today. Tried it with a diffused Xiaomi USB light, that has a greenish tint (gets worse with higher output modes). Measured on the highest of the five modes.

The diffusing filters (a lot of different kinds) also seem very cool.

Three different minus green filters tested: minus eighth, quarter and half.

Light loss
No filter: 100 %
1/8: 88.8 %
1/4: 83.8 %
1/2: 73.7 %

Color temperature shifts a bit lower with the filters. Here’s the CRI data.

No filter

1/8 minus green

1/4 minus green

1/2 minus green

Holy moly…I’m glad I sent you those filters.
I’m really curious what your test setup is?
Care to tell a bit more about your intstruments? :slight_smile:

I’m using an X-rite i1Pro with BabelColor CT&A and just Excel for the CIE chromaticity plot from the xy-coordinate data given by CT&A.

Cool, thanks!..I wonder if a cheaper X-rite ColorMunki Display could be used for similar test… :nerd_face:

I can recommend the i1Display Pro and the free Argyll commandline software. I use those two to do my runtime graphs. The spotread program bundled in the Argyll package gives you the color temperature and xy-coordinates for tint, but you would need a spectrophotometer for CRI data and spectral distribution. Don’t have experience with the ColorMunki, but it looks simliar to the i1Display Pro, which is not that much more expensive.

I will look into it :wink:

Ordered some sheets of Lee Zircon filters. Six 61x61cm sheets were 40 euros. They’re supposed to handle heat better. I got the minus green filters in three variations, 803, 804 and 805.

Here they are installed in front of the Olight S1 Mini CW. Normal minus green filters are included. The 804 and 803 Zircon filters are better at retaining the color temperature while just moving the tint towards the BBL. However, they can’t be used to correct a severe green tint. Also would have wanted the stronger 802, but it wasn’t available.

Here’s the relative output (click links for CRI data):
No filter : 100%
Zircon 803 : 79.9%
Zircon 804 : 83.6%
Zircon 805 : 86.6%
279 -Eighth : 87.2%
249 -Quarter : 81.5%
248 -Half : 71.5%

Tint graph

Also, finally got my Acebeam X45 to be what it was supposed to be from the factory. Excellet CRI, great warmish tint with acceptable shift thanks to the sliced XHP70s. Also, no tint shift between modes, just CCT shift. Green on the lower modes is very common on Crees.

Of course, this is all at the cost of output. It’s now at about 50% compared to stock.

CRI data

CRI for low and high

Tint graph

Thanks a lot for the test!

thanks for the filter tests maukka
I have been using my improved Cu S Mini and like it much better with the filter

Stock Cu S Mini XM-L2

same light as above, but added 1/2 minus green Lee Filter

(I added the pics of a stock Cu S Mini and my Cu S Mini w filter, pointing to the filter I used, although maukka actually tested an S1 Mini…)

here is the difference between the Cu S Mini and the aluminum S1 Mini that maukka tested… (I combined the two images) click the links in this paragraph to see the full reviews.

How did you install the filter Jon? Also would be curious to see white wall pics you are famous for . . .

I put double sided scotch tape on the filter.
the palm shots above are the most direct comparison I have for the S Mini w and w out filter

here are a couple of my modded maratacs:
3000k 219c on left, 3000k 219c w –1/4 green on right

and here are a few lights with different density minus green

and here is a beamshot of the 3 lights pictured, the s mini w filter is in this beamshot, (it is still green in the middle, but less)

here is the S Mini w no filter, I don’t have the same shot with filter added, but this does show how green the stock XM-L2 is

two separate shots of a Trustfire TK05 w XM-L2, combined by screenshot (not identical white balance)

Trustfire TK05 w XM-L2, w reflector on left, Olight S Mini w XM-L2 w TIR on right, shot taken together, so same white balance

perfect, thanks!!

One thing to note here is that standard Lee Filters degrade when exposed to high temperatures. The smaller a flashlight is the higher the temperature of the filter because it is closer to the LED. If you use high mode a lot or direct-driven triple/quad LED flashlights, this should be considered.

The LEE Zircon Filters were devloped to prevent this. They are basically heat tolerant filters and also available with minus-green.

agreed, if you have a problem melting Lee Filters, the Zircon might help
I don’t have a problem melting standard filters, but I don’t use thousands of lumens, and do not own a D4

Is there a 1/2 minus green in Zircon?.. if so, that would be a good filter to use on the 1000 lumen lights

In this test, there was no 1/2 minus green in Zircon, and you can see that the others all kept the XM-L2 tint of the Cu Olight S Mini, above the BBL

You should note that I measured the S1 Mini, not the S Mini you pasted over the image.

They don’t melt from the heat (well of course they do, but that would require a lot of heat). They lose the minus-green effect! Lee notes this on the product page of the newer Zircon filters.

I din’t know if there is haöf minus green, but I wouldn’t use that one any way (it reduces the brightes by a lot!).

Thank you for the link, very helpful. Yes it seems there are two more Zircon filters with more green filtration than the three maukka tested…
The 802 Zircon Minus Green reduces lumens by 25, that would be closest to the 1/2 minus Green, that reduces by 28, which I think is the most I would need.

when the LED burns the dye it changes color on that spot of the filter, so I will keep an eye out for that effect… I don’t know how many flashlight lumens it would take to cause this effect:

the amount of light lost with a 1/2 minus green filter, 28, is almost exactly the same amount of lumens I give up, 27, when I choose a 4000k Nichia over a 6000k XP-L2,

here are the S Mini modes before and after 1/2 minus Green filter:

0.5 moon is reduced to 0.36. I like a lower moon.

12 lumen mode becomes about 9 lumens… Im ok with that.

70 lumen mode becomes about 50 lumens… Im still fine with that

550 lumen mode, well, I get just under 400 lumens… its a lot of light still.

The Lee Filters help an Opinionated Tint Snob like me, to buy a light with an LED I don’t like, and “improve” it, without soldering. IF there was a way to get my S Mini XM-L2 swapped out for an N219B, I would be all over that, but its simply not an option. So for me, the Lee Filter makes the difference between not carrying the light at all, or choosing to carry it and enjoying every time I use it.

And Im not too concerned about burning out the dye on the filter when the majority of my use is below 100 lumens, and None of it is at 1000 lumens… Im happy

To be fair, I don’t put filters on all my lights. To look under the hood of a car during the day, I reach for an unfiltered, low CRI, green tinted, 18650 powered Cool White 6000k light capable of 1000 lumens.

Choices are good