Why do you buy lights without High-CRI emitters?

from elzetta;

” In tactical applications, where one may search for and identify persons based on the color of their vehicles or apparel, faithful color perception is essential. Imagine searching for a suspect known to be wearing a red shirt and last seen near a light blue house. With a cool-tint flashlight the red shirt will appear black and every white residence in the neighborhood will seem to match the described blue house. With a neutral-tint beam, however, colors are accurately observed and proper identification may be achieved quickly. All Elzetta Alpha Models and Bravo and Charlie Models equipped with High Output AVS Heads produce neutral-tint beams.

Further benefits of neutral-tint beams manifest when smoke, haze, or fog is present. In such conditions, cool-tint beams tend to “splash back” with greater harshness than neutral or warm beams. While such harshness is generally more of a perceived phenomenon than a quantifiable one, most people find cool-tint beams to produce more glare in adverse conditions than neutral-tint light.

The pursuit of high lumen ratings has led manufacturers to use cool-tint LED’s in the vast majority of tactical flashlights today. Unfortunately, like so many other features which are driven by Marketing Departments rather than thoughtful user-based engineering, these bluish beams sacrifice real-world performance. When faithful color rendition is important, as it is in tactical applications, look for a flashlight with a neutral-tint beam. After all, there is nothing “cool” about being blue. ”

The only use I can think of where high CRI would be a high priority are fine photography (most normal photography doesn’t even need it), art exhibits (lighting on the artwork), and maybe some jobs where you have to be able to discern between several similar colors, like telephone cables and automobile wiring.

Yeah, that’s Beam Tint and/or color temp. High CRI isn’t strictly needed for that.

He was mostly seeing the very real, very large difference that color temp makes.

thanks, so HCRI wouldn’t work better in their lights than tactical ?
surely, the better light quality, the better the brain can react rather than having to decipher more whats happening.

I have to disagree. I think it’s an equal contribution of CRI and colour temp.

Not really. Whether a tint is slightly green or slightly rosy has nothing to do with CRI.

That’s determined by beam tint: Whether the tint is above or below the BBL (Black Body Line). Above the line tends to look green. Below the line tends to look rosy.

You can get high CRI LEDs both above and below the BBL. Some examples:

  • Below the BBL is the popular 4500K Nichia 219b with rosy tint.
  • Above the BBL is the LED used in the Zebralight SC64C with greenish tint.

Having high CRI doesn’t change the beam tint, all it does is make the existing colors in the tint look slightly more vivid (like the slider in the post above). The benefits of high CRI are extremely subtle and very hard to see without a side-by-side comparison in front of you.

There are the lumileds MZ leds. They are domeless and high cri.

a good explanation of the Color-Rendering-Index system. > Color rendering index - Wikipedia

Meh… :slight_smile:
I have one light with a higher CRI (S41 Nichia), and my other lights are somewhat neutral.
While I enjoy the color rendering, I am willing to sacrifice for more lumens. I just got back my modded HL MT09R from Texas Ace, and he installed high-bin P2 5700K Cree 70.2 emitters. I don’t know if its the luck of the draw or what, but the CRI and color temp on the light looks fantastic (Thanks, Ace!). And…its getting 23,400 lumens on an integrating sphere when tested. IN this instance, I really wanted a “max output” light in a smallish package, and this fit the bill.
My EDC is an Emisar 4D, and the CRI on the MT09 seems a bit higher. (though I love my 4D!!)

“a cool-tint flashlight the red shirt will appear black and every white residence in the neighborhood will seem to match the described blue house. With a neutral-tint beam”

Elzetta is misusing the term cool, which is a color temperature.
they refer to a cool “tint” which is a misuse of the word tint

they describe color rendering inaccurately, red does not look black under cool white, and it is not the cool white that makes a Low CRI light poor at representing red. Elzetta fails to use the term CRI at all

then they misuse the term neutral-tint to describe high color rendering, again confusing the term tint, for CRI, and they confuse the term neutral color temperature for a type of tint, which it is not. Neutral is not a type of CRI, neutral can be used to describe either a CCT or a Tint, but both CCT and Tint are separate from each other.

I disagree, it seems to me you are suggesting that warmer color temperature shows colors better, the way Elzetta does, but CCT is not an indication of CRI. High CRI shows colors better. Some High CRI LEDs have a warmer color temperature, but it is the High CRI that shows colors better, not the neutral color temperature, and not the possibly neutral tint.

again:
neutral color temperature is not the same as neutral tint, and is not the same as high CRI

clearly people at Elzetta and on this board, share many errors in terminology.

bottom line is high CRI is required to show colors more accurately.
tint is a separate variable, and I agree that some high CRI leds, such as the crees that Zebra uses, have green tint. Which is why I am not impressed with Zebras high CRI

many Zebra buyers end up going to a lower CRI “W” color temperature (which is actually what I call neutral white), to get away from the green tint of the high CRI. In the process they give up High Color Rendering. Zebralight High CRI LEDs have rather low R9, which imo is one of the reasons they have green tint.

so no, Neutral White does not render colors better, Neutral Tint does not render colors better. High CRI renders colors better. And a High CRI LED can also have neutral tint, and can also have a neutral white color temperature

there is so much confusion about terminology, it is almost too much to explain. And I suspect many here simply have not yet understood the differences in meanings of the term neutral, since it is used separately for a type of color temperature and a type of tint.

It is also a common misuse of the term tint, to say someone likes neutral tint, when they mean neutral color temperature, aka, neutral white. Then they misuse the term pure white, as if only one color temperature is white.

its a very messy mess of terminology. I can see why some people dont yet grasp all the nuances of the various terms, neutral, white, tint, CRI, cct, and Kelvin

here is a neutral white, neutral tint, low CRI, low R9 led:

here is a neutral white, not neutral tint, high CRI, low R9 led

here is a comparison of a cool white, high CRI, not neutral tint, lower R9 led on the left, and a neutral white, high CRI, neutral tint, higher R9 LED on the right

It can, though. If the CW light has insufficient red content, then the overall intensity will be much less (in the red) compared to a light with much more red content, where they shirt will show as red.

Look up the Purkinje effect.

Neutral color temperature does not render colors better than cool color temperature.

However, the cool temps do sometimes make objects outdoors at night look “washed out”. Neutral feels more pleasant and to me makes it easier to see things outdoors at night.

I will be the first to say I don’t know the difference in all the terms. But red doesn’t look black with a cool white emitter as said above and a blue house still looks blue. With the same 70cri leds one 6500 one 5000k or 4500 especially in the woods. I can make out things better. And my eyes don’t strain as much. Me personally can see things better with a warmer light all things equal. I have no doubt high cri makes colors pop now. I have a couple lights with them. But a neutral or warmer tint makes more a difference for me then 70 Vs 90 cri

Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. A 3600K warm white light shows colors MUCH better than even a 5000K neutral white light. No difference in ‘CRI’ needed for a drastic difference in ‘visibility’.

it seems this way a little with my 6500k 9080, but 3600k warm could be more orangey making it warmer looking, making it seem higher CRI.
that make sense?..NOPE… lol.

I think you are confusing the Purkinje effect, which has to do with color perception of the human eye at low lumen levels, with CRI, which is a separate subject. The Purkinje effect is not the same as CRI

A cool white flashlight at say 100 lumens, will not make red look black. If you have a photo that demonstrates otherwise, I would like to learn more.

I agree neutral color temperature has less glare than cool color temperature.

what if you could have a neutral or warmer “tint” at 90 CRI, vs the same neutral or warmer “tint” at 70CRI?

why give up CRI to get neutral or warmer “tint” (btw, its neutral or warmer color temperature, not tint)

ok, I see you continue to miss my point
neutral color temperature has less glare, and less blue, than cool color temperature

however 3600k low CRI does not show colors better than 3600k high CRI

and 5000k color temperature with low CRI does show colors worse than 5000k color temperature with High CRI

you continue to miss the point that CRI is an independent variable from color temperature.

thats ok, and I mean no disrespect to you personally, your comments are very typical of the misuse of terms, even Elzetta does it, but it is not accurate.

Because color temperature seems to make a MUCH bigger difference in how pleasing the light output is.

  • The benefits of CRI are real, but they are very subtle. Hard to see unless you’re really looking for it or have low-CRI light to contrast it with.
  • The benefits of a neutral or warm tint are also real… and they aren’t subtle at all. They’re instantly noticeable.

Think of it like you’re painting a wall. The color temperature is the roller you use to paint 95% of the wall. The CRI is the fine brush you use to detail the edges. Both are useful, but if you could only have one, having 95% of the wall painted is far more noticeable.

Put another way, if I had to put into percentages what makes for a pleasing and useful flashlight beam in my opinion, I might come up with the following:

  • 30% Total lumens…………………… Output is very important for flashlights. And not just max burst output. Sustained output is also important.
  • 25% Beam pattern …………………… Depending on use, beam pattern is also very important. Sometimes more important than lumens.
  • 25% Color temperature……………. I usually prefer 4000-4500K
  • 15% Color Tint below the BBL…… I prefer rosy tint and dislike green tint
  • 5% CRI…………………………………. It’s a nice extra bonus when you can get it without sacrificing other factors, but is a minor factor compared to the others

High CRI lights are much more prevalent in Neutral White than Cool White
Low CRI lights are much more prevalent in Cool White
some Low CRI lights are also available in Neutral White

so if you like Neutral White, then High CRI is available in that color temperature
If you can get the Neutral White color temp you want, in High CRI, why would you not choose it, and go with Low CRI instead?

I agree beam, tint, brightness and CCT are all relevant variables, but this thread is not about those things, it is only asking why someone would buy Low CRI instead of High CRI.

Ive posted several examples of identical lights except for a choice of Low CRI and High CRI. The difference is the brightness, not the tint, not the color temperature, not the beam, not even the CCT on some of them.

so from where I sit, the main reason people buy Low CRI instead of High CRI is because they think brighter is better, even if it does not show colors as well

then we get the people saying their neutral white low CRI shows colors better than their cool white low CRI… but this thread is not about glare or blue content, its about Low CRI vs High CRI

clearly NW is less glaring than CW, no disagreement there
but to say colors look more realistic, is not necessarily accurate

maybe post some examples of your CW and NW low CRI lights illuminating the same Red Apple, or the palm of your hand, or some rare steak, or Salmon, or other things with red in them.

Please do not use green foliage to illustrate the advantage of NW low CRI over CW low CRI

green is not a challenge for low CRI, RED IS a challenge for Low CRI, but that does not mean Low lumens, and has nothing to do with Purkinje, rods, cones scotopic, mesotic or other types of vision based on brightness.

I feel like Im herding cats. Everytime I try to steer us back to the Original Topic, CRI, people scatter in all directions, bringing up CCT, Lumens, Tint, beam, etc

show me a photo of a NW High CRI and a NW Low CRI, and tell me why you would not choose the High CRI

that’s because the factors are NOT independent of each other.

Want to know why someone buys a low-CRI over a high-CRI light?

  • It’s because the low-CRI light has some OTHER advantage: such as lumens, beam pattern, color temp, tint, body options, price, etc..

If the only difference between two choices was CRI, then of course everyone would take the high-CRI option, but that’s never the case.