Yes.
Same happens with Low CRI NW lights with Yellow Tint, and Low CRI CW lights with Green or Blue Tint. They still allow the operator to tell fruits apart, in real life, even if they look Yellow or Green when white wall hunting.
So, why would anybody bother to buy a light with High CRI?
Why all the hype, what can High CRI do that Low CRI can’t, and why should I even care about CRI?
When HDS can sell Low CRI lights, with yellow or green tint, or even blue, why bother stocking the Nichia model? I hear the Nichia is not even as bright.
All this Tint and CRI stuff sounds like a first world problem. Any Tint light will let me see in the dark. Why be such a Tint and CRI Snob, and why do I keep buying more lights?
I learnt all I needed to know (though I didn’t realise it at the time) one night with two Convoy S2+ models and a BLF A6.
1) Shine cool white 1A Convoy around the garden, look at the grass and all the coloured flowers, browns etc. - LOOKS GOOD!
2) Shine warm white 4C Convoy around the garden, look at the grass and all the coloured flowers, browns etc. - LOOKS GOOD!
3) Compare the two side by side, it becomes obvious that something in-between would be better, colours are, compared to each other, either washed out or browned out to some extent.
4) Hold the two together, double the lumens and a neutral white combination beam - LOOKS GREAT!
5) Compare the two Convoys together to the neutral white 3D A6 - VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL, in both lumens and colour!
Since then neutral white seems obviously best for me, in anything but a thrower, and the A6 with probably 70CRI shows a variety of colours better to my eye than any high CRI light I have tried since. Any attempts to beat it on colour have failed, my Q8 beats it on lumens and equals it on colours, but I think it has the same spec emitters. My neutral white H03 seems to be about the same as well, with a lovely even floody beam, but also I think only 70CRI.
I have 2 A01s with 90CRI Nichia emitters, but one is too cool and one is too warm, exactly the same sort of results as with the Convoys, their temp taints the colour, so there does not appear to be any advantage to the high CRI for me unless combined with neutral temp.
I have an S41S with neutral white Nichia 90CRI emitters on the way. This may be my last attempt to place a value on CRI above 70. I honestly don’t expect to notice a difference, and if so, the increased heat output, weight, and aggressive knurling will likely have me back to the A6 as my favourite.
Sounds happy, you like your 5000k light and its CCT matters more to you than its CRI.
S41S has a 5000k 219c, so you might like it, seems like a fair test. Go for the CCT you want first, then add CRI frosting.
Maybe we can stop buying new lights soon
ps, watch out for vague terms like neutral and warm. Look at this listing, it has a 5000k light it calls warm, but they were just calling 5000k neutral in the S41…
CCT is more specific. Its good to know what you want. I like neutral white, but I mean 4000k. Not a fan of 5000k myself. In fact I just listed my 5500k High CRI light for sale. I was not impressed with the CRI either.
here is the ad
This is the way I choose my lights nowdays. Hi cri is stil preferred, and I can clearly see the difference with lower CRI, but CCT is my main concern. I try to get al my lights around 4000k.
Actually I only have one 5000k light left that I use as a daytime light, as 4000k just looks yellow compared to daylight.
Also I try not to switch between CCTs and tints as you get reminded by the differences and start comparing again and I just want to use my lights.
I have my s1mini, D4 and D1S all in 5D tint now and I can use them at the same time without going in jon_slider mode
I hope I get a good one, my understanding is that the S42 models have an annoying UI, but the S41 I have ordered should have the A6 UI, which I really like.
Ordered it mid-April so will only find out around June/July, average delivery to me so far 77.1 days.
thanks for making me famous! SliderInternetPhotoMode… (SIPMode) is not “real life” LOL
S1 Mini 5D? Utorch or Olight? Got Photo? rotfl
If CRI and Tint are overrated, then CCT is what really matters
oh, wait, Beam shape matters most to me now that I have a Mule, I think HotSpots and Throw are overrated too.
Why buy a beam with a dim spill and glaring hotspot, when you can have a wide even flood?
It depends what you need to light up, how big it is, and how far away it is. If you’re lighting up closer OR bigger you would probably be happier with “flood” or at least a very wide beam. If you are trying to light up something smaller OR further away, you might prefer a tighter beam so that only the object you want to see is well lit. It’s about your field of vision and seeing what you want to see without too much light shining on distractions. For general purpose, a small TIR light like the Olight S1A I had, was the perfect beam profile.
We are very very similar in many ways( TT-tint taste), except i have many many 4000,5000 and a few 6000k’s, I prefer 5k for day time, can use evening as well, but prefer 4k given the choice. Not sure exact, but must have 20-30 4k lights. Guess 30-40 5k as i can use 5k any time, be it day, evening or in the night. For work which is mainly day time and full of artificial light, 4k can often see off to my brain/eyes. The 4500k 219b does work excellent though, the 219c 4k also is quite good. Generally 219b/c 5k works the best to fight off that artificial ugliness . The last cool white i bought was a zebra sc62 , rated around 6300k and looks clean/pure white. Although colours are not as pimped up, they look fairly accurate even though lower CRI (compared to nichia). I admit out of the 10 or so illumination tools , most are high CRI, yet tint actually is more important. Being in cool/cold artificial light, off tints raise their ugly head permanently. So rather than colours popping! i need to see everything in a tolerable tint if makes sense. My most used of late thanks to newlumen, is the olight H2r. This is a neutral xhp50, no doubt 80CRI or even less. But damn………………everything i look at looks very good! Dare i say it, but yes, just as good as my 219b/s in work……………to my eyes anyway. No fruit bowls in work, just dust covered robots and other machinery .
As long as my eyes/brain cell sees objects and perceives they look as they should(massive variable), i dont care what the LED is rated at in CT and CRI. I have been disappointed with some nichia’s, i have been impressed with some CREE.(xpl HI and xhp).
The OP question was simple, the explanation for each available answers are not. But he asked only for the answer (can’t give multiple choice unfortunately).
My analogy is transportation vehicle. It’s a technology to move from point A to point B faster than walking, that’s it.
The fastest and straight to the point way could be a just simple cart tied to a rocket with brakes - expensive, no safety, not easily reusable, hard to park, but super cool to the kids. Engineers have been created all kind of vehicles based on our needs (terrains, comfort, mileage, budget, safety, status, etc…). To drive from point A to point B while enjoying the ride is optional, but the most important thing is to get there (safely, within reasonable time, etc…).
Don’t let the additional features obscured the primary target. Only when the main goal achieved we can then add the rest to the basic.
If you can only use one tiny AAA flashlight inside a dark underground mine, high CRI LED is the last thing you need.
Blah, blah, blah, high color rendering index is so much better etc. Cool! Good to know. Guess I’ll see when I get it. But then I also pulled the trigger on a Nitecore 2017 Tip CRI…. still can not believe the dramatic amount of difference between a CRI light and all of my previous Cree flashlights.
For the things I’m likely to use a flash light for, CRI doesn’t matter to me. As long as the color temperature is not too blue (beyond 6000K) I’m happy.
Combination of #1 and #3… I can certainly see a difference, but its not worth the lumen output sacrifice… Hence I am not willing to pay a a little more for it.
Personally, I buy with high CRI emitters when I can, especially since even a 25% difference in brightness is not easy to spot, but a good tint high CRI light can be extremely easily noticed.
Ive done a bit of math on the lumen outputs of the Lumintop Tool w 4000k N219b 90 CRI, 6000k XP-G2 70 CRI, 4000k N219c 90 CRI
The high modes are 80 lumens, 110 lumens, and 110 Lumens.
for me the Color Temperature and Tint of the 80 Lumen N219b is prefered. The CW makes reds look brown, the N219c has much lower R9 and a much greener Tint than the 219b. Supposedly the 219c is the same CRI as the 219b, which is true, but, thats only half the story, the R9 on the N219b is about 300% that of the 219c.
Comparing the 110 lumen 219c to the 80 lumen 219b shows the 219c is 38% brighter than the 219b, otoh, yet both have a CRI Ra of 90. But, thats before considering the RED (R9) output increase of 300% in the 219b over the 219c
now lets compare some colors on a specific light I recently had modified, on the left before, on the right after the LED swap to Nichia
(note the pics are to show color and tint, I did not take them at the same time, so the brightnesses are not accurate, the yellow light has almost double the lumens output on my meter, than the purple white light on the right.) and remember it takes a 4x incease in brightness to make a slightly noticeable difference in brightness. Doubling the brightness does not make a light Look twice as bright… anyway, I think this pic sort of demonstrates what I think might be a reasonable difference in brightness. more research required for further accuracy.
If you had to give up 48% of the lumens to gain 36% higher CRI Ra, would you do it?
Another factor is a type of CRI called the Saturated Red (aka R9 CRI). On the Nichia it is over 95 Ra, on the XPL is is a negative number, about –15. That means that the Nichia has over 500% more Red output than the NW XPL. I have never seen anyone discuss this detail, so I started a thread about it.
If Im only looking at green things, then the piss yellow light works fine. I can even tell green things apart from red things (that look brown actually).
Otoh, if there are red things to be seen, the Nichia is a Joy to behold, for me, in the way I use my lights, which is mostly at very close range and almost always below 100 lumens.
I cant wait for midnight, Im waiting to see if the drop from 0.2 lumens of XPL to 0.1 lumens of N219b is still effective to find the toilet without stepping on the cats toys, or gooey wet hairballs…
So percentage loss on a nichia swap Lumens is more than 25%, but so is the increase in CRI Ra, and so is the increase in RED CRI R9
If you had a choice to have the light on the left at 400 lumens max, or the light on the right at 200 lumens max, which would you pick?
