[Review] SST-20 in FW3A is divine!

It’s not near that bad for small corrections. The filter I linked has a transmission of 89%. And if you sanded it in half to perfect the strength of correction, it could be even better.
Just throwing that out there for the more ambitious among us. It would be a lot of work for a small gain, and shouldn’t the kind of thing you need to do. But it would work.

For anyone interested, I have just posted a 219b R9080 4000K review in the same format as this review.

A transmission rate of 89% is within the range I was expecting. Looking at Bob_McBob’s review, I see a maximum of 1697 lm with SST-20 and a Carclo 10511 optic, compared to 2967 lm with XP-L HI 3D. 1697 * 89% / 2967 = 50.9% as many lumens, which is why I say it makes half as much light. It also heats up quite a bit faster, though I don’t have actual numbers for that.

At lower levels the difference isn’t quite as severe… SST-20 with minus-green filter makes about two thirds as much light as XP-L HI, instead of only half.

SST-20 has a slightly throwier beam (at about 4.7 cd/lm instead of 4.4 cd/lm), but due to having half as many lumens, the maximum throw is significantly less — about 7100 cd, compared to XP-L HI’s 12500 cd.

So I’m pretty happy with the XP-L HI 3D version as a general-purpose light, though I also use a 219B 4500K FW3A when I care more about accurate colors instead of overall performance. Have been eyeing the 4000K 219B emitters too, which Bob’s measurements indicate would probably perform at about the same level as SST-20… except with a tint I like.

It’s really nice that we have so many to choose from, since the broad range of choices covers a broad range of different tastes. :slight_smile:

Maybe I didn’t explain completely. The meter is recommending I use a minus green filter because I have the target CCT set at 5500K. It is also recommending a CC filter too, and the combination will swing down the BBL to 5500K. It’s a significant green subtraction, way more than the 2 MacAdams it takes to bring the Floor to the BBL.
My intention was to demonstrate a method of adjusting a minus green filter.
Neither me nor the meter recommend putting a filter on this SST.

We don’t need a new line as much as a “Keep Out” zone in the green area.

This stuff is new to me. I know what CRI is but I would love to learn more about some of the units you guys are posting about. Is there an ultimate guide to all the different metrics? CCT, Duv, CRI (Ra), TLCI and even lumens and candelas. Kinda like what they have on baseball sabermetrics on fangraphs haha.

Welcome to BLF!
I can give a quick rundown of the stuff.
CCT is Color Correlated Temperature. It tells you how warm or cold the light appears. Cold colors have more blue, warm colors have more red tones.
Duv is actually how we type Δuv. The greek Delta stands for “change” in math. So Duv is distance from the Black Body Locus (that line we like).
CRI originally evaluated 8 colors. Now it evaluates 15. When we refer to all 15, it’s often called Ra. So “CRI (Ra)” is just a catch-all to make sure everyone understands Ra replaces CRI.
TLCI is like CRI for cameras. Cameras see light a little different than our eyes.

Hope that helps.

Sekonic press release:

Joshk, feel free to try out the new C-800 firmware and do the TM-30-18 report

Correct me if I’m wrong. So if the SST-20 led is rated for 4000K the CCT gives a more accurate measure in Kelvins. It goes from a scale of 1000-10,000, warm to cold. CRI and TLCI is a rating of the ability to produce the full the colour spectrum with 100 being perfect. But what would an extreme example of poor CRI look like? Is it like an old sepia filtered WWI picture?

I’m not sure I understand duv fully. The measurement seems quite sensitive with people complain about the 10000th measure. I found this article.. Does Duv give another dimension to CCT? Is it measured as the perpendicular distance from the desirable locus line? Is rosy, to the bottom right, a negative measure and yellow/green, above the line, positive? Thanks

Kelvin is the unit used for CCT, CCT = 4000K for example. Yes, 100 is perfect for CRI and TLCI. An example of poor CRI would be if you looked at a bundle of wires with a light, and couldn’t tell the difference between pink and red, or blue and purple for example.

Yea people are sensitive to Duv. I think it’s because of our nature to see greenish things as diseased.

That just added some pie slices. What do they tell us?

Hell if I know, but if this is set to replace Ra/R9 we should probably figure it out :slight_smile:

AFAIK you want a big wide circle like this for even, full spectrum. If it jets in or out too much you will have a bias towards that

The black circle is the reference, the red circle is the SST20. When the arrow goes to the interior of the circle, the colors of the region are less saturated than the reference ( = negative chroma shift), when it goes to the exterior = more saturated than the reference ( = positive chroma shift). When it goes to the left or the right, there is a hue shift.
The SST20 colors rendition are very close to the reference but with slight hue shift, overall saturation matches the reference except for colors of region 14 which are a bit more saturated.
This sample is very good for colors rendition with high fidelity (compared to the reference), better than a 219B SW45K.

Is it a filtered SST20 ?

The SST-20 actually renders colors better vs a 219B SW45K, since it doesn’t have a tendency to saturate on the magenta part of the spectrum due to its more balanced tint, and actually having less tint shift.

TLDR: The SST-20 is better than the 219B in every aspect, even in terms of tint since the FD2 is now more easily available, and the FA3 and FA1 color tint bins will hopefully be available as binning gets better.

Tint though different amperages is its biggest weakness, but I’m okay with it being on bbl at lowest outputs and rosy at highest.

Yea, but that was all part of the TM-30 before the update. I was wondering what difference the update made.

+1
I think it’s just going to take some time for the general opinion on the forum to accept the 219B is obsolete by all perceivable measures.

I think a lot of folks just tend to subjectively prefer the rosier tint of the 219B SW45K. Under normal circumstances, I don’t find the tint of the SST-20s in my FW3x’s to be particularly green, but when I put them directly next to some SW45K on a white wall, the SST-20s look dreadfully green (at low outputs) and the SW45Ks are decidedly pink.

I prefer the SW45K tint but its efficiency drawbacks and sensitivity to high currents make it impractical for a lot of applications.

An FA1 or FA4 binned SST-20 might be perfection.

Tint is quite perceivable, and multiple studies have clearly demonstrated most people prefer a tint no available bin of SST-20 can achieve even at unsustainably high currents. I don’t want a light that’s 0.0016 at a level I use regularly when I could just use a 219B and get a much more pleasing neutral or rosy tint that becomes even rosier at higher outputs. There is still strong demand for 219B years after it was discontinued precisely because no other LED can replicate what it does, except perhaps E21A, which is impractical to use in most lights due to the lack of mounting options.