Sorry, folks, but I’m going to throw a big monkey-wrench into the gearcase here…
I read and believed this “CRI” business, even though no one could detail it out well enough to make sense. I get that light reflects off colored objects and makes them “look” that way, and that different light colors reflect differently. K? (You should see my next-door neighbor’s mineral display with two “black lights” of different, user-selectable frequencies to make the rocks shine!)
Here’s where I get lost: everywhere I look, I see LEDs described as very specifically MONOchromatic, e.g. “5000k”, etc. I studied the Datasheets too, so feel free to start there. The reality is more “BI-chromatic”, but that may not matter. Everywhere I can find any spectral power graphs, “100 CRI Sunlight” does NOT have the spiky chromatic peaks of an LED or xFL. My “color reference standard” (poor as it is) is a standard 100W bare incandescent bulb. It’s not “sunlight”, and the fundamental color can be found in these LEDs I own, but there’s no question the incan makes a lot MORE colors look good, than any LED (that I own) can.
Full disclosure: I did my homework and decided to try “5000k” (aka “NW”) from two sources, hoping for decent color rendition. TURNS OUT: the only way I can “get happy” with colors is to turn on TWO torches and point them at the same thing. Hence my idea of multiple, different-CBin emitters…
Look at it this way: “5000k” reflects “best” off a certain color. “6000k” reflects “best” off a certain OTHER color. Likewise the other Chromaticity bins. Sunlight, containing waves and particles of all colors, seems to include all those “bins” on its way to a 100 CRI.
Some say the “NW” LEDs enhance the green leaves on trees. I can see that, but what about the other colors, which are better enhanced by the “CW” emitter?
Yes, I get that the answer is a multi-emitter host with all different Chromaticity bins!!! (I’d even accept the multiple different-colored shadows!!)
How is any of this helpful for single-source flashlight/torch users? Is there some way we (outside of “Manufacturer Support”) can expand the chromaticity peaks of an LED?? I would LOVE to know how to make the “dull 60W yellow-brown” of 5000k or lower (3000k??? You gotta be kidding!) render ALL the objects in my yard close to sunlight color-levels (dimmer, of course!! I want the good colors!)
On that note, IS IT POSSIBLE that someone (best would be the manufacturer) has posted beamshots comparing the different C-bins? As a proud new owner of two braces of “3C” XM-Ls, I would dearly love to know (without having to fork over even more hard-earned cash) what the real-world difference is between “3C” and “3B”, e.g. I’d really rather see them without reflectors, just the bare LEDs shining on a plain White (not “off-white”) wall…
Sorry to disturb the waters. Inquiring minds want to know: How do we make colors look good with a mostly-monochromatic source? Is “close enough” really close enough? I know Cree offers an LED which lets you blend multiple RGB colors, but that’s exactly what I said above, just with 4 emitters in one package. LSI did the electronics world tons of Good, maybe integration is the answer here too? My current answer: stop wasting so much time with it! Pester the manufacturers to improve their QC (like “stop with the purple and green colored rings, please”) before they pop out the next “much brighter/more efficient/better sex-life XYZ v2.0”; and if you want good color rendition any time soon, get an incan.
That’s what I think. But you know how I can be…
Dim