I know this is an old thread, but valuable none-the-less! Thanx djozz! Couple of Q's:
- I know you have a much better light meter than most of us, not sure what meter you used to do these tests?
- with my cheap meter, I definitely measured green brighter than red with both XML color LED's and XP-E2's. Any chance you can re-visit the green test?
Fyi... First I ordered color XP-E2's from DigiKey, the realized later these are bin rated, and Mouser has better ones . So, I ordered various top bin color XP-E2's from Mouser and just got them in. The bin specs were quite good:
Red - P3 (same as DigiKey, same as yours)
Blue - M3 (Mouser - same as your)
Green - R3 (Mouser - 1 up from yours)
Royal Blue - 37 (Mouser - whatever this bin means)
Red-Orange - Q4 (Mouser)
Amber - Q4 (Mouser)
I mounted a green R3 and red-orange Q4 on 16 mm Noctigons and built up pills for a UF-1504 to run at 2.48A (6*350mA 7135 + 1 380mA 7135). My intention is max throw. Measuring with my $35 light meter, I got the following for lumens in full flood, throw in full zoom-in:
Green R3 in UF-1405, 2.48A: 211 lumens (@30 secs), 160 kcd (800 meters)
Red-Orange Q4 in UF-1405, 2.48A: 119 lumens (@30 secs), 85 kcd (583 meters)
The lumens are pretty low - could be the poor aspheric flood mode of the light/lens, not sure...
In use outdoors, the green in full zoom is like a laser beam, while the red-orange's beam can hardly be made out. Lighting up a tree about 80 meters away though, the red-orange looks pretty darn bright compared to the green, maybe about the same (double the kcd though isn't much difference). Also note the red-orange looks pretty much exactly like red I've seen on other LED's/flashlights - I could not tell the difference. The red-orange's dye looks exactly like a red dye in both color and having the lines on it (like a XP-E/XM-L, etc.).
The cheap spare pills available for the 1405's is great by the way for testing/comparing. I bought 2 UF-1405 hosts and 2 spare aluminum pills from GearBest. The pills were $1.50 when I ordered - now see them listed at $2.50 (should have ordered more). The aluminum pills fit great and actually have more threads than the brass stock ones.