I am less a High CRI and more a GOOD tint user now. The 7A3’s that X3 spoke of above are a beautiful tint, and still show colors well to me…
A high CRI XP -G2 I have is a brown wonder of a tint, I wonder how anyone can see colors under the pall it casts.
The 3000K XPL-HI is 80+ CRI and has a nice reddish hue that does not wash out my vision when I turn the light off at night like a CW or some NW do… Color reproduction is better than the brown wonder above, but 10+ CRI lower… Go figure…
My recommendation is to pick a tint you think is good and not worry about CRI….
To my eyes, a bright, NearlyWhite LED plus a properly-fitted TIR is vastly more useful, attractive, and “color-rific” than the weird “Wanna-beWhite” brown. TBH, looking at “High CRI” LEDs just makes me wonder if folks are measuring CRI properly. Not that I expect a mono-color source to render many colors properly in any case.
For any xW LED, the TIR (assuming it’s the right cut for the LED behind it) blends the weird Cree Rainbow into a mono-color field/spot/ball/wall of light.
Just to put this out there, I also think it’s weird that the color names and the actual color temperatures are the exact opposite of each other. “Warm” white is actually much cooler on the Kelvin scale than “Cool White”. ??
(Subscribing because I too want good color rendition (i.e. pure white, broad spectrum light) from a truly bright LED torch.)
I’ve been looking around for high CRI XM-L2/XP-L emitters in the 3000K to 4000K range.
My favorite so far is a 90 CRI minimum 3000K XM-L2 from Mouser —- CREE part number XMLBWT-00-0000-000US60Z7. To my eyes it isn’t brown like some warm emitters. Again to my eyes it leans very slightly red when compared side by side with some others — which is OK with me because I don’t like suggestions of green either.
I’ve not found any 90+ CRI XM-L2/XP-L emitters in the 4000K+ range, but I do like the 80+ CRI XM-L2 emitters (5D1 and 5D3) at Mountain Electronics.
But I get that 3000K isn’t for everyone. If you want very floody then a triple 219B with a Carclo 10511 does a pretty good job.
I had a triple XP-G2 R5 5A2 whose temperature I liked quite a lot, but there was something about it I didn’t like. I’ve replaced it with a triple 80+ XP-L U6 5A3 and IMO it makes very nice floody neutral flashlight. It’s as pleasing to my eyes as my triple 219B lights. It is of course a little warmer than my 4500K 219B emitters — but I find it very white — and quite a bit brighter
Weak winter sunlight in snowy conditions can have a bit of a bluish tint, hence ‘cool’. Whereas light produced by a burning campfire or glowing coals has a decidedly reddish/orange tint, hence ‘warm’.
The Kelvin scale and blackbody radiation are extremely useful concepts, but they’re a bit outside the day-to-day experience of the average person. If Coors had made their color-changing cans turn from blue to red as they cooled, and tried to explain it with the Kelvin scale, I suspect it would have flopped pretty badly…
The 90+ CRI 3000K XP-L is pretty nice — but… not quite what I want… Side by side with the XM-L2 from Mouser it’s a little disappointing. I have some of those warm Nichia 219A emitters from Fasttech that have a bit of that “nice warm orange-red tone”. The XMLBWT-00-0000-000US60Z7 from Mouser comes pretty close to them.
Here a Russian modder makes custom headlamps with 90CRI XHP50 and wide-angle TIR powered by a small boost driver on one 18650 cell. http://forum.fonarevka.ru/showthread.php?t=31892
It looks pretty close to your requirements.
Nice looking mod CharlesD50! how is the output, sufficient? I am not a tint snob, but do prefer the warmer tints and the Nichias. The Nichias mainly for the LACK of tint shift as the power increases…
Your build is looking good. When manufactures don’t make a hi cri nichia headlight, we got to make our own.
You should consider sticking a triple nichia 219c in there with a chunk of copper behind it like I did in mine. It should handle the higher amps that driver can deliver and give you more output when needed.
Man, you’ve got alot of creepy crawlys where you hike. I can see how cri is important to identify creatures quickly and accurately.
I mostly use my headlight for working on things close up, so I prefer full flood or very diffused hotspot. I agree that even though the 219c isn’t very hi cri its still better than cree. I will definitely be picking up some 219c hi cri if they make them.
I like the N219b in the middle, a lot: (it looks pink when white balance is set to 6000k)
left is 3000k N219c, middle 4500k 219b, right is 6000k XP-G2
the LED on the right is the same N219b above, but white balance is now set to 4500k, so it looks white
whether an LED looks white or not, depends on the color temperature of the LED, compared to the color temperature of the brain, in that environment. If I have been in the sun, 4500k is not ideal. But in the evening after being in incandescent lighting, the 4500k will be bright white.
The Color temperature our brain is set to, makes all the difference to what we see as white.
agree
the B lands in the pink (below the black line that represents neutral Tint))
the C lands in the yellow/green (above the black line that represents neutral Tint)
It may just depend on the chromaticity regarding 219c vs 219b. NVSL219CT sm4050e and sm4050f in the specsheets are both below black body locus mostly. Not sure if it’s available anywhere in low qtys unfortunately.
Yes, I also have some lights with them, but they are now somewhat outdated. They have been available since 2013 and mine have a rather yellow tint (probably not 7A3). The XP-L should be available with the same tint and be a bit more efficient and the XP-L2 will definitely be, when it is available.
Well yeah, they’re not the brightest for sure but are the only option for Olight TIR with good CRI (apart from the old 5D1 80+ CRI that intl outddor used to sell)…
