Guess this topic is down to personal preference but be interested to hear what people prefer overall.
I’m torn as a cool white I’m guessing around 6500 has more clarity (and better throw on a zoomie) than say a warmer tint around the 4 / 5000 level and whilst one is “nicer” to look at I tend to say a torch is there to do a job and light up what you want to see rather than make it into a pretty picture with nice colours.
What’s your preference and why ???
IMHO a better tint is easier on th eye thus easier to see things with.
I prefer NW
Here is a very nice list of tints (wait for it to load ;))
For me, 3000K is nice and soft on the eyes, especially in very dark places. I can stare at 3000K and scrutinize visual details very comfortably. 4000K is good, 4500K is OK. 5000K is beginning to get too harsh for my eyes to look at.
The problem with cool white is that it tends to wash out colors, making it harder to distinguish and determine what you’re looking at. So in a sense, although cool white can “light things up”, it does a poor job at letting you see what’s really there.
When I first got into high powered flashlights I was all about cool white tint and the most lumens available. It’s been recently I prefer nw tints. Even at the expense of a couple hundred lumens.
Miller is 110% correct. I could shine my 1400 lumen xpl hi cool white about 60-70 yards up in a tree and could see eye balls but not make it out the animal definitely. I could take a 1050 lumen warmer tint light. And see exactly what it was a raccon like I thought. Same light both x6s. So its not like comparing two different light models. Both x6 with smo reflectors. One with q xpl hi cool white the other with a xpg2 s4 0d dedomed. Even my other warm lights you can see much better detail at what your seeing especially as the distant increases. I still use my cool white lights. Just depends on the tasks.
I prefer a warmer to neutral tint, with a high CRI of course. The tint shouldn’t really effect the throw of a light, other than the slight drop off in total output from the extra phosphors to get the warmer color temps. The higher color temps seem to wash things out and hide some of the details that I need to see.
Showing my ignorance here but if you don’t ask the question you’ll never learn … what’s CRI???
CRI is the ability for a light source to reproduce the actual color of an object. Check this page for some examples of various CRI levels: DonsBulbs Lighting Design
For indoor use I prefer anywhere from 4000 or 4500K. Both give a fairly white beam but with enough tint to provide a pleasant experience. 3000K looks downright orange and I find it harder to distinguish things. A bit cooler is better.
For outdoor use, even 4000K can sometimes feel too cool. 3000K looks much better.
As you say it’s there to do a job but what the job is can affect which tint is best.
Can filters bring a cool kelvin temperature light down to a warmer one, and if so could it be reversed?
In theory a filter could be designed to remove the bluer parts of the spectrum in such a way to make it a warmer temperature.
In theory a filter could also be designed to remove the redder colors more and increase the color temperature.
Both would probably be fairly inefficient because they would be absorbing or reflecting the colors they remove.
Thank you.
Absolutely, in fact they already exist for the theatrical and film industries. Most of the time we use gel which is thin plastic sheets, you can also get a lot of colors in dichrotic glass for long term use. The problem is they are very inefficient. What most people would probably want is a quarter cto gel like Lee 206, it would take you from 6500k to 4600k, and let about 79% of the light through, with the rest turning into heat. In the theatrical world it’s not a big deal it’s just part of what it takes to get the look we want. The really saturated colors like deep reds and blues can have as low as a 2% transmission rate.
Some other examples are:
A full CTB (color to blue) like Lee 201 takes a 3200k halogen source and turns it into 5700k, the problem is it only ends up transmitting about 34% of the light that passes through it. The rest of it gets turned into heat.
A half CTB would get you 4300k, but would only let 55% of the light through.
Going the other way a full CTO (color to orange) like Lee 204 would get you from a 6500k arc lamp to 3200k and let about 55% of the light through.
A half CTO gets you to 3800k and lets about 71% of the light through.
Thank you for the detail.
All tints have a purpose, and can complement each other well for photography. The below photo uses:
3000k warm white - background - Lumens Factory Seraph SP-6 with high-CRI module
5000k neutral white - backlighting, illuminating most of foreground - Convoy L6
6500k+ cool white - headlamp - Varta 5-LED Indestructible Headlamp
If I’m going for fullest output, yeah, I’ll go with cooler tint. But for something I’m actually going to use, neutral and warm all day. All I had when I first started were cool tints. For me, right around 4000K with a tad of rose is perfect. I gambled on an XHP50 with 5D0 tint. I’m glad I did. When my batteries are done charging I’m gonna take it for a walk around the yard tonight. Imagine that light from the sun just as it’s about to set and it sort of casts a rosy glow on everything.
Dude, that is awesome! Doesn’t even look real!
I usually prefer 5250 - 6500K… Neutral up to about mid-cool.
I do not like the extremes, when it yellows on the warm side or blue-greens on the cool end; I’m out. 
All between 3000k to 5500k is good for my eyes. The rest is junk. 
Serious academics are full of Shit! 
I agree with this for flashlights, in our house we have 3500-3750K in the lights (all LEDbulbs and spots)
find 5000-5500K ideal. No blue and no yellow/amber (yellow amber being as annoying as blue imho)
But thanks for the choices!