Agreed, these new LEDs can stand shoulder to shoulder with Cree’s XP-L for floody applications & output like in the lantern from the tests i done in comparison so far, but have an advantage of the Hi-CRI color rendering over the XP-L, and higher output & better efficiency than the 219C.
I’m interested. Please add me for 1. Thanks.
I also want to thank AEDe.
Without him, we could have never gotten the LH351Ds and Bs.
High CRI for the win!
I hope Thorfire will pick 3500-4000k LH351Ds. Then we will have a winner, and the best lantern to have ever existed.
It looks nice so far. I hope we can do the two-tint idea though, with ~3000K and ~5000K emitters and 4x7135 or 5x7135 per channel. It’d be cool to be able to change the temperature.
Thanks to DBSAR for the updates and BlueSwordM for the LEDs!
Since about two years, warm white (2700-3300K) color temperature is the goal of this project. Which in my opinion suits the use.
Maybe there will be two versions? Neutral white (3300-5300K) in addition to warm white. It’s also specified in DIN EN 12665:
https://gossen-photo.de/wp-content/uploads/DL/LMT/Kompendium_der_Lichtmesstechnik_GB.pdf#page=25
Having a winner means also that there are some left behind.
I’m sharing what DBSAR wrote.
I would prefer 3000k emitters, but I haven’t found a supplier for them to actually test a 3000k LH351D 90CRI.
The only lead we have are the 3000k LH351B 90CRI, but they aren’t nearly as efficient as 351Ds.
In my opinion 85CRI isn’t bad. But 90CRI would be more nice.
Hot damn, two more please! ~3000K would be awesome. Two-tint would be even better. But the way this is shaping up, it’s gonna be unbelievable no matter what. I can’t wait to use them and to gift them. A thousand thanks!
Your next two lights are interest numbers 797 and 798 for 6 total.
Sign me up for it! Thanks for another wonderful BLF product
Same thought too. Would be a great option to have changeable tint, (from 2700K up to 4000K maybe) Though right now its out of my abilities to design a driver & modes to work with that set up, will need your expertise to help develop that 
We are looking to see if Thorfire can offer the lantern in at least two tint ranges, ( 3000K & 4000K) or develop the dual tint set up as Toykeeper as mentioned above.
It’s pretty easy, really a trivial change compared to the Q8 driver. Instead of 3+1 chips, it’s 4+4. And I think I can add support to the firmware relatively easily too.
It’d be fine to use 2700K on the warm end, or maybe even 2200K if you can get it… but I’d suggest making the cool end 5000K instead of 4000K, because even 4000K is warmer than some of us want. With the ability to blend to whatever temperature the user wants, I doubt there’s much reason to make the range narrow. They can set their light to 2700K, or 3000K, or 3500/4000/4500/5000K, as desired.
The shots in camp look great. I am excited for 3000K and 90CRI. I hope these make the cut.
My order of priority: ( I know, my opinion matters 0.0001% and we all know I will buy this thing even if everything is the opposite of this list.)
- High CRI
- High CRI
- 3000K perfect. 4000K OK
- Shield/Reflector - adjustable or removable
- USB charging/Power bank
- Efficiency
- Dual tint - solves #3, but warm is simply my goal.
I would only be using this on high for minutes at a time and medium to low settings mostly. Efficiency of the LED to me is a far lower priority than high CRI. I would rather carry spare batteries that I probably still wouldn’t need in trade for the pleasantness of 90+CRI lighting. It only takes 20 seconds to swap 4 batteries. I cant swap LED’s easily and I certainly can’t replace the missing color from memories and photos I plan to gain over years while using this lantern…
My brother in law used to yawn when I would tell him about high CRI while shining them around the back yard. Then it happened. We were cooking steaks over the fire and he was using his cool white and probably very low CRI light he loved sooo much. Even on the highest setting while blinding us all, he couldn’t even tell if his steak was seared on the outside let alone see if it was red, pink or other in the middle. I busted out the 219C and he was instantly enlightened. On any setting, our meals went from grey and lifeless to colorful and appetizing with the click of a switch. He wanted to know where to buy the flashlight. Having perfectly seared medium rare ribeyes instead of burnt hockey pucks was a nice side effect as well!
Using low CRI light to find an item in the dark for a few minutes is one thing. Hanging with friends, taking photos, cooking and eating under it all night long is another.
Interested. Light is starting to look really good now.
It would be pretty neat if with a dual tint set-up the colour temperature is changed during ramping, according to Kruithof’s theory, but of course it will be more versatile and very easy to operate if at any brightness setting the tint can simply be adjusted (a tint ramp?). I’m really liking this and it will make the lantern even more unique!
Edit: I think a tint ramp is so suiting for this BLF lantern that it may even deserve a dedicated button.
I am interested
Added at #800
Added at #801