That was the original question Zmoose… about the backgrounds & foreground. I like your fish tank analogy too. 
… I wonder the same at times.
Give me a true ’neutral white’ as much as possible. (4000K is not ‘neutral white’ AFAIAC) One not tinted warm nor cool.
There is that “preference thing” again. 
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Edit: @ jon_slider…… The above, though fairly complicated to implement for mere mortals; makes a bit of sense amongst all this ‘discussion’. Thanks for sharing…….
I’ve always thought that nichia looks dull & dirty , seems to me high cri is very similar.
Are you sure you want to use the FW3A as a bike light? There are much better choices out there.
The site does support that, but it’s an option I didn’t enable. Perhaps if there are any other polls in the future, it would be a useful UI improvement even if it makes no difference in the results.
It’s immune or resistant to most forms of tactical voting, but can sometimes still be affected by burying. It’s a relatively small risk though, and requires a significant number of voters to understand and apply the strategy or at least follow instructions from someone who told them how to vote.
If I were to make an upgrade to the voting system, it wouldn’t involve a big change in the algorithm… it would be to simply make it a private vote which requires a login. However, for an informal poll like this, I think it would be a net loss because it would exclude too many people. It’s simply not necessary unless someone actually puts in the effort to execute a non-trivial ballot-stuffing attack. And only one person has threatened anything like that.
As long as nobody intentionally breaks it, it works. So don’t be that guy. Don’t be the reason we can’t have nice things.
XP-L HD doesn’t fit into the optics. The closest choice is LH351D, which performs much like the XP-L2 but without the nasty rainbow effect.
People have very different preferences for ideal color temperature. What looks white to one person may look brown or blue to another. It’s known to correlate with age or sun exposure, so people tend to prefer higher CCTs as they get older, but this is only a loose correlation. Have you ever seen old ladies with blue hair? It doesn’t look blue to them; that’s what they view as white.
Me, I usually avoid warm CCTs because they look painfully yellow to me. But I think it’s definitely a good idea to make something warm-ish available, like 4000K, because a lot of people really like it.
Interesting take on colour perception TK, I always wondered about the blue rinse phenomenon, but isn’t it the other way round with age, I get the impression the older members here are the ones more likely to prefer the warmer, lower cct values?
Anything above the blackbody line is probably not happening, because it would look green. So, no “B” or “C” tints.
Early poll results made 4A the top choice, but it shifted later so now the vote points toward 3D. That means 4D or 5A are unlikely unless Lumintop decides to offer a bunch of options like Emisar does. The data so far points toward 5000K (or slightly below) for XP-L HI and toward 4000K for LH351D.
This is a strange phenomenon that I have gathered some info while working in biology.
Apparently, cyan photoreceptors have a lower lifespan than magenta and yellow, because they tend to absorb higher frequency wavelengths, which are more energetic and destroy the photoreceptors more quickly than the others.
Therefore, with age, there is degeneration of the cyan photoreceptors resulting in lower sensitivity in the blue part of the visible light spectrum, meaning you see less intense blue as you age, explaining what Toykeeper said.
Anyway, this phenomenon also happens in OLED displays: being organic, the blue pixels degrade more quickly than red and yellow. This is why instead of an RGB stripe arrangement, we get Diamond Stripe Pixel arrangement. This allows for lower degradation, but a lower effective resolution.
It’s a bit off topic, but if brightness is a concern I’d go with a 26650 light that can sustain 1000+ lumen along with an elliptical beam pattern. But, to each their own.
Noooooooo…… may it never be. :person_facepalming: . .
I’m a ‘mature’ member & with very rare exception, I detest pretty much anything below 5000K. A rare dip to 4500K is as low as it gets by choice.
Don’t like it to ‘cool’ either…. 5700K is about the upper limit for me.
2A . 2D . 3A . 3D
True. My uncle was an eye surgeon and encouraged us to protect our eyes from UV at all times, even wear sunglasses always during full daylight.
The human eye doesn’t need full daylight to work properly, and the pupil can only contract so far to dim it down.
Lowers the chance of developing cataracts too.
Being short-sighted I’ve always had glasses on, with plastic lenses they block UV almost completely, so despite being older than some, I hope my colour perception is still reasonably OK.
Contact lenses aren’t so protective.
If you use a UV torch, always protect your eyes.
Living in Northern latitudes, mostly 50 degrees North, (but not under the ozone hole) probably helps as well.
It makes sense to me that those with older or simply worn-out eyes from long exposure to bright sunlight might prefer the higher colour temperatures, and have less preference for high CRI.
Wear your eyes out and you’ll also become less sensitive to lower light levels, many elderly have real trouble driving at night, almost blind.
The human eye was probably only “designed” to last 40 years or so and hasn’t evolved much since, so look after yours.
I very rarely use a torch in daylight, that’s probably why I prefer low colour-temp, high CRI, and high intensity is of less importance.
some differences in flashlight use scenarios
close range in full darkness, and indoors:
lower lumens, wider beams, warmer Color temperatures
longer range, and when adapted to cooler ambient light, and outdoors:
higher lumens, narrower beams, cooler color temperature
I carry a floody light for close range that is high CRi and high R9, and less than 5000k. I use less than 100 lumens indoors, and I prioritize High CRI for that. My indoor use targets are usually smaller and more detailed, and their color is more important to me, especially things like food.
and I carry a spotty light for outdoor distance, that is cooler and has less CRI and less R9 and is more than 5000k. I use more than 100 lumens for outdoor distance, and have less of a fixation on accurate color rendering,
because the target is usually larger, and I mostly just want to know if there is a bear there or not. Im less concerned with the color of the bear.
if the use scenario is to spot a bear, brighter spottier and cooler is better
if the use scenario is to prep food at camp, hang out indoors relaxing, less bright, floodier, and warmer is better, for me.
ymmv by use application
Im 65, wear glasses, have cataracts and other vision challenges, but old ladies with blue hair definitely do not look like blond barbies to me
I also dislike green tint, and 5000k+ low CRI lights have more green tint than my sub 5000k High CRI lights.
However I dont notice the green tint of my cooler lights when my brain is white balanced to cooler CCTs durig the day. I notice the green tint of 5000k+ lights more, when I am adapted to the incandescent light in my home at night.
Also darker eye color is the major factor for low wear levels in the eye after a certain age. Dark pigments in iris tend to absorb light much more.
So if you have blue, green eyes they need to be protected 2X carefully.
Especially for people who have blonde retinas or are otherwise photosensitive.
I can see pretty well at night, even with only a tenth of a lumen lighting a whole room, but I’m basically blind during the day unless I use dark sunglasses.
Ok that was just rude and uncalled for.
/\ … Yep…. :+1:
I am opposite to jon on the CCT for indoor/outdoors; outdoors in a throwy light too cool of a color temperature is more than useless; it will make such a noticable beam in any haze at all that it is hard to see past it to the thing I want to look at. I would rather a neutral-warm color with fair to good rendering so that I can tell the difference as zak puts it “between a stick and a snake”; the better the color quality the less harsh and difficult to interpret its light seems to be, though actual brightness is not unimportant. Though for the most distance or for locating rogue helicopters or trees, I suppose even a low color quality will suffice.
Please add me for 1 more - for a total of 2.
Thank you
I will take two 