I like it. Yes, it’s very warm, and it does make things look a bit unnatural. It’s not a light for outdoors. It’s a light for a incandescent-like mood light for indoors. Watching TV, etc.
It might be better if it was high-CRI. I think the Emissar D4v2 offers 3000K in a high-CRI SST-20 LED.
My FW3A has 3000K 90 CRI SST-20’s in it. And my FW3C is 7A XP-L HI. Personally, I find both the warm tints very good indoors, or around the house. Obviously out in the field or bush a more neutral tint will perform better. It’s like mad things wants a warm tint, and natural things wants a neutral tint.
But the 4000k SST20 looks amazing outside in the dark walking around either a veggie garden or flower bed. The colors just pop and I can give up a few lumens for that. The heat on the other hand is insane with the SST20’s.
Yeah, but the 4000K is not what I would call warm… Neutral, yes. I’m waiting for the funky colored FW3A lights to be released then I’ll order that emitter combo.
You may be noticing the Purkinje effect, combined with the relatively low output of red from the 80CRI emitter.
I haven’t done any rigorous testing, but I tend to assume high CRI should be particularly helpful for maintaining color discrimination in the red range as intensity is decreased, although even that would not completely counter the Purkinje effect.
Do you have other 3000K lights you’re comparing it to?
And is this when it’s fully dark? I’ve got a 3000K XM-L2 light that seems comparatively very orange if I’m using it around what is often called the “blue hour,” which occurs after sunset but before it is fully dark.
I don’t like such warm color temperatures for that kind of situation. On the other hand, indoors, where my last light exposure was likely a 2700-3000K bulb, or around a campfire after it’s totally dark, 3000K is great.
My SST-20 4000K came today. The emitters are great but the new switch is terrible compared to the first run one. Metal-on-metal squeaky and not nearly as solid feeling