I’m also feel the same way where I prefer high CRI vs high lumens for my EDC.
BUTTT, you can also get high CRI with 5000K+ temperature. An example is the Nichia Optisolis SM653-P9-Rfa00 6500K LED. It has the highest CRI that I believe you can get from an LED. It’s like other high CRI LEDs where the lumens is not that great. It also has a slight bluish tint which is expected for 6500K, but renders colors amazingly well!
Personally I prefer a temperature between 4000-5000K, but high CRI is still most important to me.
High CRI sells itself if you’ve properly experienced it.
But for those that have not, I would ask them these 2 questions as a retailer.
Are you familiar with the benefits of polarized glasses? What about the benefits of a 4K television? Ok great, well High CRI is like a cross between both of those technologies except for all real life around you. But if you’re the kind of consumer that is happy buying the absolute cheapest TV with the worst image you can find, then a High CRI flashlight may not be right for you.
This, plus xtars threads are itself marketing, giving the brand visibility with not much effort. I might be mistaken, but he starts topics but never really enters the discussion.
In all honesty I don’t see it as a problem. Xtar is following the trend of hobbyists, which is the cutting edge and the way forward. The more decent leds that flood the market the better right…? Sure I may not clearly notice the difference myself but I’m sure there are a lot of Muggles out there with better eyesight than me. I say muggles because I’m pretty sure most hobbyists are aware of cri and make their own choices.
I just wanted to comment that it looked like a marketing ploy. If xtar was straight up and said so I wouldn’t have posted.
CRI is 1st factor I consider when buying EDC, second one is regulated output.
If not high CRI and crap driver I don’t bother.
Thrower is a different story, CRI is not cruicial.
I agree 100% on EDC which is typically a small but powerful light and mainly used for short distances. With throwers, like a C8, they are not EDC and when used for seeing 200 meters downrange CRI is not a factor to me.
Perfect world is a flashlight that puts out 300lm/W (no heat) at 95CRI in every colour temperature.
And solid state lithium batteries with capacities several times what we have now and last almost forever.
. XStarFlashlight has entered the chat
“What do you think of High CRI? Feel free to share your application.”
. XStarFlashlight has exited the chat
Yeah, this is pretty disingenuous. I realize a flashlight maker initiated the discussion, but still. They COULD have engaged some meaningful chat about it, also CRI, TCR, and TM-30. But no… dropped bait, stepped back to the edge, and watched what would unfold.
I would have contributed, but the intention here bothers me.
>As for high CRI flashlights, do you think how important it is?
Very important. I like to have the highest possible light quality at a given colour temperature. I'm willing to accept some trade-offs for efficiency but ideally I want my flashlight beam to be just light sunlight .. because that's the ultimate goal for a general use flashlight, right?