$1 Budget Beamer Beaters

Thank you, that makes sense.

@Scotty, no problem i’m glad you posted the color test. You could see a difference with your eyes and that is what matters, and it agrees with snakebite saying it has a blue tint.

i’ll try several different OTs to see if i can find variations. i can easily tell when there is excess yellow tint, but not experienced or seen enough to know much on blue tint

I recommend setting white balance to automatic, so the camera may do what our eyes do.

Hmmm… that’s a little complicated. The garage floor is tan, but that area has a lot of dirt and salt residue that has turned it more greyish.

If I were to describe the color of the garage floor with sunlight, where I took the pic is about between the tan and grey you see on the AB and OT lights. If I remember tomorrow morning I’ll take a pic. The garage faces NE.

Edit: OK I’m having a technical issue. The grey is changing in my garage floor shots even though I’m using the same settings… I’ll try redoing all of the pics tomorrow morning if I have time.

Edit 2: Reposting the image I accidentally deleted when making the last edit:

This looks to me like the tint of the Nichia has turned the concrete into a TCR that doesn’t exist. I mean that’s basically brown. As I suspected the OT’s TCR in the concrete’s case from watt you’re describing is clearly more accurate as viewed out of the shadows.

PS. The slight blue tint is not necessarily bad as sunlight/daylight itself has a blue cast. Said a different way, warmer lights have more of a yellow cast/tone to them, whereas a cooler light which equates to sunlight/daylight appears slightly more bluish. Yellowish tints tend to skew TCR negatively. That’s why essentially the OT 50L works as well as it does. It is a ‘cooler flash’. Both literally and figuratively. :laughing:

And why when it comes to TCR you should try one. :wink:

BTW, I have an old DSLR I haven’t used for probably 10 years. If you guys have any setting suggestions I could try to use that instead of my phone. If I have time and it’s not cloudy out sometime over the next few days I’ll redo the shots.

… and I was told taking pictures of prints is not the best idea. Guess it was about the limited colors, basically CMYK.

So, shooting e.g. flowers with AWB might give the most complete and accurate basis for a comparison.

If I remember, when I retake the shots I’ll bring down my old Brinkman incan and compare. I remember checking the AB w/Nichia 219C against the old Brinkmann and was surprised at the noticeable difference.

I’ll see what I can do. IIRC, most of the flowers on our property bloom in the beginning of the Spring, and it’s in the middle of summer now.

Worst of both worlds.
An individual set of eyeballs and a cellphone camera.
Both are horribly inaccurate.

This shows how little difference there is to the adapted eye on a limited set of colors:


Top is SST-20 4000K

Bottom is XP-L Hi slightly below 6000K (sorry for PWM)

As in your pictures, Scotty, the yellow is bad under low CRI light. The topmost image is closest to what I see on paper under sunlight.

OK, so I brought out my old Pentax DSLR, set to manual, and set the aperture and shutter speed. Bad pics and setup I know, but thought I’d post for others’ interest.

I’m not going to continue with this as I only picked up the lights for giveaways for fun or for nonflashlight family/friends that might need one, not to compare with other lights.

The OT is actually pretty good. I’m suprised how bad the incan looks, and the Nichia 219C isn’t the best but it’s what I have. I think my sensitivity to the blue is because my house is filled with cheapo WW LED light bulbs. This really becomes an issue for me when picking out paint colors, as the store’s flourescent lights, outside sunlight, and WW in the rooms means that the paint looks different in house than it does in the store, as well as if the sunlight comes in versus lamp light. Top pics are sunlight, bottom from left to right are: Brinkmann incan, AB w/Nichia 219C (4000 K), OT 50L.

thank you Scotty, those are some great photos for color comparison and to illustrate the variables involved. Thanks for taking the time to set this up and post it.

What color is the middle spool of thread on the left side in the sewing kit?

The far left, middle spool is a navy blue, and the bottom row, middle spool is black.

I thought I might as well add the first set of DSLR pics. The DSLR has a tiny LCD screen, so it’s hard to tell differences until I open the pics up on my computer. I had a slower shutter speed, and didn’t originally post them because the hot spot washed out the yarn a little. IIRC, the incan pic was me testing a faster shutter speed, so it doesn’t wash out as much… hence why I went back down, reset it up, and shot the second set posted earlier.

Again, from left ot right, incan, AB w/Nichia 219C (4000 K), and OT 50L:

…and the second setup posted earlier when I found that the yarn was washed out in the first:

The incan pictures give me riddles. Could some expert explain them? The zipper straps look ok, but the yarn colors are so much different from the other images.

Washed out ’cause of the brighter more concentrated hotspot, I’d imagine.

Maybe in addition to the hot spot washing it out, the sheen of the polyester thread and it’s texture might have an effect.

Scotty,
would you say that the pictures are an accurate representation (or not) of the details that you could see in person?

Short answer: For color representation it is similar to what I see.

Long answer: …I just double checked with the three lights to verify. I don’t think I have any other hobby that I would close myself in the closet for 5 minutes, nor walking inside and outside of my garage every 5 seconds for about 40 repetitions holding a sewing kit. That being said, the washed out pics give a decent representation on the color rendition I see in person.

However, the incan has good contrast but doesn’t show up as well on the pics. If I were to try to describe the difference from my eyeball, the incan has the yellowish tint, but the contrast between the colors is very good, although the blues are slightly darkened and matted. The AB TK18 w/Nichia seemed to have a minimal tint shift of the three and good contrast, and if I were to try to color match when going outside with what I saw inside the dark garage, I would choose the Nichia of the three. There is a slight hint of tint, although it is more noticeable when looking at the garage floor such as in the pics.

The Ozark Trail in comparison looks like I am looking at the sewing kit with a light blue tinted pair of glasses. The contrast is decreased, and the blueish yarn colors stay vibrant, while the other colors loose significant contrast in comparison to the other two lights.

In defense of the OT flashlight, I also did a quick in-closet comparison of it to a Streamlight Macrostream (50L) and a Fenix LD30 (30L), and the OT had better color representation and more contrast than either of them.

Edit: One other note, is that when I take the sunlight pics of the garage floor, it is not direct sunlight, but what creeps in the garage door.

Scotty321… Thank you for your effort. I laughed at your long answer. Very true about this hobby.
I made 15+ trips across the back yard to my garage with a light in each hand and one on my head.

What I have noticed about the OT50…

I notice a hit of blue. Greens some yellows.By itself my eyes adjust it out.
It makes white things look white.

Good output level. It will drop as battery depletes. Still usable at 1/4 output.
The finger lanyard is worth a $1.
Shoulders and chins very well. Okay in mouth.
Might be slippery with wet hands.
9A battery factor. Some hate. It has a place in my life.
See below for bottom line

If you need a light and its the only light you have, its AWESOME!!!