I’ve often mentioned the Nichia 219b’s remarkable ability to distinguish different colors & shades. For example, things I see on the trail: light grey vs dark grey vs brown of the barks, light green vs dark green of leaves, flowers. Every shade, every color stands out and makes me aware of how beautiful the trail is (Palos Verdes Nature Preserve).
I hope the following set of pictures from my front yard best capture this quality. It’s not the green tint of Olight’s XHP35 or Sofirn’s SST20 that I am trying to show (that we already know), it’s how that tint obliterates shades and throws a yellow-greenish blanket over everything. Note the pastel purple plant at left forefront of the picture that is captured so extremely well by the Nichia. Just looking at this front row of small plants make me realize what an offender my beloved Olight is with respect to accurate color rendition.
The flashlights are different from one another as far as being throwy or floody, and that’s why some pics are dark at the edge. Pics shot in RAW with fixed White Balance 5000k. T tried to set exposure such that central area is similar among the shots.
Thanks for sharing these pictures. To my eye, crops clearly show 219b’s rendering “details” better.
Would love to see more pictures like these comparing 219b/519a though
You’re welcome. LOL I was afraid someone is going to ask about the popular 519a. It was the one LED I didn’t do. 519a has sort of a golden glow and less magenta than other Nichia’s at same CCT. I agree it would be a very interesting comparison.
Will re-take pictures including 519a and E21a later when it’s dark (funny hobby, can’t do anything unless in the dark ) .
This set of picture shows 219b at its finest. In particular, the lavender color of the plant is reproduced the closest to how it looks in real life. 219b has extremely high R9 (strong red) CRI, so to me it’s no surprise that no other LED reproduces red, lavender, etc. quite like 219b. This is its unmatched quality.
The lavender plant lost its “pop” with 519a, OTOH the bark of the tree is more true to life with 519a than with 219b. I love 519a’s more golden-brown tint because it provides a break from 219b’s very strong magenta tint, such as the bark of the tree.
SST20 has a strong greenish yellow tone that I have not noticed until I do back to back comparison with Nichia. The magenta color of the plant nearly vanishes in this picture unfortunately. To compete with 219b, SST20 needs filter help IMO.
BTW there seems to be some “anniversary sale” that gives $7 off. If so the S21D light with Liitokala 5000 mAh battery is now ~$30. That’s about $10 less than what I paid since I bought Samsung battery. I’ve tested that Liitokala battery - no change in brightness vs my Samsung, and the capacity is close to 5000 mAh.
Thanks for clarification - yeah it does have min purchase requirement. Great for anyone who would like the trio of two S21D’s 219b & 519a and the M21B GT FC40. This amazing trio still costs less than 1 Olight Warrior (!).
I have not written about the M21B with GT FC40 yet but it’s a game changer also and also recommended without reservation .
BTW the Littokala battery included with the Convoy light tests great with my Opus and performs the same (same brightness, actually higher 5000 mAh capacity) as my Samsung 40.
Last time i bought over $100 in one order from a chinese seller, they decided to use DHL and declare a value over $20 . So $2 of taxes and $23 of fees . And you have to pay with a check true the mail . In Canada, it’s better to do small purchases .
Ouch. For US buyers: I did buy all 3 together and all I had to pay was 9.5% tax. Shipping was “AliExpress shipping” and was free.
Just a warning for potential buyers: Convoy packaging is at best err… “elemental.” I was actually mildly shocked at how minimalist it was. LOL I am exhausting my euphemism vocab. Don’t expect Olight box at this give away price .
Flashlight porn . I’m surprised how much I like antique brass, but keep in mind it’s very heavy.
The aux lights are pretty and fun. I bought too many lights at the same time & at this point the color coding helps me to remember which light has which CCT .
Up until recently my favorite walk light has been Olight M2R Pro Warrior. A comparison with Convoy’s Nichia 219b 4500k shows just how horribly greenish the M2R’s Cree XHP35 LED is. (Edge of Olight pic is dark because M2R is a throwy tactical light with bright hotspot, whereas Convoy is floody.)
How does Olight XHP35-HI 4900k handle the pastel leaves? Unfortunately this “errroneous” greenish tint once you see it, is very hard to un-see .
No offense, but are you kinda brand new to lights and/or ordering from China? I see your join date is very recent but for all we know you’ve been around for a decade.
I mean this is typical and there’s also some reason to it. Simon actually packages most items very well, even going to the extra small expense of using plastic lip balm snap-lid containers to send things like drivers and emitters and other little bits…it’s an extra step that you generally will never see from any other vendor (except perhaps Sofirn and some other suppliers that do glass lenses or delicate electronic parts). Simon has always been an enthusiast like us and wanted to bring higher quality at lower prices compared to other companies, which he has mostly excelled at over the years. The sparse packaging, lack of printed manuals, etc, is a way to simplify process and reduce costs so that the money you are paying is IN the light and materials rather than superfluous junk like most companies. He brought out the nice white gift boxes for the colored S2+ models some years back but that’s about as fancy as it’s gotten.
Noctigon/Emisar is the same way, for the same reasons. Sofirn does this to an extent although some of their models do have slick printed box packaging and whatnot (manuals, too)…they’re aimed at the larger market but blessedly cater to us enthusiasts as well.
If you’ve ever ordered from Banggood, Gearbest, Fasttech, and many many sellers on aliexpress…often you just hope that anything remotely able to be damaged makes it to you in one usable piece. An example…Banggood will ship drivers without any padding whatsoever (no bubbles, no foam, no box, no case…nothing but a ziploc)…and all that in a thin plastic overwrap bag (they do the same with flashlights, so if they are in a box it’ll likely be crushed in one or more places upon receipt). This is just kind of the norm for the big ball of snafu’d yarn that international china logistics and commerce are. It’s the companies that start to target the US market and/or greater retail outlets that put the money into “shelf packaging”, and we all pay for it…even more when they do that and begin perception pricing.
So it’s nice that folks like Simon and Hank and others keep it simple…imho. To me it’s only a niggle if I may want to gift an item…then I just get a little creative and make it fun for the recipient.
Good points. No offense taken. Needless to say (as reflected from the first two posts of this thread and the coming M21B GT-FC40 impression thread ) I am a huge fan of Simon’s and Hank’s work.
I’ve mentioned 519a 4500k has a more golden/yellow tint compared to 219b 4500k. Whereas 219b 4500k has negative Duv and therefore has a rosy/magenta tint, Duv of 519a is very very very slightly above BBL line, hence more yellow.
The crop below shows 519a to be outstanding with color rendering still (full pictures of these crops are on page 1 for anyone interested). In actual use (vs pictures), it’s interesting to note that the magenta character of Nichia 4500k LEDs (219b, E21a, 519a) is still noticeable with 519a despite of its more yellow tint, just less so.
Also in actual use, scenes under 219b sw45k’s beam seem to have more depth/layers and objects (flowers against leaves etc.) seem to be more distinct from each other. I hope some of that characteristic is reflected in this picture (compare the lavender plant).
519a numbers are top-notch: Ra 93.6, R9 82, R12 80. I think it’s the more positive DUV that gives the more golden tone versus 219b. I actually like the golden tint with a touch of magenta of 519a very much. Too much magenta like 219b sometimes gets to be… too much .
R9 for the Convoy M21B 219b sw45k is an eye popping 97. That Nichia 219b LED is legendary for a reason. R9 is “difficult” to achieve and anything above 50 is already considered very good, and anything above 80 is top of the class (why R9080 is considered best there is).
For those new to this like me: 2 factors determine beam color: CCT and Duv. Above picture of Nichia 219b and 519a shows how a more positive DUV of 519a gives a more yellowish tint. And a more negative DUV of 219b gives a more rosy/magenta tint.
Below is a comparison with the very popular SST20 4000k in Sofirn IF25a - showing lower CCT’s effect on color, making it more yellowish (and a little greenish). No right or wrong, just different; like the different colors of different light bulbs. Maybe later it would be interesting to compare this SST20 4000k with Nichia 219b 3500k , one of my very favorites because it has yellow tone without the green tint.
But for sure no LED I’ve seen so far could render those lavender leaves like Nichia 219b 4500k. Its spectacular numbers explain this ability: Ra 96, R9 97, R12 79 (holy cow ), Duv –0.0095. As always anyone pls correct me as needed if I make an error.
Thanks Jon - you’ve piqued my curiosity with your posts, leading to these crop comparisons.
On page 1, I had a picture of my living room of Nichia 219b 4500k vs E21a 4500k, showing the two LED’s are for all practical purposes identical. The only difference being E21a is always dimmer than 219b during a run-down from Turbo. I jacked up the thermal limit of the E21a to 60 C, and it’s still dimmer.
Now here’s the lavender crop, showing PERFECT rendition of the lavender plant. The colors are so close I had to go back and forth several times to make sure I didn’t just post the same picture, proving again the only thing that could look like a Nichia, is another Nichia. Albeit NOT as bright. At any rate, unless there is some other reason I don’t know about, IMHO E21a is one I would bypass on if I already have 219b.
my beloved Olight is with respect to accurate color rendition.
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. I’m surprised how much I like antique brass, but keep in mind it’s very heavy.
