It looks nice so far. I hope we can do the two-tint idea though, with ~3000K and ~5000K emitters and 4×7135 or 5×7135 per channel. It’d be cool to be able to change the temperature.

Thanks to DBSAR for the updates and BlueSwordM for the LEDs!

BlueSwordM wrote:

I hope Thorfire will pick 3500-4000k LH351Ds. Then we will have a winner, and the best lantern to have ever existed.

Having a winner means also that there are some left behind.

DBSAR wrote:

The best tint range for lantern use i found to be between the 2700K to 3500K warmer white range, (Warmer whites are much less “glarey” on the eyes, have much better CRI than the cold whites, and as tested by independent university lab studies warmer colored light to amber light can reduce eye fatigue, & oddly reduce stress & hypertension during longer exposures (as lanterns run continuously as the main ambient light.)

face it, as humans we lived for thousands of years lit by warm, amber colored fire, lamps, and the sun, not by blueish light from fluorescent or cold white LEDs. (as in the fact that the blueish, gloomy, gray light from cloudy days, & mercury vapor glarey street lighting can be depressing, while the warmer light from the sun does the opposite.

I will start with a XM-L 6C tint, (3500K warm white) and may switch it over to a 7D4 tint later for testing, (close to 2700K incandescent) Others may prefer neutral tints, & i do have some lanterns with 4000K & 4500K tints, but from experience the most preferred tint range from people that seen my lanterns in use at night seem to prefer the warmer tints.

I would prefer 3000k emitters, but I haven’t found a supplier for them to actually test a 3000k LH351D 90CRI.

The only lead we have are the 3000k LH351B 90CRI, but they aren’t nearly as efficient as 351Ds.

In my opinion 85CRI isn’t bad. But 90CRI would be more nice.

Hot damn, two more please! ~3000K would be awesome. Two-tint would be even better. But the way this is shaping up, it’s gonna be unbelievable no matter what. I can’t wait to use them and to gift them. A thousand thanks!

candor wrote:

Hot damn, two more please! ~3000K would be awesome. Two-tint would be even better. But the way this is shaping up, it’s gonna be unbelievable no matter what. I can’t wait to use them and to gift them. A thousand thanks!

Sign me up for it! Thanks for another wonderful BLF product

R10500 wrote:

Sign me up for it! Thanks for another wonderful BLF product

done, you are number 799 on the interest list

interest list sorted by entry number

interest list sorted by user names

DBSAR wrote:

ToyKeeper wrote:

It looks nice so far. I hope we can do the two-tint idea though, with ~3000K and ~5000K emitters and 4×7135 or 5×7135 per channel. It’d be cool to be able to change the temperature.

Same thought too. Would be a great option to have changeable tint, (from 2700K up to 4000K maybe) Though right now its out of my abilities to design a driver & modes to work with that set up, will need your expertise to help develop that

It’s pretty easy, really a trivial change compared to the Q8 driver. Instead of 3+1 chips, it’s 4+4. And I think I can add support to the firmware relatively easily too.

It’d be fine to use 2700K on the warm end, or maybe even 2200K if you can get it… but I’d suggest making the cool end 5000K instead of 4000K, because even 4000K is warmer than some of us want. With the ability to blend to whatever temperature the user wants, I doubt there’s much reason to make the range narrow. They can set their light to 2700K, or 3000K, or 3500/4000/4500/5000K, as desired.

The shots in camp look great. I am excited for 3000K and 90CRI. I hope these make the cut.

My order of priority: ( I know, my opinion matters 0.0001% and we all know I will buy this thing even if everything is the opposite of this list.)
1. High CRI
2. High CRI
3. 3000K perfect. 4000K OK
4. Shield/Reflector – adjustable or removable
5. USB charging/Power bank
6. Efficiency
7. Dual tint – solves #3, but warm is simply my goal.

I would only be using this on high for minutes at a time and medium to low settings mostly. Efficiency of the LED to me is a far lower priority than high CRI. I would rather carry spare batteries that I probably still wouldn’t need in trade for the pleasantness of 90+CRI lighting. It only takes 20 seconds to swap 4 batteries. I cant swap LED’s easily and I certainly can’t replace the missing color from memories and photos I plan to gain over years while using this lantern..

My brother in law used to yawn when I would tell him about high CRI while shining them around the back yard. Then it happened. We were cooking steaks over the fire and he was using his cool white and probably very low CRI light he loved sooo much. Even on the highest setting while blinding us all, he couldn’t even tell if his steak was seared on the outside let alone see if it was red, pink or other in the middle. I busted out the 219C and he was instantly enlightened. On any setting, our meals went from grey and lifeless to colorful and appetizing with the click of a switch. He wanted to know where to buy the flashlight. Having perfectly seared medium rare ribeyes instead of burnt hockey pucks was a nice side effect as well!

Using low CRI light to find an item in the dark for a few minutes is one thing. Hanging with friends, taking photos, cooking and eating under it all night long is another.

Interested.  Light is starting to look really good now.

It would be pretty neat if with a dual tint set-up the colour temperature is changed during ramping, according to Kruithof’s theory, but of course it will be more versatile and very easy to operate if at any brightness setting the tint can simply be adjusted (a tint ramp?). I’m really liking this and it will make the lantern even more unique!

Edit: I think a tint ramp is so suiting for this BLF lantern that it may even deserve a dedicated button.

I am interested

klrman wrote:

Interested.  Light is starting to look really good now.

Aleister wrote:

I am interested

DBSAR wrote:

We are looking to see if Thorfire can offer the lantern in at least two tint ranges, ( 3000K & 4000K) or develop the dual tint set up as Toykeeper as mentioned above.

I know I’m going to regret it if I only buy one. Can you put me down for another one please?

Thank you! The pictures from the campsite look incredible.

I am 256 chinooker on the list.
Please add 1 more for me.

Please add two more for me as well. Thanks!

djozz wrote:

a tint ramp?

I was thinking it would use a regular brightness ramp, but there would be an additional factor to set the tint blend. Probably an 8-bit blend value, so 256 steps of color control. If the brightness was set to, perhaps, PWM=100/255, the tint value would determine how much of that 100 goes on the warm channel vs how much goes on the cool channel. So, for example…

• Tint=0 would be entirely warm (100/0), 3000K.
• Tint=255 would be entirely cool (0/100), 5000K.
• Tint=128 would be 50/50, 4000K.
• Tint=83 would be 68/32, ~3640K.

It would take perhaps 4 seconds to change tint from one end to the other.

The easiest way to add it would be to map tint change to “click, click, hold” since that’s not really used yet, so it would work during pretty much any mode — anything except “off”, lockout, and momentary, IIRC. And perhaps it could also have an automatic mode where tint is determined by brightness, like maybe if tint=0, it would be automatic.

The lantern’s design unfortunately makes thermal regulation not work, since the sensor (tiny85 built-in) is thermally isolated from the emitters. However, this should provide extra room to add other features… like tint ramping.

I think Tint=255 should equal 4000k, and not 5000k.

I would personally a ramp between 3000k to 4000k.

BlueSwordM wrote:

I think Tint=255 should equal 4000k, and not 5000k.

I would personally a ramp between 3000k to 4000k.

This looks too good to pass up!
Please put me on the list for two.

I’d prefer something in the 3000k to 4000k.
Two LH351D 3000k 90CRI emitters and two LH351D 4000k 90CRI emitters with tint adjust/ramping seems perfect to me!

FB

^ that would be a nice implementation, TK!

AgentWhiteBread wrote:

I know I’m going to regret it if I only buy one. Can you put me down for another one please?

chinooker wrote:

I am 256 chinooker on the list.
Please add 1 more for me.

O26Rcr wrote:

Please add two more for me as well. Thanks!

FBsLights wrote:

This looks too good to pass up!
Please put me on the list for two.

There is a definite correlation between posting updated prototype pictures and people expressing a desire for this lantern.

interest list sorted by entry number

interest list sorted by user names

djozz wrote:

BlueSwordM wrote:

I think Tint=255 should equal 4000k, and not 5000k.

I would personally a ramp between 3000k to 4000k.

If the tint goes from 2700K to 5000K, more people and more situations will have their favorite tint, with 254 tints in between there are also more than enough tints between 3000 and 4000K.