I think some leds have 2700K with 95 cri, but I couldn’t find a 95 cri for 2000K Led. One of you said 2700K E21A R9080 has about the nicest tint thanks to that high R9, is that the lowest?
Anyone knows what’s the limit for high cri? Also I also wonder whats the upper limit as well. 5000K has high cri but is there a 6000K+?
Dunno about 95 but i have a Luxeon MZ which is 5700K HCRI, KaiDomain have a 5700K HCRI XHP70.3 , the Wurkkos TS10 comes with 6000K HCRI LEDs, you can get Nichia Optisolis and Toshiba-Seoul Sunlike LEDs in 6500K HCRI flavour but they’re not flashlight friendly.
In fact i think the E17A and E21A come in 6500K R9080 flavour too, and i think i have HCRI 2000K E21A LEDs in a D4V2.
So maybe look at E21As for an answer 
I built a Convoy S2+ Triple with Nichia 219b 2700k and using my Opple Lightmaster 3 Pro it shows 97.5 CRI. I don’t have anything warmer than that yet to try.
I know nichia builds the e17 LED down to 1800k. Haven’t heard of anything lower than that.
CRI isn’t for lower Kelvin right?
Yesterday I was looking at some Eagtacs and noticed that some are now listed with available “Luminus SST-20 R9 CRI-95 2700K”, as well as the 4000K ones I have in some of my lights (and like). Nothing warmer though, so just another option to the E21A specs you mentioned. I would think the market would be rather limited for anything warmer, but then again, I’m often wrong!
1 Kelvin maybe? lol
Basically a glowing hot piece of metal, like a Tungsten filament in an incandescent light bulb is more or less the standard and is always CRI 100, so i guess at some point there will only remain deep, near infra red that still can be seen with the naked eye.
I don’t know how much it matters at that low of a temp because at that point it’s so yellow that color rendition by the human eye is affected (what sensors can measure and report isn’t always what we make out by eye once we stray too far either direction from neutral). That said, I don’t have any 2000K-ish emitters to play with there…if there are standard or low CRI options it might be neat to compare them with a high-ish CRI version.
Opple generally reads too high on CRI and that error is magnified the warmer the temperature is…I’ve seen that on both of mine and other people reported the same in various comments/threads. Mine also consistently read low on temperature (one is within stated spec/error and the other is considerably further off)….between those two ranges of error in important light qualities it’s hard to get more than a middling feeling for accuracy (and forget about DUV imho…junk data).
On the high end of temperature I have been super impressed with the 6000K Latticepower emitters in the TS10. First ones I have ever seen that white and actually have a nice neutral tint with no blue or purple and excellent color rendition (at low current it does lean just a tad green maybe but not “green”). Not sure how much the optic helps with all of that compared to bare emitters but it really is nice. Most emitters in the 6000+ range don’t have great CRI even with balanced beams and decent tint bins. The less phosphor on the package to convert from natural-blue, the closer to blue it becomes. Phosphor mixes and application seems to be a little of a magic art and it’s impressive what they’ve been able to achieve so far, once companies started putting some effort into it. Cold white is still very much preferred and used by most companies (and probably the majority of end users until they discover better LED quality), and lately there has been a lot of emphasis on “eye health” with lighting products (meaning better CRI and more neutral temperatures), so maybe we’ll yet see even better quality light from emitters in the colder temp range.
You can see in bobvoe’s post it ends up in deep red the lower in Kelvin you go.
2000K is getting quite orangey rather than yellow.
1800 or 2000k is basically a yellow light, how are you supposed to see true colors in a yellow light?
i replaced halogen bulbs in a bathroom fixture with 2700k 90+ cri xml2, (i left original housing but completely redone internals) the light they make looks identical to halogen i had before.
Yes…I said yellow but you’re correct. Where I’m from “red” and “yellow” get applied and misapplied to all kinds of things - makes one lazy once you get used to it. The sensor in the Opple just is not capable of good data and accuracy so everything is a big grain of salt even when trying to standardize things better. I can’t remember who said this but someone on here recently called it the guess-o-meter, which got a chuckle out of me but also isn’t far from the truth. It’s ok for what it was intended for but imho it’s not a good flashlight tool. Only thing it has going for it is that it’s cheap. They’ve talked about an upgraded Gen 4 version in the near future but we’ll see what they come up with. I think without significant component expense and the complementary development of the electronics and the software, they just can’t make something a whole lot better for the price range. If someone could do a $100 or $150 with reasonable qualities I think that would be fantastic but I don’t know if anyone can do that. But for rough temp and cri and open room lux, it’s ok…best for basic room and lighting design, and the flicker feature added on the “pro” version is handy for office environments where they care about that or have to address it because of safety regulations or insurance.
I believe the 6500K Nichia Optisolis is still the king of the highest CRI that you can get from an LED. I have a triple in an S2+ and it’s pretty amazing.
Last I checked, the lowest high CRI product(>=70CRI) is a Nichia 1800k 219F.
I had no idea this was the case, its probably why I love old incandescent bulbs in movies.
Thanks for the answers, I think 2000K and below is too orange and low in cri, so the best option seems to be E21A at 2700K.
I thought SST20 had lower cri than E21A, is that an upgraded one?
Although E21A is rated 90CRI, they are generally 97+. SST20 is rated 95; it's usually around 95 and sometimes lower. In general E21A still has higher CRI than SST20, and they ALWAYS have better tint than SST20.
No.
Plus e21a has more angle tint shift and this is very bad.
And sst20 can take more current.
.
“Candle: 1700k 100 CRI
Incandescent: 2700k 100 CRI”
You should be very happy with that! :+1:
If I had to choose between 2700K or lower for a flashlight, it would be 2700K for sure. I like my variety of high CRI flashlights, but my preference is between 2700K and 4000K.
Ah, I should have clarified: I meant integrated tint, e.g., through a frosted optic. If one wants an LED that can take more current AND has better tint+CRI than SST20, just go 519A.
With 300K and 1CRI difference, to your eye which is more visually pleasing? Is there visually even any difference?
I assume with such warm CCT, the lower duv of the 519a is preferable?