Every once in a while, I go looking for high CRI or warm tint lights. I stumbled upon these and never heard of them. Does anyone have experience with any of these Pelican Correct Color lights?
I’d be especially interested to know:
1. Are they any good?
2. What is the color temperature? How is the tint?
Okay. The suspense was killing me. I got the 3410CC to try it out. The basic 3310CC is more in my wheel house but the 3410 has all the bells and whistles for around $40 and I was feeling skeptical. So far, I’m pleasantly surprised!
This flashlight is extremely versatile. It has ten modes between two LEDs. It has H-M-L in spot, flood, or both; and a blinking mode in spot only. The blinking mode is not part of the main rotation, which I think is good for most people. The UI could be a little daunting because everything is controlled from one button. This can be an issue with any multi-mode flashlight running a ton of modes but here especially, I wish there was a second switch or button to simplify changing modes versus changing LEDs. Given that this is more a utility flashlight as opposed to an EDC or tactical light, that becomes less of an issue. On the other hand, that also makes me wish that the rotation started low instead of high.
As a utility light, the 3410CC is awesome. It glows in the dark. It can stand on head or tail. The head can be rotated ninety degrees or a bunch of places in between. It has a spring clip for carrying around. It has a key ring at the top of the clip near the head. It has a lanyard that can be attached near the tail. (The lanyard bead is shaped so that it can be used as a tool to help open the battery compartment.) The clip has a magnet that sticks very well to appropriate metal surfaces. This means that it can be hung or mounted in all sorts of places and can provide different kinds of lighting for extended project use. Then it can just as easily go on a walk through the woods at night.
Speaking of light and the woods, this flashlight is a rock star! It’s 2700K and 90+ CRI according to the manufacturer. I believe it. The diverse greens, tree barks, etc. of the forest really pop! This helps the spot reach out into the woods a little too.
Shining spot mode against a white wall, there is some color variation in the beam pattern. I thought that was a flaw at first but the more I used this light, it helped provoke nostalgia for the variance of incandescent bulbs. I didn’t notice it in a woodland setting but I’m wondering if it made a background contribution to the liveliness of the visual picture.
This looks like its going to be an excellent general purpose flashlight. There’s just so much that it can do. There might be other flashlights that do specific things better but this is probably the most versatile flashlight I’ve seen IRL. It should excel as project lighting. For “normal people” who don’t collect flashlights, this could be a great primary flashlight for around the house, at camp, a garage, a workshop, etc. (In that role, this could be a stellar gift idea.)
That said, this definitely isn’t an EDC light. For a regular walk at night, I’m still going to reach for a more straightforward flashlight with a simpler UI. Based on my positive experiences here, I think the 3310CC might be a contender for that.
So it’s probably an XPG3? Can you get a macro shot of the LED?
Those definitely look like Cree flip-chips to me.
Yup. Shame.
Forgive me for not knowing but what is a “flip-chip” and why is that bad?
If you’re happy with it, that’s awesome! Don’t read any further.
Unfortunately that LED tends to have a lot of tint shift - I’ve seen if described as ‘looking like a bruise’. There’s noticeable changes in tint from the center to the edge of the beam. Again, if you don’t notice it, no harm done - but I find it unpleasant.
One nice thing about the XP-G3 is it’s very efficient. Since a lot of people are probably running these lights on alkaline that’s a big positive for them.
Thanks for clearing that up. I actually discussed the tint variance in my initial review. As with any LED, this kind of thing is most noticeable against a white wall. The camera on my phone is junk but I can try capturing some beam shots this weekend.
Looking at the “Spot” LED, the overall tint seems correct and is fairly consistent in both the spot and spill portion of the beam picture. The tint variance is most noticeable in the corona around the spot. My eyes aren’t great but that corona has a noticeable pattern with some more orange sections and some more pinkish sections. It’s really not a big deal. As I opined above, it evoked a strange nostalgia and looked great on stuff like summer foliage at night.
The “Flood” LED is different. The overall picture on a white wall is cloudier with mixed shades of yellow to orange. It patterns a bit like some incandescent bulbs I had back in the day. That more pinkish color is harder to detect but if I hold it at the right distance, it shows up in a diffuse ring not unlike the corona effect on the “Spot” LED. Using both LEDs together balances the variation and reinforces a good average.
Again, this is something you can look at on white walls. The overall effect on normal things is a pleasant light with overall warmer tint and decent color rendition. Let’s also remember that this is a relatively inexpensive flashlight that can legitimately serve in a ton of roles. The efficiency is good for the amount of light it produces. Being able to use alkalines adds to the versatility though I’ve been using this one exclusively on Eneloop Pros. Is there another flashlight like this available in warm tint or with higher CRI?
After seeing this thread, I bought a 3410CC to try out. I was using it for a few hours and those 2700k high CRI emitters are pretty nice for rendering colors. But there is pretty bad tint shift because they are XP-G3s, it even makes the throwy beam look like it’s cooler than the flood beam and the spot has some pretty weird colors in it. I think it would be better with some of those 2700k SST-20s so I’ll try to mod it but I’m not sure I will be able to do it.
I’m excited to see what kind of results you get. I stuck mine on the fridge because of the magnet. As a result, I’ve been getting a fair amount of use with it. I’d love to see some variations on the theme. I’m hoping to try out the headlamp this weekend. It will be interesting to compare them.