High CRI leds, comparing R9 values, XP-G3 N219c N218b XM-L2 XP-L2

LED Flashlights – General Info
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collected images from maukka, showing that 219b beats 219c and XP-G3 and XM-L2 and XP-L2, in red rendering. Focus on the height of the Red Bar (R9)

And a couple Zebras… you can see they are very low in R9, which imo is the reason there is so much “tint lottery”. Its not really lottery, its just that the High CRI Zebras have very low R9… Not a lot of red, so the green and yellow dominate their tint.

References:
links to maukkas original spectrum charts that are the source of the images I cut and pasted.
Any errors, omissions, and misinterpretations of the original images, are my own:
Olight S1 Mini Baton CW+HCRI review with measurements (XM-L2/XP-G3, 16340) | BudgetLightForum.com
Lumintop Tool AAA Copper + Titanium measurements (Nichia 219B) | BudgetLightForum.com
Zebralight SC5Fc measurements (AA, warm tint) | BudgetLightForum.com
219c 4000k 9050 chart by maukka from Clemence LEDs at Virence
219b 4500k 9080 chart by maukka from Clemence LEDs at Virence

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I have a Convoy s2 with triple Nichia 4500k R9090, colour tint is amazing

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Very nice!
I have the same LED in my pocket
In the middle, on right is sw45 9080 :slight_smile:

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1. 400Lm led vs 800-1200Lm leds
2. 5 years old led vs modern leds
3. Looking only at R9 is not good idea. Even one point at 2-axis tint graph have more correlation with real feelings.
4. You are not right, this is tint lottery. Each cree led is different, and this range is too big. I wont wonder if Zebralight orders reels with “tint package” (named like E2-E5).
5. Zebralight work with cree many years. Better color rendering is not enough to leave this business relations and choose another vendor that may be worth in all other aspects

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Interesting to see how saturated blue (R12) “sucks” in all of them, too. Likely because of the “cyan dip”.

Cheers :-)

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based on the above comparisons of High CRI LEDs, my observations are:
Lights with lower R9 have a larger proportion of yellow and green than red.

The N219b has more R9 than newer LEDs such as the XP-G3 and N219c.

Brighter LEDs have less R9 and more R10 and R11.

The XP-G3 and 219c are brighter and greener than the 219b.

Zebras have very low R9 and are know for having yellow and green tint.

Zebras are brighter and greener than N219b lights.

The N219c is brighter and greener than N219b.

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A R9-value of 40-60 is not bad, it’s much, much better than 95% of standard LED flashlights (most have a negative R9-value). Cree LEDs have a tint problem, not CRI.

Of course the R9080 LEDs from Nichia look better, but part of the reason is their better tint. They are either on the BBL or below it. Tint is much more strongly perceived than small parts of the spectrum.

The best ones are probably the Nichia E21As with R9080. They don’t have a dome which improves angular tint consistency.

Osram also has “R9080” LEDs (declared as CRI95), but the ones with 4000K and above have a yellow tint. So they look much worse than some of the Nichias.

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Heard this before but, how is a negative value possible? Suffice to say I do not understand how the CRI colour scores work, of course, but to me a 0 is a 0 which would mean no emission in these frequencies.

Cheers :-)

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It becomes obvious when you check out here how the individual Ri values are actually calculated (specifically Step 9).

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now i understand why i love 219b so much, even more than 219c

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SBT70 5700k HiCRI

219C R9050 5700k

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Thank you!
Finally someone has measured the SBT-70 high-cri!

I own a light with this LED. It’s as good as the R9080 Nichias, but of course way brighter, but also way more inefficient.

Luminus states an R9 of 85 for the square version of this LED (CBT-90).

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Thank you, I agree Tint, CRI, and Color Temperature are all independent variables.
Also agree that Low CRI LEDs have Negative R9, which may help explain why they make red things look brown, and the palm of my hand look lifeless.

Specific to the High CRI charts I posted, it is coincidentally also true that the lights with the lowest R9 happen to also have the Greenest tint (above the BBL), and the lights with the highest R9 happen to also have the most Rosy tint (below the BBL).

Here is a Low CRI light, courtesy of maukka, with Negative R9, that happens NOT to have Green tint, in fact it lands perfectly on the BBL.

But this is a Low CRI LED, that makes Red things look Brown, and I did not make this thread to talk about them. The point of this thread was specifically to compare the R9 values of some common and popular High CRI LEDs.

I did not expect to discover that the High CRI LEDs Zebralight uses happen to have some of the lowest R9 of the group, but of course Zebras are focused on Brightness, not CRI. Most of the flashlight market is brightness driven, and Low CRI is common in the majority of offerings. So is Green tint. It seems to me that the N219b is one of the few offerings that tends to avoid Green tint, but not always.

Im such a snob about tint, that I find N219b is a personal favorite, particularly the 9080 versions.

thanks for adding to my knowledge. Will SBT70 work in an S Mini (w XM-L2 Tir)?:slight_smile:
And can you share a link to where you found those charts please?

Here is another group of R9 comparisons, for some of the 219c 2700k, 3000k, 3500k, qnd 4000k offerings from Clemence

These all happen to have more yellow/green tint than the N219b I posted earlier, and coincidentally the 219c also have R9 bars that are shorter than the two 219b in the first post.

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Staticx57 probably measured that himself. I have never seen a measurement other than the one in the datasheet (it includes a simple spectrum, looks the same as here).

This LED is not produced anymore though and was hideously expensive (50$ when not on sale) and inefficient.

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So what’s the best high CRI, high R9 LED that you can buy today? I hate to ask since it may tempt me to build another flashlight, but if there’s another LED that’s significantly better than the Nichia 219C D240 on 20mm MTN DTP CU - 90+ CRI 4000K, I’m certainly interested.

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People in this group buy thread bought up the grail N219b LEDs such as the sw45 9080, maybe ask for help there

this chart originally by maukka shows and example set of 219C that he tested.

They are available here

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Unless you run across any 219C Deviants, your best bet, as Jon stated, would be to go with 219b 9080 (sw40 and sw45) LEDs from the group buy, since they have a pedigree.

Currently available:
Maukka showed the 219c sm303 9050s from Clemence as coming closer to the ANSI BBL than the 4k and 3.5k
(sm403 and sm353).
You can always get lucky with 5 and 7 step Nichias when hunting for R9, as Jon can attest.
Lower luminance rated leds (D200 and D220) are normally a better choice for red/rosey in the 4k and under range.
As mentioned, it boils down to personal taste, with many insisting the lower CRI 219c sm505 with higher luminous flux appear to have more red in their tint than the sm503 9050, therefore YMMV…….Remembering a reflector can make a great difference, along with the level an LED is driven.

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A reddish tint does not mean that the R9-value is high!

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Certainly not for a technophile….however, do you have a better ‘experiential’ manner of elucidation for a layman?

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Interesting presumption to say the least, regarding somebody offering information?