I always thought that cool white was the tint for me. My XinTD C8, TN30, TN31, UF-T20 build and others have all been in the range of 1C tint. I thought I liked that really intense white light. However, when I first did a build with an MT-G2 I was blown away by how nice the tint looked and knew at that point neutral white was for me.
I then bought an SX25L3 to replace that original MT-G2 build which I gave away and the tint is just as nice. So for the build I just completed which is just a Convoy S2 host I gave an XM-L2 T6 3C emitter a try. Wow, what an awesome tint, its soo close to the MT-G2 colour and it makes me wish all of my lights were neutral white!
So, how many of you have started with the cool white emitters and then “saw the light” of the neutrals?
The tint is nice, but…It kinda reminds me of incan a little. The blue-white just feels…modern. And any slight of yellow in the light just makes it feel…retro, the bad kind of retro.
I totally see your point and I’m sure I will still buy some cool white lights in the future still. They certainly have a more “modern” look as you put it. I find however that the colours of what I am shining the light on are far closer to what they look like in daylight with the neutral emitters.
Started with 2-3 CW lights. Then WW, then NW. I got into tints early. Even from the start without having used NW or WW I saw the limitations of CW, harshness, washed out colors... Since then I have basically used all the various NW and WW tints out there. Im familiar with the various CW tints as well, but normally not a big fan.. I will not say I have a favorite tint, it all depends on the use... But there are certainly many nice ones out there..
Marked with green line are some of the official tints I have been using just to give you a little taste of what is out there..
I would recommend you to try the following:
5B1 or 5D2 or both in the 80+ CRI version
6A3 80+ CRI if you are able to come across it
7A3 80+ CRI
The typical Nichia 219, and the WW Nichia 119 are must try emitters too.... You might want to try some other "4" or "3" tints too...
Once you are familiar with some tints, next step is tint mixing, assuming you are into multi emitter lights.
Your journey have just started! Chances are high you will find emitters that you like better than the 3C...
Check the BLF database, (see my signature) if you want to easily find various emitters at good prices.
Usually cool whites have quite weak CRI, around 65, more or less as the word Typical implies, then neutrals come at 75 typical. There are companies that make 5300-5600K LEDs with 85CRI minimum !, I am really curious about those because they close to cool and true daylight and yet do not have the bad CRI which cool LEDs have.
I'm in a constant struggle of 1-5 as listed by CarpentryHero, so I go up/down the list struggling all the time... Just mod'ed a couple of UF S3's that came with a XP-E R2 which is this awful blue tint - upgraded 2 to XM-L2 U2 1A's with 30 deg and 45 deg optics, and wow - even 1A's look warm compared to the stock light - colors are snapping, so it's all relative -- still love the 3C and warm mods lights I got though.
