Since this is Budget forum… so which ready made flashlight is the cheapest with the highest CRI?
Would an L3 Illumination L10 Nichia 219 be good? Currently out of stock though…
Well the cheapest is sunlight… CRI 100 
hmm probably 90 and above?
The cheapest flashlight would be one of those 2xAA incandescent jobs from the dollar store. They’re 100 CRI too! :bigsmile:
The L10 Nichia is probably the cheapest high CRI LED flashlight when in stock.
EDCPlus has a few limited run Xeno’s with Nichia that are reasonably priced also.
The L10 nichia is an excellent choice.
There was a cheap warm white p60 wf-501b on DX, not sure about current stock. I think it was an MC-E emitter. Don’t know the CRI but it’s warm so it has to be decent. Of course the host is not the best and has thermal issues…. so be aware of that.
An incandescent mini-Maglite is probably the cheapest high-CRI light of decent quality out there...it's just not very bright.
As far as LED lights go, the L10 (as you mentioned) is likely the cheapest.
And the beam is awful. It was on mine, anyway.
Incandescent bulb . ( overdriven Halogen MagLite )
High CRI ? check
Nice beam profile ? um ...
The beam on some P60 Xenon’s aren’t that bad. But yeah, most incan beams don’t look so great.
I went the DIY route (of course) and put a Nichia 219 in the UF 602C host from FT. Host was $4.35, emitter $4, Driver $3. Grand total: just under $12.
Uh… that’s really awful beam profile 
I have the old (no longer available) Warm-White Single-Mode XR-E drop-in from Manafont. I don't have any CRI numbers on it, but colors are much brighter when this light is used as compared to a typical cool-white emitter. This particular module does a very good job (at least to my eyes) of emulating the tint an incandescent light, although brighter/cleaner. I use this light when grilling outside after dark as I can more accurately tell the color of the meat I am cooking than with a cooler light.
I also used this 7C tint emitter...
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1136801
...to build my own drop-in and I still vastly prefer XR-E. I'm not sure if there is a difference in CRI, it may just be that I prefer the tighter beam profile of the XR-E over the XM-L. The XR-E gives you the typical hotspot which makes it look more like an old-school incandescent than the floody XM-L...
Manafont still has the 3-mode version of the warm-white drop-in available but I'm not sure how it compares to my single mode version:
...as well as a warm-white XR-E emitter available:
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/warm-white-led-flashlight-emitter-p-9097
Pictures of the emitter show a small base, but the review posted says the reviewer got a standard 16mm base so no telling what you will get.
Also, Warm-White MC-E here!
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/cree-mce-warm-white-led-flashlight-emitter-p-9096
No idea how that one would perform...
I’m actually thinking about buying http://www.fasttech.com/products/1605/10000595/1056903 for my 2*18650 fake L2 just for the lulz
I thought the same thing, and have several of these, but they aren't that great... Very "meh" after the joys of LED...
Go to fasttech, and buy their warm white NIchia 119.. put it on a star, and find a cheap host with driver, and off you go.. ! (it needs a little work, but cheaper is almost impossible for hicri leds)
edit: be careful with adding the 119 to a normal cree star, because it has only 2 metal parts underneath, and not 3 like the Nichia 219s. so you need to be careful soldering them to the board
think I would take the MCE over the XRE myself
I missed this one: Here's a Warm-White XR-E at FastTech for a much better price ($4.83) than anything else I've seen:
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1605/10000594/1056900
Problem with the description though: picture and description shows warm white but "Details" info shows "high powered IR"...
Just keep in mind that warm white does not automatically equate to high-CRI. While a higher CRI rating than a CW emitter, usually it just means a yellow/orange light. I'd hang tight for the L10 Nichia to come back in stock or just convert your own like I just did with my Thrunite T10.
This is true. Nichia 219 high CRI has very accurate [neutral] color rendition.
Many warm whites may have decent CRI, but tend to distort things yellow-orange slightly. This can actually make some colors more vivid and “pop” more than with the neutral 219 (yellows, reds), but it will also distort some colors slightly (blues).
CRI can get very complex once you start getting into blackbody radiation and all that. In general, most people are actually used to warm white whether they realize it or not. It is naturally what our eyes are used to. Up until very recently in human history artificial light was all warm (fire).
That said, not all warms have excellent CRI. It comes down to specific tint and hue… But CRI and cool white are pretty mutually-exclusive.
this might help:
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
In this installment of EagleLight’s LED University we will discuss CRI or the color rendering index.
LED CRI Defined
The Color Rendering Index (CRI) is the relative ability of a light source to replicate colors generated by a reference light source of the same color temperature. It is measured as a number between 0 and 100.
LED CRI Explained
This is often used to compare a light source ability to replicate the sun. In this case the sun is the reference light source. In layman’s terms a CRI of 80 means that the LED light bulb is replicating 80% of the visible color spectrum that the sun would produce at the same color temperature. A CRI of 100, taken at a color temperature of noon day sunlight will exactly reproduce the colors found on a sunny day at noon. A CRI of 50 taken at noon day sun will partially reproduce the colors when compared to that of a normal noon day.
If you have ever watched a sunset you will notice how the colors change from a purer white to more yellow and red. This color change is typical of the changes in color temperature from higher numbers to lower numbers. If the reference light source used for CRI is at noon day sun a 100% CRI will result in a whiter light, if the reference source used is at sun set, at 100%CRI wil result in a light with more yellow and red. If you were to measure the light of sunset to a reference of noon day sun, the sunset light would only produce a CRI of 60% or less: less than 60% of the light spectrum of noon day light is present in the light of a sunset, hence the shift to more yellows and reds.
Examples of Color Temperature and CRI
Light, Temp, CRI
Candle, 1700k, 100 CRI
High Pressure Sodium, 2100k, 25 CRI
Incandescent, 2700k, 100 CRI
Tungsten Halogen, 3200k, 95 CRI
Cool White, 4200k, 62 CRI
Clear Metal Halide, 5500k, 60 CRI
Natural Sunlight, 5000-6000k, 100 CRI
Daylight Bulb, 6400k, 80 CRI
Watch the fine print
Some marketers use differing color temperatures as a reference to attain 100% CRI, when the actual CRI would be much less than 100% if noon day sun light was used as a reference.
Many products marketed as ‘natural sunlight’ light sources are far from noon day sun.
For the Scientist
If this has not confused you try this Wikipedia definition:
“The Color Rendering Index (CRI) (sometimes called Color Rendition Index), is a measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of various objects being lit by the source. It is a method devised by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). The best possible rendition of colors is specified by a CRI of one hundred, while the very poorest rendition is specified by a CRI of zero. For a source like a low-pressure sodium vapor lamp, which is monochromatic, the CRI is nearly zero, but for a source like an incandescent light bulb, which emits essentially black body radiation, it is nearly one hundred. The CRI is measured by comparing the color rendering of the test source to that of a ”perfect” source which is generally a black body radiator, except for sources with color temperatures above 5000K, in which case a simulated daylight (e.g. D65) is used. For example, a standard “cool white” fluorescent lamp will have a CRI near 63. Newer “triphosphor” fluorescent lamps often claim a CRI of 80 to 90.
CRI is a quantitatively measurable index, not a subjective one. A reference source, such as black body radiation, is defined as having a CRI of 100 (this is why incandescent lamps have that rating, as they are, in effect, almost blackbody radiators), and the test source with the same color temperature is compared against this. Both sources are used to illuminate eight standard samples. The perceived colors under the reference and test illumination (measured in the CIE 1931 color space) are compared using a standard formula, and averaged over the number of samples taken (usually eight) to get the final CRI. Because eight samples are usually used, manufacturers use the prefix “octo-” on their high-CRI lamps.”
if you really like to read, check this out:
That Nichia 119 I was talking has probably the highest hicri from all mentioned here
It’s HiCri 92
And it’s only 1 dollar and change, for the emitter