What's the story behind Nichia 219's? Everybody raves about them. The talk of the town. Every beam shot I've seen shows near perfect color rendering. Hell, I'm almost peeing my pants I want one so bad.
How come no one offers any retail flashlights with Nichia 219. I can buy commercial torches with XM-L,XP-G, XP-G2, XP-E, XR-E but no Nichia 219.
How can it even be profitable for them to produce these if they're not widely offered commercially? Surely the modding community, though prolific, is not large enough to sustain mass production of these LEDs.
Is there some reason the mainstream manufacturers won't use them? It can't be about max lumens since sales for primary lights in the 80 to 200 lumen range are astronomical.
Don't have a good answer, other than Nichia is aiming for the lighting sales, home and business, so they probably don't go for the flashlight market. As far as why the Chinese aren't using them, possibly it's because they don't feel a need for high CRI over the cheaper cree leds. Maybe it would be good to ask someone like Ric from CNQG why he doesn't see these leds in flashlights.
I don’t really think its a matter of what Nichia is aiming at, rather than what Nitecore or Sunwayman or Eagletac etc. are aiming at. There is a massive hole in a very competitive industry and I can’t believe none of the big flashlight companies has jumped into slot and filled it. It seems like whoever is the first one out of the gate is going to corner the market instantly. There’s big profit to be made and no one seems to want it.
Cree does high CRI, but again, not widely available. If I am not mistaken, high CRI are harder to make and with more waste. Someone correct me on that please.
The Nichia219 is only available from one Nichia site so far, and it looks like you can order from within a huge spectrum there, I looked at the site and although it was all in English if you didn’t have the bin number like eala did, you weren’t finding it without help.
McGismo was the first to figure out the bin and tint, but he didn’t share the info, just built with them(after the Nichia 119)
Now illuminationSupply sells them once he got the ordering figured out. I’ve talked to a few distributors since then and none have planne runs of the Nichia, they’ll do a nuetral run but only with Cree. (Could also just be a buiseness thing like coke and Pepsi) restaurants only carry coke or Pepsi based on an agreement with there distributors.
Cree is probably a little more buiseness friendly with the flashlight market ( offers deals, gives swag and other friendly buiseness practices)
I’m sure there will be manufacturers using them someday soon, perhaps someone will be able to figure out if the B15 219 5000k Nichia 90 cri exists
I always wondered why the Nichia 219 isn’t built in in stock flashlights. In the scene its very successful, so I expected at least a few manufacturers/brands jump on the wagon… maybe it takes some time.
People need to realize that flashlights are a VERY small percent of the LED market, extremely, infinitesimally small. I don’t know of a single LED company that actually focuses any development resources for LEDs for flashlights, all money and manpower is put towards general illumination. Streetlights, home lighting, commercial and industrial lighting are where the real focus is, it just so happens that some of the products that are made for those markets also work in flashlights, not the other way around.
It isn’t Nichia that makes a presence in the market, it’s the flashlight manufacturers. I’m sure if Nitecore ordered 10,000 Nichias, Nichia would be happy to supply them.
I guess we were just answering the question posed in the thread title. Aside from that, I agree with your observation that there is a bigger place in the flashlight market for them. Although I’d say it’s probably not a very big one. There just aren’t enough tint snobs around.
A 10,000 led order is minuscule. The answer to the OP’s question is simple: If you
the consumer were willing to pay extra for a Nichia flashlight they would make it.
Fact is tint snobs and connoisseurs aside majority of flashlight sales are made with
little consideration to tint…
