I was trying to explain tint and cri to a new member in a P.M. last night . I took out about 12 lights which I had modded and shot them onto the ceiling from about 3 feet away...generally on medium (approx 30 lumens ).
I was trying to impress on him that no light is a "pure white " and if it were so it probably wouldn't be what you wanted anyway .And that all light has a tint .
The names being highly misleading as
- Cool white sounds pretty much what people want in a light....white !!!
- Neutral almost always is followed by the word TINT ... OMG who wants a tinted light.?? I want bright and white !!! a TINT hell no...
- Warm sounds like campfire light .Something Alister Cook or Abraham Lincoln might read a book by .Or Torchlights used during the Spanish Inquisition. Plus ..everyone can see they are Orange ..Oh my !!
Looking up at the 12 lights shining on my ceiling I realized if I was to objectively rate just the tints like a noob who comes across a thread full of beam shots ..I'd rate them all..Pretty Poor .. One being a little green, another headed toward peachy,tan ,rosy,beige ,amber ,red,brown,yellow maybe ,a bit blueish?,purple...None of them looking even remotely white to me .Even if I add a few average, unmodified not good / not bad lights , I still come up with the same general feeling . they all sorta suck
Now remember these are mostly lights I've modded and I know that among these are the best of the best of the best . Tints that can't be found ,Emitters so good you would never part with them ...but you sure as hell can't see it in this cluster of beam-shots ..Not even right in front of you....not from a camera,not on the internet, and not as a noob.
Try it yourself with your best lights .....
Or look above in post 23 and ask yourself if either of the two pics of the 219 nichias would make anyone want to buy one ..I see grey and I see pink..and yet I know they are both exceptional lights . But it's hard to say I love the tint...
In real life I love that tint ...What you see is not what you get .
Explain that to a noob :P