.
Oh boy, this is not gonna end well.
You’re very wrong, human eyes did not evolve to see blue light, it causes eye strain and irritation, we should limit the amount of blue light produced as much as we can. Sunlight has color temperature of 4500-5500K and we shouldn’t go above because it just means more blue. More - since LEDs are heavy on blue even 5500K LEDs look cooler than sunlight, that’s why I prefer to stay below 5000K personally. But I know there are many people who like ~2700K which looks very orange, more like fire light.
Red on the other hand is not useless, it has an impact on how we see multiple colors from yellow to brown which are everywhere in the nature. Not to mention skin kolor.
So both CRI and CCT are very important, it’s all about balance. You don’t have to loose a lot of brightness, Cree has 80+ CRI emitters (realistically around 84-85) at 4000-5000K that are just 1-2 efficiency bins below the top - I’m talking about the XHP family. You’re loosing maybe 10-15% of light but what you get is quality thanks to a much better color reproduction. As usual, quality or quantity?
I’ll repeat myself: unless National Geographic Magazine contracts with me to go down to the Amazon basin to catalog Poison Dart Frogs, or I get into nighttime portrait painting, I couldn’t care less about high CRI, or even beam patterns.
I need to see in the dark, is all.
I’m a gun guy, but not a ‘great white wall hunter.’
Chris
use whatever light makes you happy
if you dont care about Full Spectrum light,
you might enjoy a green light, since it has the highest efficacy:
.
.
“the human eye features ”a peak sensitivity at 555 nanometers”:Luminous efficacy - Wikipedia (in the green region of the visible light spectrum).”
Some people think high-CRI is only useful for white wall hunting. Not going to change those people.
I personally notice the difference a lot in daily use. My EDC lights all have high-CRI emitters. The lights that don’t have them aren’t really EDC lights anyways.
I’m not a gun guy but I’m also not shining at the wall. I’m using my flashlight in the forest so there’s a lot of green and brown (sometimes some yellow). Color temperature affects green (higher CCT=more blue=green gets pale and blueish), CRI affects browns and yellows (higher CRI=higher R9/red=juicier browns).
You sure you’re not making a strawman and it’s not actually just people preferences ? just like you prefer cold CCTs, low CRI for better efficiency.
In your case you have much, much more choice since flashlights are predominantly cold white and low CRI, so it’s all good right ? I guess I don’t understand what is the point of this thread, especially since this is a recurrent topic.
a green filter lowers efficacy… if efficacy is the priority, you need a green LED, not a filter
I agree green is monochromatic… it just has the highest efficacy,
I only suggested it as you mentioned that efficacy is your highest priority…
maybe you dont really want highest efficacy after all?
choices are good
I like green much better than red… but I like High CRI most of all
but, dont copy me, unless you share my priority, which is Full Spectrum Quality… not partial spectrum Quantity
maybe read more
:+1: 
Exactly. There is no correct and same answer for all people. Just like a whole lot of other things in life, the answer depends upon many variables.
I have made the journey from “I must have the absolute most number of lumens possible and the color/CRO does not matter” to where I do look at the CRI and what the intended use is. I have a few very bright, low CRI lights that fulfill certain uses. Most of the lights I use frequently have high to very high CRI and I can see the difference. Seeing, or appreciating that difference, took some time to develop to where I gave it some serious thought.
“Different strokes for different folks” as we used to quip back in the 60’s. :laughing:
There is nothing here to have an argument over.
Walking in the forest was where I first really noticed how much better I liked the illumination qualities of my then-new high CRI light compared to the max lumens lights I had been using.
I used to be all about efficiency. But then I had a hike where a poor CRI made it hard for me to distinguish the details of the trail under my feet. This was slightly dangerous and made me much slower. And required my full attention to tread carefully.
Since then, I think that flashlights shall have high enough colour rendition. But so far I failed to determine what exactly is high enough. 
Also, world in high CRI and below BBL just looks better. I like to live in a good looking world.
It is not simply the efficacy of the led. What colors the eye sees best is also a consideration.
It is for phosphor converted green, but not direct green ( XP-E)
For example CSLNM1.F1 (PC green) : 400~630lm at 1A
CSLNM1.TG (white, 5700~6000K) : 280~450lm at 1A
Usually LEDs below BBL have better or hi cri
That’s true only at certain levels of CRI….once you get past 9895 LEDs tend to be close to the BBL.
more Full Spectrum Quality, top pic with High CRI
more Lumen Quantity, bottom pic with Low CRI
if you just want to know if the pan is boiling over, a green light would suffice, and would use less battery power
since I use rechargeable batteries, runtime is not a priority for me. My priority is Spectrum Quality. I use my flashlights to illuminate things with Red in them.
Things that Look Redder, taste better… LOL
As the colour management specialist in print industry I must say, that colour reproduction is key factor.
Mike
But not too much below, I’m not a fan of rosy tints.