Hi all. I noticed the other day that Cree has XHP50.3 HI LEDs available in 95 CRI now, which got me pretty excited. However, I have only found them in flux bins so low I didn’t realized the bins existed. Like F2,F4. Not G,H, J, or K like I’d prefer. This means output of only 730 lumens at spec vs the 1120 of a J bin. https://downloads.cree-led.com/files/ds/x/XLamp-XHP50.3.pdf
I’m looking for a high CRI option that comparable output to the higher bin XHPs with a footprint that is either XM or XP, 3 or 6v. A flat LED would be ideal. I can be a bit flexible on the CRI number in order to get better output.
I would love to hear what your top choices for high CRI are these days, I’m a bit out of the loop when it comes to this.
For me, currently, it has to be Nichia’s 519a 5700K dedomed. Nice and neutral (4200K-ish) and rosy. Skintones and wood are just looking perfect with it.
I really like these: Nichia E21A 4500K R9080 in the Fireflies PL09M. Great for photographers. Nichia 519A 5000K R9050. Best 5000K tint I’ve ever seen. Runner up is the Gentian ‘GT-FC40’ 5700K or 5000K. The Sst20 FA3 is nice too. I’ve tested lights with these leds and they’re all great. The 519A really is a step up from the LH351D 5000k.
519A 4500K. I don’t like pink or green tinted lights, so the dedomed 5700K doesn’t do it for me.
XHP70.3 HI 4000K R9050 (I’ve had several lights upgraded to this version from the XHP70.2 5000K 70 CRI they came with. The Acebeam L35, two P17s, and E70. Also the Convoy 3X21B and Sofirn SP60 and SP33S.) IMO, they are all much improved.
FC40 4000-4500K (just in the Convoy L6 these days…the best host for it IMO.)
I’ve been impressed by the XHP70.3 HI 70cri from Simon recently - but those are low CRI. Tint is really nice from Simon’s bin. Have seen beamshots of the 90cri variant but the colours weren’t as nice based on what I saw.
Tint and CCT make more visible difference than CRI. It’s possible to get high output with good tint and CCT, if you don’t need the CRI to be so high.
This shows the CCT+tint ranges I’ve found look best, with a thumbs-up at what I find to be the ideal spot.
It also shows a pink line for the results one can get by mixing 1A and 8A color bins. Since the colorspace is curved but mixes follow a straight line, it’s possible to get mixes which look better than any individual LEDs. So one solution is to mix multiple LEDs, like you could maybe put together four E17A emitters with two at each end of the spectrum, and the end result would have a lower duv than if you used only a middle CCT.
But for a single LED, the one I’ve been happiest with lately is a 519A 5700K with the dome removed. It lands very close to that thumbs-up in the image, is flat so the beam looks more consistent, and has high CRI as a bonus.
Personally, I don’t often use more than 50 lumens… so I look for LEDs which perform well and have good colors at low output levels.
The stock 519A 5700K has surprised me. It’s definitely cool white but it’s not like any cool white Cree I’ve had. No odd color casts, only nice clean and natural looking light.
The “low” bins you mention are related to the warmer tints, I assume you’re after 2700K?
The “worst” bins are associated with warmer CCT and higher CRI, which makes sense because there is more red in the spectrum, compared to cooler CCT or greener tint.
Physics dictates that warmer/high CRI LEDs will have lower efficacy. To use an extreme example- 1W green LED will appear massively brighter than 1W red LED because of the sensitivity of the human eye.
I agree that CCT and tint is more important than CRI, I’ve some excellent XP-L Hi LEDs in an emisar D4 that compare very favourably to my domed 519A lights.
I’ve tried the 20mm quad 3535 board from kaidomain (and other sellers on AliExpress) with 4x 519A. There is scope for some CCT mixing as ToyKeeper mentions, but you end up with a bit of a doughnut beam unless heavily diffused.
I’m glad to hear this. I have a Convoy S3 coming in the mail this week. After a bit of wavering back and forth, I ordered the 519A 4500k version. I think it should have a much better color rendering than what I have previously used. My two currently most used lights have XPL-HD and SST20 emitters, respectively. Of the two, the SST20 definitely seems to have better color rendering, and the XPL-HD seems a bit too cool and tends to impart a bluish tint. I’ll be interested to compare them to the 519A 4500k.
Domed 519A. Nice and neutral (yeah, I find negative DUV almost as annoying as positive), bright, efficient.
XHP70s would be my equal favourite if they were available in more lights and the high CRI ones weren’t such low flux ranking, especially since most of the high CRI ones seem to be low CCT while I like neutral to cool.
Well, my Convoy S3 with 519A 4500k emitter came in the mail today. This was my first intentional purchase of a high CRI light and… wow. It’s a bigger difference than I expected. I find the light much more pleasing than my cool white LEDs.
My favorite pocket flashlight is the Lumintop Tool AA. I have it in a cool white with the XPL-HD emitter and I can’t help but notice how blue it makes everything look now. I think I may need to pick up the 219CT version of the Tool AA and keep the cooler XPL-HD version as a backup.
I may have opened a can of worms getting into this high CRI stuff, but I think I’m okay with that.
The difference is probably about 80% due to the different CCT and duv (tint), and only about 10% due to CRI. Going from greenish cool white to neutral white makes a huge difference.
CCT goes from yellow to blue, with neutral in the middle. You went from the blue end to the neutral range, so it looks very different.
Tint (duv) goes from green to pink, with neutral in the middle. Most LEDs tend to be a bit green, but the 519A is generally neutral or a bit pink. This can make a big difference, but generally not as big as CCT.
CRI is harder to see, and mostly indicates how the spectral curve is shaped. Despite the name (Color Rendering Index), high CRI does not actually guarantee good color rendering. It usually helps, but not as much as the other factors.
An A to B comparison (meaning side by side at the same time in same conditions, both lights on) of R9080 and R70 with same CCT still shows noticeable differences to me. But even a couple seconds between tests to let the eyes reset makes it nearly impossible to notice the difference.
On higher CCTs CRI makes a big difference to me. The 5700K 519A is still really pleasant, everything looks lively and natural while stuff like SFT40, SBT90.2 (the ~5700K version) or Osram W1 flattens and washes everything out, and I don’t mean intensity.
Not my favorite, but I started to like the SST12. It’s small enough to make a decent throw, although the die is not round as I first thought. Light quality is very nice (4000K).
Thanks for clarifying this. I probably oversimplified. I guess what I should have said is that this was my first light purchase where I prioritized both high CRI and neutral CCT. In the past, I have just bought lights based on form factor, UI, and output modes that seemed useful to me without paying any attention to the emitter. Of course, I knew there were neutral and cool lights and some had poorer or better color rendering but it was never something on the forefront of my mind.
Now that I have seen a good neutral tone emitter with high CRI, I can’t unsee it. Now my cool white lights look a lot less pleasant. I don’t have a large collection (just a headlamp, a larger 18650 light, and a couple of small pocket lights) and don’t plan to become a “collector”, but I would like to add a couple more neutral lights with high CRI to my selection. I may even try one of those warm lights around 3000k just for the sake of experimentation.
