Preferred Color Temperature?

[Tre_Asay]

I did see a thread pointing towards a company that claims up to 98 cri in LED, they had some in 5600k.

 

[tab665]

i prefer either warm (3000) up to neutral (4500). i dont have a strong disdain towards cooler tints however.

 

[mattheww50]

True outdoor color temperature is right around 5200K. However the choice of color temperature is subject to the quality of the lighting, i.e. the CRI. About 20 years ago I was remodeling my house, and we had some specific issues with lighting. Ultimately we went with Fluorescent lamps in a relatively exotic Luminaire (6 of them in fact), Ultralume 4400K with a very high CRI. Normally 4400K would be considered quite cool for residential use, but no one every noticed or even commented because the CRI was so high. The main feature of the Ultralume lamps was in fact the CRI. I would add that I paid dearly for those lamps (which haven't been available for about 15 years now), about $9 a lamp for F40's. I ultimately had to replace them with other high CRI lamps, GE SPX41's (4100K) , which were almost as expensive (even when purchased a case at a time from the local GE Wholesaler who had to special order them). So my preference runs to 4000-4400k with a very high CRI.

I think the box many of us are in is that to obtain the maximum lumens per watt, we are forced into relatively high color temperatures and LED's that have poor CRI's. Interestingly enough, the Fluorescent folks have the same problem. The Fluorescent Lamps with the best lumens/watt also have lousy CRI numbers. The lamps with the best CRI (GE Chroma 50, now extinct) went out of production because the efficiency was below minimum required under Federal law! IIRC the CRI on the Chroma 50's was in the mid 90's, but you only got about 50 lumens per watt when new.

 

[Vortus]

My only criteria is that it isn't to much of anything. Tints that are to blueish, greenish, purplish, yellowish are not for me. Whiteish is ok. Slight tints in any direction are ok as long as it lights up.

 

[maukka]

Also, the color temperature on its own cannot describe the tint, which makes buying flashlights based on that one metric really difficult.

I plotted some of my lights on a CIE chart with some reference light sources (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_illuminant#White_points_of_standard_illuminants)

As you can see, even if the color temp is the same, the tint is totally different. And then there's the difference between hotspot and spill, which in the Olight S10 is huge. Although the hotspot is quite neutral, the spill is cool with a purplish tint. That is probably why it seems quite unnatural to me compared to the other ones.

 

[twistedraven]

Where does your nichia sit in relation to the curve? I always thought it was slightly pink in nature, so I wonder if it's on the pinker side of the curve.

 

[maukka]

Where does your nichia sit in relation to the curve? I always thought it was slightly pink in nature, so I wonder if it's on the pinker side of the curve.

Added the Nichia Eagletac to the image. You were right, it's a bit on the pinkish side.

 

[twistedraven]

Thanks for the data. It's always nice to confirm subjective impressions with objective measurements. I always thought the 219 was slightly pink, and that the XML2 Easywhite found in the Zebralight was slightly green. It's good to know they're so close to the black body curve. By comparison, the other lights must be quite bad in regards to tint shifts.

 

[bykfixer]

A pine tree looks like a pine tree with my PK.
Aint got a clue what the Kelvins are, the CRI or any of that...
I just know that after dark, from 300' a pine tree looks like a pine tree.

Same for my Malkoffs and Elzettas.

 

[MichaelW]

5200k. The true neutral.

There is no such thing as 'true neutral'. 5200K is cool-white.

 

[twistedraven]

There is no such thing as 'true neutral'. 5200K is cool-white.

Based on an ideal black body radiation, somewhere around 5000k to 5500k has the best spectral balance, and will appear the most true to a white without any hue. Of course, that is ideal lighting. Since LEDs have a chunk of their cyans missing and a purple spike, I find I like around 5000k more, and find it to be closest to white. The 4500k 219B comes off as a little tan and pink, the 4700k XML2 easy white comes off as a little yellow. The 5000k Luxeon T model's hotspot is pretty damn near pure white, while the corona of it is slightly green, and the spill slightly cool.

The whole notion of around 4000k being neutral and 5000k being cool white is based off incandescent lighting standards. A 5500k white balance is used for photography and film.

 

[fnsooner]

4-4500k is preferred.

Anything within 4-5000k, if I like the light, is acceptable. If I deviate from that, I prefer to go lower.

I can't remember the last cool white flashlight I have purchased. First gen Zebralight SC600 a few years ago? I think.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Worth re-emphasizing. This is what I see. But it's all good what folks prefer.

Based on an ideal black body radiation, somewhere around 5000k to 5500k has the best spectral balance, and will appear the most true to a white without any hue. Of course, that is ideal lighting. Since LEDs have a chunk of their cyans missing and a purple spike, I find I like around 5000k more, and find it to be closest to white. The 4500k 219B comes off as a little tan and pink, the 4700k XML2 easy white comes off as a little yellow. The 5000k Luxeon T model's hotspot is pretty damn near pure white, while the corona of it is slightly green, and the spill slightly cool.

The whole notion of around 4000k being neutral and 5000k being cool white is based off incandescent lighting standards. A 5500k white balance is used for photography and film.

 

[LedTed]

5500K min, 5700K snowy white, maybe a little higher, looking forward to trying the 6300K XP-L

 

[Short_Circuit]

For most of the purposes for which I use a flashlight true color rendition is not a consideration. I generally prefer about 6000K. I just like 'em bright as possible. On a side note, I hate those "Reveal" light bulbs. I prefer a bright room over one that has cartoon like vivid colors. Now if we're talking photography color rendition becomes a concern.

 

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

Yeah, I think I like 5500ish.... 5000K is as low as I like to go. Bright is right!

 

[maukka]

Sorry to clutter the thread, but I found it interesting how much the Olight S10's color temperature shifted when moving out of the hotspot. So I measured three lights from 6 different spots, one in the middle of the beam and five more towards the edge of the spill. Spill 1 closest to the hotspot, Spill 5 near the edge of the beam. Nothing scientific, just to see how much of a shift there is with a frosted glass Zebralight H600Fd III and a more traditional reflector in the Eagletac D25LC2. They both fared much better than the Olight. The tint spread is smaller and on both of them the color shift is not strong. In addition, their coordinates stay very close to the neutral black body radiator line.

 

[twistedraven]

Nice. Man whenever I get my SC62D back I'ma have to send you it so you can measure the Luxeon T emitter.

 

[Ryp]

More than 6000K.

 

[MAD777]

5000K works best for me.