Preferred Color Temperature?

[clintb]

To my eyes, and judging from my BLF A6 in 3D tint (5000K), that's the lowest I'd want to go. I'd much prefer something more around 5200 - 5500. I have a Nitecore EX11.2 that's perfection in tint, though I don't know the exact range.

 

[Derek Dean]

4753.7355 K is just about right : )

 

[markr6]

Also, the color temperature on its own cannot describe the tint, which makes buying flashlights based on that one metric really difficult. For me there's no single favorite color temp, because the eye gets used to almost any temperature very fast (unless there is several differing light sources). As long as there's no clear color cast, almost anything between 3000-7000 K is fine. Still, when I'm buying a light, I prefer 4500-5500 K just because they are usually end up being the most neutral in practice. Still, there are lots crappy 4000 K and great 6500 K light sources around.

VERY good response here; everything is spot on.

You can have a nice 5700K tint and a bad 4400K tint...or a nice 4400K tint and a bad 5700K tint - all in the same model flashlight. Tint is more important than the CCT for me. I don't like cool whites, but as long as they don't have a greenish/bluish tint, I can live with it.

Similar to what maukka said, I like ~5000K since you usually get a nice neutral light here.

 

[bykfixer]

4753.7355 K is just about right : )

Just about.... Some would still complain.

 

[archimedes]

As many have noted, it depends upon the exact purpose and other ambient lighting (as well as CRI and tint factors) .

Very generally, however, I prefer 4000K - 4500K

If tint and CRI are very good, up to 5000K - 5250K can be acceptable

Beyond those ranges, though, I would much rather have warm than cool lighting.

In other words, I have several lights in the sub-4000K (and even one in the sub-3000K) range, which are fine for certain uses. But there are very few lights in the 5500K+ range, and really even the 5000K+ range, that I prefer to use.

 

[Fireclaw18]

I typically prefer 4400K - 5000K color temps. I also prefer slightly rosy tints to green. So for CREE emitters my favorites are 3D and 4D. For the Nichia, I like the 4500K 219B.

Currently, my main lights all have 5000K XPL HI 3C installed, but as soon as my shipment of 5000K XPL HI 3D arrives I plan to replace all the 3Cs.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

How would you describe the difference between the 3D and 3C XPL Hi?

I typically prefer 4400K - 5000K color temps. I also prefer slightly rosy tints to green. So for CREE emitters my favorites are 3D and 4D. For the Nichia, I like the 4500K 219B.

Currently, my main lights all have 5000K XPL HI 3C installed, but as soon as my shipment of 5000K XPL HI 3D arrives I plan to replace all the 3Cs.

 

[Fireclaw18]

How would you describe the difference between the 3D and 3C XPL Hi?

Still waiting for my 3D XPL HI to arrive.

However, from past experience with 3D and 3C XML2 I expect the following:

3C: very slightly greenish / yellowish
3D: very slightly rosy (red) with less green.

To me 3D and 4D look the best. They have the least green. I think this is also why 1D supposedly makes for the best dedomes... they give the least green when dedomed.

 

[Coldcelestial]

Before I got a neutral white flashlight I never thought there was anything wrong with my cool-white flashlights, however after buying and using my sc600w mkII for awhile and alternating with the cool-whites, I definitely prefer the neutral whites, probably around the 4500k range. Going back to using cool-whites would be impossible for me now, even if they are generally a few hundred lumens brighter than the neutral whites.

 

[MichaelW]

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.

Seeing as we aren't getting any of the cool lattice work stuff that was being researched at Sandia National Lab http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2002/tungsten.htm , 3700K is where tungsten signs off. If we are dealing with plasmas & gasses, we need to deal with absorption lines.
If we are dealing with eyeballs, we need to determine what level if illuminance we are talking about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminosity_function
then focus, etc. Yes we need some blue to help close the eye up.
Then we need to consider melanopsin, do you need to get to sleep after using your light?

 

[lightlover]

... 3700K is where tungsten signs off ...

WoW! So is that all Tungsten (filament) lights?
A top temperature of 3,700K?

Not very White ...

 

[Grijon]

Before I got a neutral white flashlight I never thought there was anything wrong with my cool-white flashlights...

This is how it was for me, too; all my lights were cool-white and while I knew they weren't "white" I didn't mind at all...until I experienced neutral! Now I just don't think I can go back...ha ha ha!

 

[Tre_Asay]

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.

I noticed this too, in my thrunite t10 the hotspot is warmer and the spill is cooler. When I take off the reflector you can see the light in the periphery is more yellow than the light perpendicular to the LED. The light going out the sides is the light that would hit the reflector and be bounced into the hotspot.

It kind of bugs me so I hope that my zebralight doesnt end up with this tint shift along the LED. I don't think that I will try to changethe the thrunite though because it does not affect normal use and it is not even very noticable against white walls with the reflector.

 

[Strintguy]

What is the highest temp (k) that can still be high CRI?

 

[Tre_Asay]

I don't know, I would imagine ideal cri would be sunlight with it going down as the reds or blues are over produced.
I have been using my zebra light and I am really liking the 4000k CCT. There is a bit of a tint shift but it is only noticeable within an inch of a white wall.
In this picture it looks really warm compared to my other flashlights.

 

[BLUE LED]

I like cool white, around 6500k

 

[Grijon]

I have been using my zebra light and I am really liking the 4000k CCT. There is a bit of a tint shift but it is only noticeable within an inch of a white wall.
In this picture it looks really warm compared to my other flashlights.

My Surefire G2X Pro was the warmest LED light that I owned when I got it - it made my cool-white Fenixes look like they had blue filters on!

Months have passed by and now I have several neutral and warm LEDs.

Last night on a flashlight walk with my wife I took this same Surefire as a backup in case we needed more than the 80-or-less lumens of the other lights we were using - two 16650-fed incan P60s and two Malkoff M61WLLs.

When I flashed the Surefire LED (that was SO beautifully creamy white compared to the Fenix lights) I was amazed (even though I was half-expecting it) at how utterly BLUE the beam was!! I mentioned to my wife that our eyes/brains had 'white-balanced' to the dimming incan beams we were using (under-driven incans on depleting batteries) and that the 'blue' light was the one that we were so impressed with its warmth - to which she replied that when I first turned it on her reaction was surprise that it was green!

 

[bykfixer]

^^ gee you guys were prepared.

When I first got a tan G2 I thought "aint that cute, the beam matches the light on low"...
But to me it would've also matched a green body'd one as well. I saw a slight green in the creamy tan. I figured it was my walls.
Then the Alpha beam really made me see it.

Question:
Did each have one of each or was it one had the WLL's and the other the P60's?

Where I live at it's so d@m lit up the WLL is like not even having a light when walking around the block. So I go for the WL with the MD2 hi/lo and a Strion LED for back up. The wife carries a PK Warrior and a Coast HP7.
Don't you dare sneak up on a red head with an HP7 in one hand and a PK Warrior in the other. She likes the thought of using the Coast with lanyard as a nun-chuck and the PK as a DNA sampler.

 

[Noctiluco]

For me the better tint is neutral white 4000 K, tints from 5A/5D to 5B/5D

 

[Grijon]

^^ gee you guys were prepared.

When I first got a tan G2 I thought "aint that cute, the beam matches the light on low"...
But to me it would've also matched a green body'd one as well. I saw a slight green in the creamy tan. I figured it was my walls.
Then the Alpha beam really made me see it.

Question:
Did each have one of each or was it one had the WLL's and the other the P60's?

Where I live at it's so d@m lit up the WLL is like not even having a light when walking around the block. So I go for the WL with the MD2 hi/lo and a Strion LED for back up. The wife carries a PK Warrior and a Coast HP7.
Don't you dare sneak up on a red head with an HP7 in one hand and a PK Warrior in the other. She likes the thought of using the Coast with lanyard as a nun-chuck and the PK as a DNA sampler.

Long, mostly-off-topic PM sent!

On-topic, I specifically bought multiples of specific drop-ins so that my wife and I could walk together with matching tints :laughing: