Not Gonna Buy Cool White Again! [Join Club Here]

[EngrPaul]

I believe we've reached a point in the market place that we can buy just about any type of LED flashlight in neutral white, warm white, and Hi-CRI.

A few impressive lights are only available in Cool White, but I've decided from here on out I will wait for good tints to become available.

I've sworn off cool white CFL's years ago, and I've enjoyed the relatively warm light of soft white CFL's around my house. Even my nite-lites are upgraded to neutral!

I don't want cold light at home, at work, and my flashlight. From here on out, only Mother Nature is allowed to illuminate my environment beyond 6000K.

If you feel the same way, join the club by replying to this thread.

Perhaps you can change your signature to reflect your preference. Spread the word that you demand the best!

[Double_A]

Yea I decided a while ago all my LED's need to have at least a neutral if not warm tint. Even last Christmas the white led lights I bought were labeled "warm tint".

[BIGLOU]

I recently got a 4500K drop-in and love it. I got a 3000K on the way. I found these work better for me since I work at night and have better color rendition.

[skyfire]

I notice you all over the MP lately EngrPaul, you switching over to the "not-so-cool-side"?

after trying out warm tints, its hard for me to go back to neutrals. i still accept neutral tints, but prefer them 4000k and under.
i didnt like any of the neutral tint XP-Gs i had, to my eyes they all look alittle green to me. it just wasnt the same as the XR-E/XP-E neutrals.

there are plenty of lights offered in neutral, but true warm LEDs are a rarity. most my lights are warm tint, and most have been modded, or are custom.

saying "bye bye" to cool tint lights also saved me a bunch of money. heheh

[run4jc]

I think I'm with you - perhaps I've gone totally over the edge. Sold off a bunch of cool white lights this afternoon and find myself preferring incans. I realize this is the LED forum, but incans are my current obsession. High CRI LEDs and XPG R4s are very satisfying, too, as are Zebralight XPE warms....

Yep - I'm with you.

[flashnight]

I agree, didn't know what all the fuss was over warm vs cool leds. But once you use the warmer versions you'll never go back, just so much easier on the eyes IMO.

[psychbeat]

WERRRRD!!

I just ordered a Spark NW460 XM-L headlamp as my warm
lights seem to offer more contrast on muddy+rooty trails.

cool white dosent show wet/muddy patches nearly as well..

not sure I can take the lumen loss of the warm lights in most
situations but the neutral seem like a good compromise.

my dual 5B tint XP-G is my fav light right now.
hope the XM-L is as good.

[tre]

Of the last 10 or so lights I purchased, only 1 has been cool white.

I am done putting up with purple, blue, and green. I only buy neutral now.

Unfortunately, that takes good companies like 4sevens and HDS out of the running when I buy a light but many other brands like EagleTac, Fenix, Zebralight, Dereelight, Xeno, Malkoff, Lamdalights etc all sell neutral white lights.

[mvyrmnd]

High CRI all the way!

I've given up in production lights, they take too long to ship with good tints.

I'm waiting on Mac's 3300L triple triple, using high CRI emitters. Nine high CRI XP-G's, 2500 warm toasty lumens

[azzid]

Warm, neutral and high cri only for me. Got a load of cool white lights which i don't use anymore, used by family members when a blackout/power outage occurs. The only non neutral light that i still use is a hds/ra 170t which imo has a almost neutral tint.

[faco]

Warm - Neutral - High CRI

[akajimmy]

I am in. I really dislike the cool bluish tint. I tried the Quark tactical Warm and was in after that. I am celebrating joing this new club buy buying the new SC51c Zebralight.

[netprince]

Neutral tints only for me. Or at least lights I can mod to a neutral LED.

[kaichu dento]

Paul, you are definitely not alone!

[Csp203]

I am in, this is actually saving me money.

[DHart]

I'm in.... neutrals and slightly warms offer the most natural and enjoyable tints in flashlights... they are what I buy now. Cold blue flashlights appear cheap & cheesy looking to my eyes.

[SaturnNyne]

I've been hooked on warmer tints for about two and a half years, but I hadn't really given much thought to my buying habits until I came upon this thread. While I haven't officially sworn off cool tints entirely, I just realized that the entire list of lights I've bought since the beginning of 2009 is, I think, Malkoff M60 warm, Ra Clicky warm, NiteCore EZ123 warm, and ZL SC51 neutral. While I'm not going to commit to buy or not buy any particular tint, my actual buying decisions speak pretty clearly.

[mvyrmnd]

What if Cree came out with a new LED only available in cyan, but put out 2000 lumens per 300ma and was cheaper than an XP-C? Or conversely, what if Osram came out with a orange die that produced similar numbers? I know I would be an orange/cyan junkie in no time and threads would pop up "Not Gonna Buy Cyan Again!".

I think the denizens of CPF deserve a little more credit than that. We're making the educated decision to leave cool white lights behind. We're not doing it just to be different or contrary.

[Nos]

Love the new high CRI XP-Es.

[clg0159]

I am definitely in! I will never buy a cool white light again!

I don't know how many other colorblind folks there are like me but in my case lower CCT and higher CRI are a must! For those who aren't colorblind, allow me to explain briefly. It is not a complete inability to see color, just trouble differentiating between close shades of red/green/brown (in my case). Give me a cool white light source outdoors at night and i lose depth perception. Give me a lower CCT or high CRI source and depending on the characteristics I regain the depth perception and the ability to distinguish colors. For me the difference can be dramatic! I believe there are many others like myself, many of which may not be aware of their colorblindness. I have read statistics saying between 7-8% of the male population has some form of colorblindness. Seems like an exploitable niche in the flashlight market to me!

[shao.fu.tzer]

I'm just saying... I don't know about all you warm and neutral heads (no offense meant), but I'm pretty sure if Cree came out even with a badly purple tinted light that put out 2000 lumens @ 300ma and 4000 @ 700ma, let's say, in two months - there would be a ton of people swarming all over the lights, regardless of how ugly the tint was. There are a large enough percentage of CPFers who would appreciate the raw power and efficiency. Plus, with that much light coming out the end, you could always correct the tint with some colored film on the lens....

[bodhran]

I have both a Tk40 and 35. I love both of these lights and they have their uses. The thing is it's not often that I need something that bright or even with that much throw. For everyday use I want something that offers more flood and 100-200 lumens is just fine. Of course a low low is always nice. A neutral or warm tint offer better color rendition and is easier on the eyes. I don't think there's any argueing that. Cool, neutral and warm all have their place but for a edc light, neutral or warm is the only way to go in my opinion.

[kaichu dento]

I'm just saying... I don't know about all you warm and neutral heads (no offense meant), but I'm pretty sure if Cree came out even with a badly purple tinted light that put out 2000 lumens @ 300ma and 4000 @ 700ma, let's say, in two months - there would be a ton of people swarming all over the lights, regardless of how ugly the tint was. There are a large enough percentage of CPFers who would appreciate the raw power and efficiency. Plus, with that much light coming out the end, you could always correct the tint with some colored film on the lens....

I can agree that there might be a few who would be interested just for the wow factor, but most of us would probably shrug and wonder why in this age of controllable tint, they had taken the effort to make something so useless.

[Vee3]

I am definitely in! I will never buy a cool white light again!

I don't know how many other colorblind folks there are like me but in my case lower CCT and higher CRI are a must! For those who aren't colorblind, allow me to explain briefly. It is not a complete inability to see color, just trouble differentiating between close shades of red/green/brown (in my case). Give me a cool white light source outdoors at night and i lose depth perception. Give me a lower CCT or high CRI source and depending on the characteristics I regain the depth perception and the ability to distinguish colors. For me the difference can be dramatic! I believe there are many others like myself, many of which may not be aware of their colorblindness. I have read statistics saying between 7-8% of the male population has some form of colorblindness. Seems like an exploitable niche in the flashlight market to me!

I'm severely colorblind; in with the worst ~20% they tell me. Can't tell the difference in paint jobs on cars at night other than to say that this one's a lighter shade of grey than that one.

Neutral LEDs don't really help me distinguish colors much better than cool, but what I do see with a neutral is much more definition, depth and clarity. Cool pretty much gives me a picture I can only imagine is what 'normal' people might see when using a light on a winter night where everything is covered with frost.

[mvyrmnd]

Maybe you don't realize, but the majority of campers in the neutral and warm tint camp (high CRI included) does not really care about maximum lumens.

Oh, I still care about maximum lumens, I'm just no longer willing to sacrifice tint to achieve them!

[pjandyho]

Oh, I still care about maximum lumens, I'm just no longer willing to sacrifice tint to achieve them!

Don't get me wrong. I do care about lumen too, but I have a more realistic expectation when it comes to non-cool emitters. The day that any high CRI could even achieve 200 lumen without being overdriven would be the day I pop the champaign. If I needed any brighter light that throws I would be very happy to use my Surefire M3LT. And even though it is rated at only 400 lumen, it felt much brighter than that due to the TIR lens.

What I am saying in my previous post is that those who love warmer tints know what they are going for and lumen output does not always trump in their decision making. In my case, lumen number is secondary when I am looking at warmer tints.

[mvyrmnd]

While I'm at it, I'd like to lay to rest the myth that goes warm, high CRI or neutral = outside; cool = indoors. At medium and high levels, warm and neutral all the way.

I used to believe that cool tints were better for inspecting equipment and machinery. That was until I started EDCing a High CRI light. I'm not going back!

[RedLed]

Don't forget to gel your camera flash with 1/4 Orange CTO. For shots of people mostly, for products you could make them look funny, depending... This dates way, way back to the stone age of film. Then, around 1999, the Nikon D1 came out, and made digital less expensive. You could correct/add in post, (I hate the "Workflow"term) in a D3 series, you can cc right in the camera, not all cameras do this. I would never do CC in the camera...just FYI

Even now, I still gel the flash sometimes...

Engineer, this will assist you in keeping you in your warm period, artistically speaking, but I know you already know this.

OH...I forgot, you can gel your flashlights to get some very nice "white" (if you can call them that), tints. I started doing this with the first Gen. L1 to filter out that purpleish tint, and it worked great.

If you guy's go to the camera store, (or is there only B&H left) the color correction gel samples are FREE! Plus diffusion gels, and silk gels are in there, too. You can even make a red light!!!

Good luck,

Best wishes,

NR

[Echo63]

Don't forget to gel your camera flash with 1/4 Orange CTO. For shots of people mostly, for products you could make them look funny, depending... This dates way, way back to the stone age of film. Then, around 1999, the Nikon D1 came out, and made digital less expensive. You could correct/add in post, (I hate the "Workflow"term) in a D3 series, you can cc right in the camera, not all cameras do this. I would never do CC in the camera...just FYI

Even now, I still gel the flash sometimes...

Engineer, this will assist you in keeping you in your warm period, artistically speaking, but I know you already know this.

OH...I forgot, you can gel your flashlights to get some very nice "white" (if you can call them that), tints. I started doing this with the first Gen. L1 to filter out that purpleish tint, and it worked great.

If you guy's go to the camera store, (or is there only B&H left) the color correction gel samples are FREE! Plus diffusion gels, and silk gels are in there, too. You can even make a red light!!!

Good luck,

Best wishes,

NR

Some of us still use gels for effect rather than CC.
A 1/2 CTO with a daylight WB and no diffuser on the flash mimics late afternoon sun wonderfully.

Of course I use the full CTO, And Plusgreens to colour correct when I have too.

Never thought of using gels on my flashlights though, I have a Rosco swatch book around here somewhere.

[RedLed]

Echo63,

Well, in LA everyone has a tan, so we only need the 1/4 Orange CTO!.

The main reason I Don't do this is most all of my work goes to an art director, or production/graphic/artist/designer, and they want to do all the color correction...And for hard news, I would not take any risk, even though cc is ok.

When we shot chromes I used it more.