A few questions about neutral tints and high CRI

[llmercll]

I'm really a big fan of neutral tints and high CRI lighting (I have high cri lightbulbs in my house and can tell). I'm wondering if there's any downside to high CRI emitters or if they share the same specs as their regular cri cousins.

I'm also curious what the typical neutral light color temperature is closer to, 5000 or 4000? I see zebralight makes both so I'm curious.

 

[Modernflame]

In the world of handheld lighting, high CRI lights are typically less efficient than their "standard" CRI relatives and ultimately have less output. I, too, prefer emitters on the plus side of 90 CRI, but for most tasks 80 CRI sufficient. In fact, most people won't be able to tell the difference between 80 and 90 CRI.

"Neutral" lights are generally defined as having at CCT of 4000K to 5000K, although opinions may vary as to whether the extremes of that continuum qualify as neutral. Color temperature is, of course, independent of CRI. One can find high CRI emitters in a wide range of CCT.

 

[twistedraven]

It is also important to distinguish tint from correlated color temperature. The CCT of an LED emitter dictates how warm or cool it looks (generally a balance of blue to red output).

Tint shifts deal with how much green or magenta bias the light has. Most people will probably prefer a light with no magenta or green bias, or something with slight magenta bias to it.

CRI does not correlate with either tint or CCT, it's just an objective number telling us how well the LED renders specific color samples. High CRI emitters can have low or high CCT, or greenish or magentaish tints.

The last important thing to note is that CRI is more subtle compared to differences in CCT and tints.

 

[llmercll]

Thank you, I was not aware about tint, but now that you've explained it I understand completely. I have one light that is "neutral" but comes off as being awfully green. Whereas another neutral light I have is a much more nice warm/yellow color, without obvious green coloring. I don't think I've seen a magenta tint though.

So Ideally you want a neutral tint as well? What does zebralight mean by tint deviation?

 

[twistedraven]

Not all LEDs are created equally. Due to manufacturing deviations, the LEDs can come off the line with either a greenish or magentaish tint, with varying grades of extremity. Cree counteracts this to some degree by offering easywhite binning, where they select batches of LEDs that objectively measure to not deviate that far from the black body locus that defined what a neutral tint is throughout the color temperature spectrum.

 

[staticx57]

 

[llmercll]

thanks everyone

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

I'm really a big fan of neutral tints and high CRI lighting (I have high cri lightbulbs in my house and can tell). I'm wondering if there's any downside to high CRI emitters or if they share the same specs as their regular cri cousins.

I'm also curious what the typical neutral light color temperature is closer to, 5000 or 4000? I see zebralight makes both so I'm curious.

Warm and high CRI tend to have lower maximum output than a cool white emitter because of the additional material used to alter the color temperature, but this is not as big of a deal as some might think because the difference in output is negligible in all practical sense. Remember, you need a 4x increase in output for a perceived doubling in brightness, so, for instance, the difference in output between my 120 lumen high CRI HDS Rotary and 200 lumen cool white HDS Rotary is imperceptible even though the latter has almost twice the lumens. However, in my opinion, I can see better with the a high CRI source because the superior color rendering enhances depth perception and object recognition.

One of my favorite stories is the time I was comparing high CRI vs cool white in my garden. I shined the cool white on some plants and observed the color detail, then switched to the high CRI, and to my surprise, I immediately saw a brown rabbit sitting in the middle of the plants. I switched back to the cool white and noticed that it rendered everything in a flat bluish-grey hue that made the rabbit's fur blend with the plants and become almost invisible. With high CRI, the green of the plants and the brown of the rabbit were easily distinguishable.

So even with less output, it is my opinion that a high CRI source is superior.

 

[18650]

High CRI light source does not necessarily mean it's easy to tell colors from one another unless the CCT is also neutral.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

High CRI light source does not necessarily mean it's easy to tell colors from one another unless the CCT is also neutral.

Good to see written here, even though the term 'neutral' is really too vague to speak accurately. A 4000K high CRI does not render white as white. It is cream colored or yellowish or rose'ish.

Especially at longer distances, the warmer color temperatures seems to have less contrast than hi CRI 5000K or 5600K range.

 

[chorlton]

As said further up this thread, a good hi cri emmiter depends on the manufacturer. Personally I find all my neutral tint Cree lights produce a yellow tint with maybe the exemption of my Manker U21 which has a neutral XHP 35 hi and is quite pleasing to my eyes and probably the best tint you'll find in a good thrower! However none are stated as hi cri. I find the tint of my Nichia lights at similar colour temperatures much more pleasing to the eye and I'm happy to sacrifice a few lumens for that!

 

[knucklegary]

Has anyone viewed in person Samsung LH351D 4000k Hi Cri?
How does Samsung tints compare to (any version) Nichia?
I read there is no unnatural pinkish/fushia appearance.. IDK

 

[neutralwhite]

just wish Yuji LED would make some flashlight LEDS!.