Bitten by the warm LED bug.

LEDBE
paintballdad

paintballdad

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Joined
Sep 22, 2008
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Location
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I haven't been paying too much attention to color rendition with LED lights. The whitest and the brightest seem to catch the most attention. A few days ago, i decided to pick up a Jet IIIM in the "warm" version. Indoors it looked yellow compared to most of my lights and was not completely impressed. The light itself is great (my first Jetbeam) but thought "i should have gotten the R2".

While in the garage last night getting some camping gear ready for this weekend, i decided to compare the Jet IIIM to my favorite light, the Surefire U2. My eyes were treated to i think is the truest colors i've seen from a LED light. The leaves were green & not blueish, the tree trunk were brown & not grayish and it seems the depth perception is better with the "warm" Jet IIIM. Is this what the "warm" fanatics have been preaching all this time? Good color rendition with the efficiency of an LED. If this is truly the case then the warm LED bug has bitten me.
 
paintballdad said:
....seems the depth perception is better with the "warm" Jet IIIM. Is this what the "warm" fanatics have been preaching all this time?
Click to expand...

I was thinking about this last night as I was walking the dogs wiht new McGizmo Sundrop XR-U (warm LED for short).

It is as if with a white LED the light just bounces back off everything on the ground - while with a warm LED it gets sucked in & everything appears as it should be. Just my impression.
 
You have to own at least one warm emitter for outdoor activities; the urban-parking-lot cold LEDs look completely out of place in nature, whereas a warm emitter really brings out natural colors and seems right at home.
 
Precisely OP! Color rendition is important because many objects outdoors don't contain a lot of blues, greys and whites which are shown by LEDs with higher color rendition. Brown and Green contain more reds and darker colors which warmer LEDs will pick out.

I was first introduced to "warm" LEDs when I got my Inova T1 and reviewed it

here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=190838

and ever since then I have wanted lights with only warmer LEDs. I think there is a reason so many people gravitate towards the Incan section of CPF even with LEDs approaching similar capacity. Try using it in the fog! I busted out my cheap gerber incan (60 lumens) the other day when it was really foggy and I was able to see better with it than I was with my brand new streamlight strion LED (~150 lumens).

I would say you have been bitten by the warm LED bug and...sorry to say but...the only cure is more warm LEDs! Good luck.
 
Virtually all my interest in lights these days is in neutral/warm LED lights.Cool white is fine indoors but once you get outside the wam LEDs seem to work much better even if they are not as bright.Its good to see some flashlight manufacturers are providing this option,certainly it is where my money is going!Sadly I think Fenix and SF are missing the boat here with only one offering from Fenix and nothing from SF.Both makers offer some fantastic lights but they would be more usefull with neautral LEDs IMHO.Fortunately for SF fans there are the Malkoff drop-ins!
 
Welcome to the dark side, Paintballdad!

Yeup - that's precisely what we've been preaching about. It's an amazing difference, isn't it?

Since seeing my first warm LED, I haven't purchased a single cold LED. (Well, that's not entirely true - the Spy007 only comes in a cold version, and I just had to have one.) Just a year or two ago, I was pretty convinced that incans would be here for quite a while due to their warm glow and better color rendition. But after seeing warm LEDs, I've glimpsed the future: the incan's days truly are numbered.

- FITP
 
I too have found how much I prefer an LED with warm/high CRI output.

The slight decrease of lumens doesn't bother me as much.

I'd much rather have better color rendering.

I find that I use my "warm" lights more than my cold lights now for most uses. When I need all-out high output, the colder emitters do what they do well.

I even went so far as to mod my Spy005 with a high CRI Seoul...:naughty:

030-10.jpg
 
I completely understand and agree with the reasons for using warm white emitters, but unfortunatelly I still don´t like the warm white tints. Therefore I still use incans for outdoor activities and cool white LEDs for urban/home environment.

Eric
 
Agree with Eric - can't stand the yellow "warm" tints. :green:

I have no trouble whatsoever discerning colours with my WC-tinted pure white lights. I'm often out in the garden at night (looking for our cats), and foliage / leaves / branches look perfectly fine to me with WC tint. Greens, browns, orange etc. all clearly rendered.

I know how subjective colour perception is, so I have no problem at all with different preferences, so long as we get a balanced view.
 
Ilikeshinythings said:
Try using it in the fog! I busted out my cheap gerber incan (60 lumens) the other day when it was really foggy and I was able to see better with it than I was with my brand new streamlight strion LED (~150 lumens).
Click to expand...

Funny you mention this. I just received a Lumens Factory EO-6 yesterday and dropped it in my Surefire C2. I live in SoCal where a lot of the fires are right now. I compared the 200 bulb lumen EO-6 to a MD2 with a M60 and the incan C2 was penetrating the smoke and ashes in the air much better than the M60. I can illuminate the telephone poles much brighter with the incan.
 
I must agree with the OP, after seeing the warm/neutral tints, I can no longer stand most cooler tints. Yes, it seems brighter, but I've never liked colder/flatter light.

It's basically like comparing noon on a cloudy day vs evening on a sunny day. One is just more pleasing and improves depth perception for me.

I really hesitate now on lights that are cooler tint and especially if I cannot mod it to warmer tint.

I can live with modding (I've done most of my lights) but don't like the need to get through tons of loctite.

:green:
 
Nice experience you share Paintballdad,

Yes, cool tints may be experienced as brighter even if they aren't, and to especially white objects they may impress.
But I also have the same feeling as you, and going more towards warmer tints. Not only that a warm tint makes many dark colours more visible, but also it's much more comfortable for the eyes.

My first (and until now only) warm LED light is Fenix TK20, but I am waiting any day for a Quark AA2 neutral and an EagleTac M2XC4 neutral .

Regards, Patric
 
Last edited:
paintballdad said:
the incan C2 was penetrating the smoke and ashes in the air much better than the M60.
Click to expand...
I tend to go for neutral/warm white LED given the availability, but find myself drawn to the incan more and more lately. I often describe a neutral/warm LED will shine/illuminate thru a hazy night, but the incan beam will 'cut' thru the haze/fog with force.
 
DaFABRICATA said:
I even went so far as to mod my Spy005 with a high CRI Seoul...:naughty:

030-10.jpg
Click to expand...

ooh, now thats what i'm talking about! lovecpf
i'm so tempted to do the 007 in high cri, but i dont mind the U2SWOH cool bin
that's in it. u2swoh was my preferred bin before i latched onto the high cri p4's...so it still gets plenty of use.. now, when a U bin high cri comes out, i will be interrogating the spy...
 
I'm definitely hooked on the Neutral tints. The High-CRI SSC P4's and Nichia 183's I've worked with are the most pleasing sources of light I have seen yet, short of the evening sun.

All of my lights are either Cree 5A-5C, SSC High-CRI, or Nichia 183's. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back after spoiling myself this much. :D
 
paintballdad said:
My eyes were treated to i think is the truest colors i've seen from a LED light. The leaves were green & not blueish, the tree trunk were brown & not grayish and it seems the depth perception is better with the "warm" Jet IIIM. Is this what the "warm" fanatics have been preaching all this time?
Click to expand...

Yes. Indeed it is.

Welcome to the fold. :twothumbs
 
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