Measuring CRI, CRI BINs?

[kramer5150]

I am not sure where to post this, mods please relocate it to the right place if this is off topic.

1) Can the CRI of a light source (lamp or LED) be measured?
2) If so, why don't LED and incan/HID lamp manufacturers BIN by CRI value?

I was playing around with my halogen 12V 1MCP spotlight the other night, marveling at its warm/High CRI FAR throwing beam and this got me wondering.

:thinking:

 

[Th232]

Yes, it can be measured. On his thread about high CRI, McGizmo used a spectrometer to measure CRI:

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=199054

Most LED manufacturers do indicate CRI in one place or another, Seoul and Nichia indicate which of their range are high CRI on the datasheets. Can't speak for HID though. I recall that incans by definition have a CRI of 100, so no binning is needed. As for binning by CRI, I believe that the variability in CRI from making such LEDs is sufficiently low that it's not worth it. I could be wrong on that point as well.