My L4 has a green tint, No wait! Its White?!

[V8TOYTRUCK]

For the past 24 hours I have been debating with myself if my light has a green tint or not. Someone times it does, and sometimes it doesnt.

Have you guys noticed sometimes your L4 looks white and sometimes it has a green tint?

When I was walking outside this afternoon and going into my V8TOYTRUCK. I turned on the L4 and it looked to have a slight green tint. When I was having dinner tonight, the L4 looks white.

My conclusion: When my eyes are ''color corrected'' with daylight the L4 is in fact green. When my eyes were adjusted to the yellowish 3200k incandescent dining room lights, the L4 looked white.

Anyone else notice this? Give it a try, the next time you are outside in the afternoon for a while, shine your L4 at a white surface. Then at night, hang around some incandesents for a while and shine your L4.

 

[chamenos]

the tint your eyes see is usually relative to the ambient light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif my arc LS looks blue/purple in sunlight but at night it looks perfectly white.

 

[Sean]

I notice the same thing except instead of green in my L4 it's blue/violet. It's only noticeable against sunlight or when comparing it to other lights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smoker5.gif

 

[V8TOYTRUCK]

I'd have a blue/violet tint over a green tint ( however slight ) anyday.

 

[chamenos]

same here v8! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif the blue/violet tint is actually quite appealing...makes it look like a HID light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JollyRoger]

I actually like the green tint. Not the ugly pea green tint, but the nice light green tint...like the one you have in your L4, V8!

 

[FalconFX]

It's that "milky white" again... Not exactly green, but you can tell that the beam's trying to tease you with an "incognito green". You have to look hard to see some green, and yet it looks milky white... It's not incandescent yellow, but darn it, the beam just can't make up its mind as to what shade it wants to be...

...That's now I see my L4...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

 

[Carpe Diem]

Whatever color tint the L4 may or may not have, two things I know for sure:

1) The beam is really nice and really bright; and

2) The L4 immediately joined a very special part of my collection...it`s one of those rare flashlights that brought to me a great deal of excitement, awe and satisfaction the minute I turned it on.


You can`t ask for much more!


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[FalconFX]

You can`t ask for much more!

I'm counting my chest"nuts" that the PM6 drop-in will eclipse the L4...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

 

[Carpe Diem]

[ QUOTE ]
FalconFX said:
You can`t ask for much more!

I'm counting my chest"nuts" that the PM6 drop-in will eclipse the L4...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I`m sure we won`t be disappointed with Charlie`s drop-in.

But unfortunately, it will still be sitting in a PM6 body...which, no matter how much you look at it (to try to make it "look pretty"), it just doesn`t have the same quality as a Surefire.

Oh well...perhaps copious consumption of adult beverages will once again do the job!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[FalconFX]

It might not have the look of the SureFire, but it'll have a whole lot more hefty aluminum to handle that hot job it's partaking...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif

 

[B@rt]

[ QUOTE ]
Carpe Diem said:
Oh well...perhaps copious consumption of adult beverages will once again do the job!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

 

[keithhr]

No wait, it was greenish lastnight, it's still greenish today and no amount of wishful thinking will change that. It's not as green as my Spaceneedle II (second because of greenish tint) but it's still greenish, geesh, making me a little melancholy over the bluish tinted ones they produce. I guess I'll have to do what other un-named people here do, buy more, cherry pick the best and give someone a good deal.
Or I can just get used to it like the big boys. It certainly casts a nice broad beam, even if the throw is lacking, but if it had throw and a narrow beam, I , being a good flashaholic would probably complain of no side spill.I do like the beam without the concentrated hot spot, it looks way smoother this way.

 

[PaulW]

The color of my L4's beam sure does depend on ambient conditions. I just took it outside and looked at my white shutters. The light looked white, pure white. Yet, inside it varies. When I shine it on a kleenex, it looks bluish. When I shine it on the walls, it looks greenish. But then I discovered last night that my walls are yellower than I had thought. Time to repaint.

A few days ago I had four other L4s to compare it with. It (my keeper) was quite blue by comparison. When compared to my Arc LS it was only slightly blue. When compared to my Novagear 12 LED (Nichia) light, it looks quite green.

I conclude that it's all relative -- there's both blue and green (and perhaps a little yellow coming from that LS in my L4. But I notice that there is never any hint of orange or red. That part of the spectrum is missing. I guess that missing part is what the warm Luxeons will provide?

Paul

 

[chamenos]

paul, i wouldn't really say missing......just without a spike like in the blue spectrum /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif if you had a bit of a spike in the red spectrum as well as the blue spectrum, that's probably when you get a purple-tinted light output.

 

[PaulW]

Chamenos,

I see what you're saying. If there is a hint of purple, purple is a mixture, and there must be some red . . . . or wait! Is that color that I read about and occasionally experience for myself actually violet, which is a color and not a mixture and requires no red? I guess I really don't know. Perhaps it's the orange that's missing. But something is missing.

I now remember seeing a curve of intensity vs. wavelength for the "white" LS. I seem to recall that it had the standard bell-shaped curve but was centered into the blue, and then superimposed on the curve was a spike somewhere in the red region. If I'm recalling that correctly, then it is the orange that's missing.

In any event, your comment has me thinking and recognizing that I don't know as much physics as I thought I did. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Paul

 

[Wylie]

I could be going way out on a limb here but I have been able to get some spectrum changes with the same LED that cover all of the different colors that have been mentioned. If you are able to take a drinking straw of the right size and push the dome down lightly while the flashlight is illuminated you may notice these same changes. If your emitter is of the purplish color I wouldn’t try this you may see you LED shut off and when you release pressure the LED will come back to life. It just scares me when they go out like that and this could be from the circuit grounding so it is not a good idea. Batteries types and make up, ambient temperatures, barometric pressure, L/S bins and at least a couple of other things could all contribute to the color changes that have been mentioned IMHO. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

 

[chamenos]

paul, i'm not physics or led expert, and most of what i've said is purely theoratical /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif i suppose with the phospher coating being a rather uncontrollable factor, getting a flat spectrum is pretty rare. my arc ls usually varies between having a blue or slightly purple tint. what you've said has got me thinking again as well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Tomas]

Paul, just on a hunch I took a quick look at some tissues with my Arc AAA UV and they glowed quite strongly in a very blue color, often indicating that hey have "brightners" in the mix to make them appear "whiter and brighter" and therefore cleaner and more sanitary in our minds.

POSSIBLY this may be some of the beam color difference you are seeing? I know that one of my favorite LS lights does cause a bit of fluorescense in some materials in an otherwise yellowish/greenish beam ... Comes from the fact that the base LED chip is a wild blue, I suspect ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

 

[PaulW]

Tomas,

Yes, makes sense. There may be a near-UV component that causes a little fluoresence to add to the reflected light. I remember when I was a kid that my UV tube would cause the effect you speak of.

Paul