Wiggle
Flashlight Enthusiast
I had the same thing happen when I ordered a 17670 cell from them, I emailed them back and then got the shipping notice an hour later:twothumbs
Which reveals more? Quark aa^2 in NEUTRAL or COOL white?
- Thread starter wyager
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ODatsBright
Newly Enlightened
Go with NW. I have the AA² NW regular version and love it, I think mine is the 4C0 (oranger) tint and it's perfect. I've tried the cool white, warm white, and neutrals and it just seems that the NW tint gives the best rendering, getting 'into' the foliage and making the landscape looks the best.
Colorblinded
Enlightened
NW is hardly dimmer than cool white, whereas WW does seem noticeably dimmer. IMO the best tint overall is the NW, it seems to render colors better and is more pleasingly neutral.
Wiggle
Flashlight Enthusiast
I only wish they'd kept the same beam pattern for the NW. Thats the only reason I can't 100% replace my CW with the NW. If it were the same, I'd swap the AA2 NW head onto my AA (running 14500) body.
wyager
Flashlight Enthusiast
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GRRR I emailed them back 4 minutes after they closed up apparently :scowl: I guess I'll have to wait till thursday at the earliest....
Also, there's no way I can send them a couple extra bucks to give me the 4D emitter, right? Also again, what's the voltage range? I think Nutnfancy once said that the head was universal, meaning it can run anywhere from a single AA to 2 3.7v batteries. Is this correct?
StarHalo
Flashaholic
I ordered a pair of Quark MiniAAs, one was slightly greenish and one was slightly pinkish. I don't think most people would be able to know which was which by seeing only one, the difference is very slight and only noticeable when comparing them side-by-side on a flat white object. Knowing that this light would most likely be used as my wife's gardening light, and that it would have to bring out and differentiate the various plant greens, I kept the greenish one and gifted the other.
As a side note; living here in the desert, using a light source that has any warmth to it at all in an actual desert area creates "sand-out" - just as everything being white causes white-out in snowy areas, sand-colored light in a sandy area just makes everything look the same, modest color differences are sublimated and everything just looks tan. But using a cool emitter, the sand looks gray, greens look green, light and dark separates more obviously, tiny color shifts stand out much better. Sometimes a cool emitter actually is better..
As a side note; living here in the desert, using a light source that has any warmth to it at all in an actual desert area creates "sand-out" - just as everything being white causes white-out in snowy areas, sand-colored light in a sandy area just makes everything look the same, modest color differences are sublimated and everything just looks tan. But using a cool emitter, the sand looks gray, greens look green, light and dark separates more obviously, tiny color shifts stand out much better. Sometimes a cool emitter actually is better..
Quension
Newly Enlightened
It's listed right there on the product page you linked in post #1...
There are two drivers used in the heads: low-voltage for the 123, AA, and AA² lights; high-voltage for the 123². Putting two Li-ions in your new AA² will fry it.
That's probably true for most. The first MiNi CR2 I got was so obviously pink that it bothered me using it indoors -- and this was as a sole light source without trying to compare it to others. I still can't describe exactly what annoyed me about the output of that one, but I imagine it was at the far edge of 4C. Its replacement seems to have the faintest hint of magenta that makes me think it's also 4C, but it's so close I can't say for sure by eyeball -- and of course it's great to use.
wyager
Flashlight Enthusiast
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OK, Good to know that I can use a single Li+. Here's to hoping I get a good tint :candle:
Also, it shipped today
great service.
Also, it shipped today
great service.
Colorblinded
Enlightened
You'd have to find one of the older NW models without the XP-G emitter I suppose.
Hmm...most interesting I would never have considered this to be possible. I will see some desert before summer is over. Looking forward to witnessing this first hand....thanks for this tidbit.
B0wz3r
Flashlight Enthusiast
The same thing happened to me when I got my Quark NW. Even without comparing it to anything else, not even white wall hunting, I could see the greenishness to it right away. Not that I could see it as green mind you, but it just looked... odd. Then when I did some white wall hunting it became obvious. Its even worse when compared with any Q35A emitter.
I've also read several reports here that the perceived color of the NW XPG's are different... seems like there's a LOT of variability in them, which makes me think Cree doesn't quite have the process on them down as well as for the older generations of their neutral white emitters. My EZAAw and my JetBeam are identical in tint to my eyes. I think I'm going to have to avoid these emitters until they develop their process better to produce more consistent results. Fortunately, I plan on getting a Zebralight as my next purchase, and they use the Q45B emitters as far as I've been able to find out. I'm looking forward to seeing how that tint compares to the 5A.
As far as I know, this is more a function of the size of the emitter than the tint. The XPGs are 2 mm whereas the XREs are 1 mm so they produce a tighter hotspot.
Wiggle
Flashlight Enthusiast
XP-E vs XP-G actually. But when I was talking about the different beam patterns this was among XP-G models only. I have a low voltage XP-G R5 Cool head and a low voltage XP-G R4 Neutral head, the neutral head is noticeable floodier (as you can see in the pictures I posted). When I looked at the reflectors there is more texturing on the NW one, explaining the change in beam profile.
NW on left, CW on right:
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Colorblinded
Enlightened
Ah, my mistake then. I thought you were talking XP-E vs XP-G. I did not realize they had changed reflectors for the XP-Gs somewhere along the line.XP-E vs XP-G actually. But when I was talking about the different beam patterns this was among XP-G models only. I have a low voltage XP-G R5 Cool head and a low voltage XP-G R4 Neutral head, the neutral head is noticeable floodier (as you can see in the pictures I posted). When I looked at the reflectors there is more texturing on the NW one, explaining the change in beam profile.
NW on left, CW on right:
DeadButAlive
Newly Enlightened
This is also why I've stopped purchasing XP-G lights for a while. I've got a several of them in cool whites as well as a few of the Quarks in neutral and with a couple of exceptions they seem to run more or less to the greenish tint side. I actually prefer the more mature XR-E line as they seem to produce much more consistent tints. I've had quite a few cool white XR-E lights that are pretty much perfectly white (at least to my eyes) with little to no tint at all. Hopefully as XP-G technology matures they will be able to produce consistently premium tints like those of the XR-E line.
My SC50W+ has a tint a bit to the yellow side of warm. I also have 5 different Eagletac modules with XP-E Q4 emitters - two edge toward yellowish (like the Zebralight) and three are more pinkish. I've noticed that the yellowish ones get more yellowish a low currents and whiter at higher currents, while the pinkish ones get whiter a lower currents and more pinkish at higher currents. The best neutral I've ever seen is my Jetbeam Jet-III M with a "warm" Q3 XR-E emitter. They don't give the tint bin but it is as close to sunlight as I've ever seen in an LED - a little warmer than cool white but cooler than any neutral I've seen.
