Re: Impressions of the new white bin color codes
I have taken the liberty of copying below the very detailed and thorough observations in another post. I hope that others will continue to added to this thread.
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illumiGeek said:
Well, I finally got around to firing up my TWAK & TX1K (3W) emitters for a little comparison.
Both the TWAK and TX1K are rated as 6300K color temperature by Lumileds. This should put them in the Cool-White color range. But, these bins are on the opposite sides of the tint chart, with the X1 on the Yellow-Green side, and the WA in the Purple-Pink area.
Should make an interesting comparison.
I dug up a big-ol' Pentium Pro heatsink from the junk, er... "spare parts" box and stuck the emitters on with some Frag-Tape (high quality thermal tape). Then I wired them up in series to keep the drive levels close without getting too fancy. Then I grabbed a bunch of NiMh batteries and a 6-cell series holder and lit 'em up.
OUCH!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif Damn, these suckers are bright!
So then I went and ate dinner while waiting for my vision to return.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif
Once I could see well enough to be objective, I wandered around the house in the dark to get a general impression of the light. Very, very white. Everything looked "right" under the light from my test rig. Held close or far from various objects and surfaces I could not see any color tint or differences in the 2 emitters, or any tint at all to the light they produced.
So let's get a bit more serious. Close up and reflecting off of white paper there is just the barest hint of Pink in the TWAK, while the TX1K looks very white.
Shining through the paper the TX1K looks very slightly warm now, but it's so slight that it's hard to say for sure. The TWAK again, looks a bit pink.
Dropped the power to 4xNiMH (from 6) and the color difference became more pronounced. The TX1K looked a bit warmer - still just barely, though. Still very white with just a hint of Yellow, and the TX1K now looks decidedly Pink.
So much for the subjective eyeball stuff. Let's see what the camera thinks.
Hmmm... interesting results. With the camera locked on "Daylight" color balance the TX1K looks perfect. Dead neutral white without a hint of color. The TWAK now appears on the warm side.
I tried various exposures from +1 to -2 and got the same results. The TX1K just goes from white to various shades of neutral gray as the exposure changes.
The TWAK looks slightly Yellow in the pictures, but in the over-exposed pic, the halo looks pink.
Lets drop some optics on and see what happens. With a couple of LP optics shining up at a paper tent I see no color again. Both look very, very white. Looking at the optics themselves there is just the barest hint of pink in the TWAK, but the beam is white.
I thought about posting the pics, but the differences are so subtle that I don't think it will be much help. Unless you have a photo color calibrated monitor (I do) there isn't enough difference to be useful.
Oh, what the hell. Since I went to all the trouble of taking them...
The Minolta Xi on "Auto" color balance shows the colors closest to what the eye sees. Very white light; a hint of warmth in the TX1K emitter; a hint of Pink in the TWAK emitter.
The Olympus on "Daylight/Sunlight" color balance shows the expected Cool-White light, and the unexpected warmth in the TWAK (with the TX1K looking pure white).
The "Optics" shot again shows a little of what the eye sees. Warmth in the TX1K and Pink in the TWAK. The beams from both optics were pretty much colorless. Nice and white.
The "Through The Paper" shot shows the most pronounced color in the TWAK, with a warm-yellow tint. The TX1K looks very white again in this "Daylight" balanced shot.
Of course the colors you see will depend on your monitor's calibration. As for the "true" color, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
So who's the winner? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif Beats me. Both of these produce beautiful white light and are retina searing bright. Tints on these opposing bins are very subtle and not really noticeable in the light they produce. As has been stated before, all 3W Luxeons seem to be excellent bins, so you really can't go wrong. When/If I ever get the time to build lights with these things I'll let you know how it goes.
Aloha, iG
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