Would you prefer to buy Known Tint, Bin & Vf for Premium Lights?

prefer to buy a light with KNOWN BIN, TINT, and Vf of light?

  • Standard A

    Votes: 5 17.9%
  • Standard B

    Votes: 4 14.3%
  • Premium A

    Votes: 15 53.6%
  • Premium B

    Votes: 4 14.3%

  • Total voters
    28

ViReN

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All Lights are Production Run/more than 50 Run, Manufactured / 'modder' lights having Luxeon either of I/III/K2 or 5mm LED's.

Definations

1) Standard Light A = < $50
2) Standard Light B = > $50 but < $100
3) Premium Light A = > $100 but < $250
4) Premium Light B = > $250 ... Upwards

Question is: would you prefer to buy a light with KNOWN BIN, TINT, and Vf of light? if so, in which category?

As a general observation, I have observed that Small run's usually disclose the bins. Mostly premium category lights. However, surprisingly, some standard lights also disclose the bins.

I am also composing list of manufacturers, please suggest so that I could enhance this list.

Manufacturers who DO NOT disclose the LED details
1) HDS
2) Peak LED Solutions
3) Surefires (not sure though)

Manufacturers who DO disclose the LED details
1) LRI Photon (All lights, full detail disclosure, not explicit mentions)
2) Arc (especially AAA, full detail disclosure, not explicit mentions)
3) ORB (some times, mostly during introduction of new light, full disclosure)
4) McGizmo (most of lights, not exactly sure, full disclosure)
5) FF3 (not sure though, full disclosure)
6) Electrolumens (again not sure, full disclosure)
7) Fenix (some times and partial disclosure)
 

jsr

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For a <$50 light, I don't expect a guaranteed bin of any 3 categories (flux, tint, VF), tho quite a few mfr's at least guarantee the flux bin including Fenix, Huntlight, and Jetbeam (when it was presale, but even now, it's just barely over $50).
For a $50<x<$100 light, I prefer at least 1 of the 3 bin categories be guaranteed, but still don't expect it except for custom lights. High volume ones like SF, Pelican, Pentagon, Inova, Streamlight I don't expect.
Anything >$100, I expect at least guaranteed flux and prefer guarantee of all 3. Ideally, I'd like a guaranteed flux and VF bin and I choose amongst an option of tints (I personally prefer greenish and yellowish tints).

For your list, as I mentioned, Jetbeam did (not sure if they still do) guarantee flux and Huntlights guarantee flux bins also, similar to Fenix.
 

BentHeadTX

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Peak posted that the Pacific uses LuxeonIII T bins with a J Vf.

Since I get into modding, I prefer to know the Luxeon bin code of the lights I purchase. 5mm LEDs are not much of a concern to me, I get those type for UV and red colors.
 

Planterz

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I would love it if Surefire would disclose bin information, or at least pick specific bins and leave "undesireable" bins alone, but playing the Devil's advocate here, I know that it simply isn't practical for them. They're too big and need too many LEDs to cherry pick. They're probably also to big to even offer a "Pro" model or something like that, which has particularily good tint and runtime (like HDS XR and GT models).
 

ViReN

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Planterz said:
I would love it if Surefire would disclose bin information, or at least pick specific bins and leave "undesireable" bins alone, but playing the Devil's advocate here, I know that it simply isn't practical for them. They're too big and need too many LEDs to cherry pick. They're probably also to big to even offer a "Pro" model or something like that, which has particularily good tint and runtime (like HDS XR and GT models).

so for $1000 surefire, you still are in a Luxeon lotery ? may be they use S or T Bins but that's about it?

any surefire light can contain any of the dirty greens or purples too?... i dont think so.. there must be some cutoff level for them and they must be ordering some specific bin's and flux levels for sure. if they are big guys, they will also get preference from Philips-Lumiled's for specific bins, if they request.
 

big beam

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I don't know why they don't tell us the bin after all 99.999999% of the people will have no idea what the bin means.Oh I forgot then we would all learn what bins mean and wouldn't buy the crappy one's.What was I thinking? (AN uneducated consumer is our best customer)Right?
 

ViReN

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big beam said:
I don't know why they don't tell us the bin after all 99.999999% of the people will have no idea what the bin means.Oh I forgot then we would all learn what bins mean and wouldn't buy the crappy one's.What was I thinking? (AN uneducated consumer is our best customer)Right?

I am not so sure if that percent of 'general' consumer but on CPF atleast 80 - 90 % guys know what Tint & Bins are with an exception of Newbies.
 

this_is_nascar

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I've seen too many "unacceptable to me" tints, even on known bins. I've paid premium dollars for lights that had guarenteed bins/tint, only to be dissapponted at times. I don't know what the answer is, but I prefer to see the tint of the light and not worry about the binning.
 

yaesumofo

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I agree with TIN here completely!! He said it much better than I can.

In the past, I went through my bin code obsession. What I eventually learned that I was wasting my time worrying about bin codes. I realized that even if an emitter was binned say as a TW0L that the W0 part was not always accurate. I learned that what mattered was do I like the quality of the light being projected from the flashlight?
Today, I could care less what the Bin of an emitter is. As long as it is white and pleasing to my eye, and bright then it is OK for me. The Binning process is inexact. I have ordered TW0K emitters for projects in the past. These were "premium" emitters. They varied widely out of 10 (in one particular case) 5 were up to par to my eyes and were made into space needles.
Personally I like the way that HDS does it. I have 2 of them and they both look great. One is a GT the other is not. In the future I wouldn't spend the extra money on the GT. Who cares what bin's they are? The light from their lights looks great! That is what counts not the Bin code. Right?


If you are a wall hunter and have lots of flashlights to shine on a wall to see which one is whiter or brighter then fine, I can see how the Bin code gives you some sort of reference point to work from. Personally I do not use my lights that way. I tend to use them in the real world inside and outside. If I had to pic a BIN it would be W0 because it is supposed to be the whitest. I have many other lights with other Bins which are very pleasing.

When I buy a flashlight, bin code doesnt play the role it used to for me, but the QUALITY of the Light to the eye is what counts.

In the real world I have made and given many flashlights to friends. I always start with bins like W0 WA X1 X0. When I give these lights away the first thing that people say after thanks is "WOW that is so bright and white too!!"
They never ask "hey what Bin is the emitter in that light?" Never.
That is the point. Bin codes are unimportant to most people because what they see is a great bright white light. That is what is important!!.

Yaesumofo



this_is_nascar said:
I've seen too many "unacceptable to me" tints, even on known bins. I've paid premium dollars for lights that had guarenteed bins/tint, only to be dissapponted at times. I don't know what the answer is, but I prefer to see the tint of the light and not worry about the binning.
 

ViReN

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TIN, yaesumofo: I agree fully with you both.

It's such a the loose binning that Luxeon Does. a Nice Bin WO can fall under load anywhere down the chart due to die temprature and currents...

But, Still, you have a better chance to know that the LED would be good if it falls under WO, XO, XA, W1 instead of going completely blind on the Luxeon Tint Lott0

U dont wanna be in Ugly Purple's and Dirty Green's and Lovely Pink's .. do u?

Also, HDS Does not disclose the binning, but I still believe that GT's are better of the tints (mostly under WO, XO, XA, W1) .. and the Other's are just open farm Luxeon Lott0
 
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