I HATE LED LIGHTS MORE AND MORE EVERYDAY

heliyardsale · Dec 30, 2006

I don't know about you guys but I'm starting to hate LED lights more and more everyday. It's getting depressing... It all started a few years ago when I read about Streamlight's 3C 10 led light. Sounded great so I bought it for 36.00. It came in the mail and the blueish tint of the LEDs seemed pretty impressive. When I compared it to the throw of a 3D maglight I had I soon became depressed. Shortly after that I bought a few cheap made in China lights off of Ebay for $9.00 and when they came in the mail I popped in some AAA's and waited for the sun to fall. A quick comparison that night between the C3 and the cheap made in China lights with fewer LEDs made me even more depressed... The crappy Chinese LEDs blew away the Streamlight. Shortly after this I received a 50.00 gift cert for the local Bass Pro Shop and decided to blow it on the Streamlight TwinTask 2D. Again with a renued sense of hope and some fresh coppertops I waited for the sun to drop. Again, depressed... The TT's LEDs where way to blue making the xeon bulb seem bright yellow, oh god! Will it ever end... Next came a Princeton Tec Impact XL, with the new Luxeon technolgy maybe there was hope? The XL seemed pretty good, the 1 Watt Luxeon actually almost seemed to be a white color. Throw still sucked but at least the color was right. From here I decided to replace my Princeton Tec Aurora with a 3 watt Apex, Finally total satisfaction, the 5mm LEDs were fairly white, the Luxeon was amazing or so I thought until I bought a Fenix L1T. Damnit. Now the Apex looks yellow... Crap. Once again the Chinese blew my old faithful away. More depression. Then to make matters worse, I was up late one night a month ago, dreaming that maybe the Cree will be the final light I'll buy, nothing can be better right? While dazed and scanning through the CP forums, I stumbled on FifthUnits web site and bought a little 3 Watt 123a light for 18.00. It came, the sun fell, and it blew away the L1T, it was brighter, whiter, better throw and less than 1/2 the price. Shortly afterwards, I walked over to the computer, unplugged the phone line from the modem, and vowed my light buying days are over... NEVER AGAIN! At least until Fenix fixes the rings in the Cree light or come out with an AA Cree.... I guess I'll go back to collecting battery chargers for a while. YES I AM AN LED ADDICT. Does anyone have any spare Prozac???? :grin2:

Hurry up Fenix Hurry up......
Heli

MarNav1 · Dec 30, 2006

I hate all my LED light's too, That's why I keep buying more and more of them!
I use Xanax myself!:lolsign:

Valpo Hawkeye · Dec 30, 2006

If those Chinese are performing well, why be depressed? If you want to feel good about LED lights check out Chronos' post on his A19 and Milkyspit ML-1, both Cree lights with good beams. Pricey, but nice. Personally, I can't wait for my ML-1 P3 bin Cree L1 to arrive!

Coop · Dec 30, 2006

There is a simple cure for this problem. Go to the nearest store that sells 2D cheapie lights, buy one. Buy a set of zinc-carbon batteries for it. Put the batteries in the light and play with it for a while. After that you will love your LED lights again, even the oldest, dimmest, bluest LED will look great when compared to that cheapie 2D incan...

heliyardsale · Dec 30, 2006

MayCooper said:
There is a simple cure for this problem. Go to the nearest store that sells 2D cheapie lights, buy one. Buy a set of zinc-carbon batteries for it. Put the batteries in the light and play with it for a while. After that you will love your LED lights again, even the oldest, dimmest, bluest LED will look great when compared to that cheapie 2D incan...

Now that sounds like a safer alternative to drugs.... I'll have to dig one out and start back with my old C3 again... Maybe a 14500 3.7V for my L1T would be good therapy???? I just don't know anymore....
Heli

carrot · Dec 30, 2006

I hate my LED lights too... that's why I carry incan.

jayflash · Dec 30, 2006

Unless a lamp is severely out or normal tint range, it shouldn't be noticeable in actual use. I have good, white, perception and am not bothered that incans are yellow & LEDs range from green to purple. Side by side comparison is informative but often not related to actual use.

Just keep buying more until you've found enough that satisfy you and donate the rest to me for forensic purposes. PM me for my addy.

tron3 · Dec 30, 2006

I suppse LED is something you learn to love. When people see it for the first time, they immediately know that it is different from incandest light, even though it may be white.

I love LED for the brightness and long run times. Not to mention those clean beams with awesome hot spots.

Yet, it is a fact that yellow light is easier on the eyes than white or blue light. Someone told me in Europe they outlawed those blue/white headlights for cars because they hurt people's eyes, and I concur, they hurt mine.

Even today my eyes don't love LED. Who knows, in a few years time we may find they hurt the eyes just like flourecent lights do.

Culhain · Dec 30, 2006

carrot said:
I hate my LED lights too... that's why I carry incan.

I carry both and yet I'm still not happy. Do I have a bipolar flashaholic disorder?

BVH · Dec 30, 2006

I love my LED's and my HID's. Don't care much for any incan's.

2xTrinity · Dec 30, 2006

Yet, it is a fact that yellow light is easier on the eyes than white or blue light. Someone told me in Europe they outlawed those blue/white headlights for cars because they hurt people's eyes, and I concur, they hurt mine.

This is sort of a catch-22 issue, the bluer light is more sensitive for night vision, so it produces much better visibility for the driver, but also generates more glare for other drivers. I know in the US, and I believe also in Europe those lights are allowed, but only with special projectors that are self-leveling and have minimum spill/glare. The main problem though is that the 35W metal halide lamps used put out about three times as much light as standard 55W halogen lamps for car headlights. I personally think they'd be better off running slightly lower power -- you'd get the benefits of the cooler white light and lower power consumption without the lights being so overpowering.

Even today my eyes don't love LED. Who knows, in a few years time we may find they hurt the eyes just like flourecent lights do.

One of the reasons I like LEDs is because the bluish white color appears substantially brighter for night-time adjusted vision than dim incandescent light -- it makes it easy to find my way around in the dark even with very low powered LEDs. 5ew

FlashKat · Dec 30, 2006

It gets worse when you start modding your flashlights with Cree's. I modded my Streamlight 2L 3W and now my other stock Streamlight looks dim, and my VINET "MTE" from fifthunit.com with a Cree makes the stock VINET look dim and yellow. :lolsign:

Ken_McE · Dec 30, 2006

Culhain said:
Do I have a bipolar flashaholic disorder?

Err, for a Bi-Flashers thread you'll need to head over to the Underground, OK? (G)

heliyardsale · Dec 30, 2006

FlashKat said:
It gets worse when you start modding your flashlights with Cree's. I modded my Streamlight 2L 3W and now my other stock Streamlight looks dim, and my VINET "MTE" from fifthunit.com with a Cree makes the stock VINET look dim and yellow. :lolsign:

I guess I need to find a good source of Cree LEDs and start converting... Where should I start looking...

LOBOLUMENS · Dec 30, 2006

heliyardsale said:
I don't know about you guys but I'm starting to hate LED lights more and more everyday. It's getting depressing... It all started a few years ago when I read about Streamlight's 3C 10 led light. Sounded great so I bought it for 36.00. It came in the mail and the blueish tint of the LEDs seemed pretty impressive. When I compared it to the throw of a 3D maglight I had I soon became depressed. Shortly after that I bought a few cheap made in China lights off of Ebay for $9.00 and when they came in the mail I popped in some AAA's and waited for the sun to fall. A quick comparison that night between the C3 and the cheap made in China lights with fewer LEDs made me even more depressed... The crappy Chinese LEDs blew away the Streamlight. Shortly after this I received a 50.00 gift cert for the local Bass Pro Shop and decided to blow it on the Streamlight TwinTask 2D. Again with a renued sense of hope and some fresh coppertops I waited for the sun to drop. Again, depressed... The TT's LEDs where way to blue making the xeon bulb seem bright yellow, oh god! Will it ever end... Next came a Princeton Tec Impact XL, with the new Luxeon technolgy maybe there was hope? The XL seemed pretty good, the 1 Watt Luxeon actually almost seemed to be a white color. Throw still sucked but at least the color was right. From here I decided to replace my Princeton Tec Aurora with a 3 watt Apex, Finally total satisfaction, the 5mm LEDs were fairly white, the Luxeon was amazing or so I thought until I bought a Fenix L1T. Damnit. Now the Apex looks yellow... Crap. Once again the Chinese blew my old faithful away. More depression. Then to make matters worse, I was up late one night a month ago, dreaming that maybe the Cree will be the final light I'll buy, nothing can be better right? While dazed and scanning through the CP forums, I stumbled on FifthUnits web site and bought a little 3 Watt 123a light for 18.00. It came, the sun fell, and it blew away the L1T, it was brighter, whiter, better throw and less than 1/2 the price. Shortly afterwards, I walked over to the computer, unplugged the phone line from the modem, and vowed my light buying days are over... NEVER AGAIN! At least until Fenix fixes the rings in the Cree light or come out with an AA Cree.... I guess I'll go back to collecting battery chargers for a while. YES I AM AN LED ADDICT. Does anyone have any spare Prozac???? Hurry up Fenix Hurry up......
Heli

*Gets Popcorn*

infection0 · Dec 30, 2006

heliyardsale said:
I guess I need to find a good source of Cree LEDs and start converting... Where should I start looking...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=37
The Group Buy forum. If you use stars, you can get one from this thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/145517

Turbo DV8 · Dec 30, 2006

2xTrinity said:
This is sort of a catch-22 issue, the bluer light is more sensitive for night vision, so it produces much better visibility for the driver

GONG! Wrong ... actually the HID lights that appear blue to other drivers do not appear blue at all to the driver from the driver's seat. Also, there is no way that blue light can produce better visibility for any human. Blue light falls in the spectrum of light which is least able to focus perfectly on the surface of the retina. It focuses either slightly ahead or behind the surface (don't recall which from physics class!) Hence, objects viewed while illuminated under bluish light will appear somewhat fuzzy and indistinct. Ever heard of Blue Blocker sunglasses?

Objects appear razor-sharp due to the very fact that all the blue light is filtered out. Finally, if blue light produces better visibility for a driver, why do driving glasses filter out blue light?

Valpo Hawkeye · Dec 30, 2006

Wow, he GONGED you. Always subtle... :popcorn:

Icebreak · Dec 31, 2006

One of my favorite topics is the color of light. One reason is that the topic is fascinating. The other reason is because I know so little and wish to know more. It can be complicated considering that all eyeballs and brain driven light processors are not equal.

Turbo DV8 said:
Blue light falls in the spectrum of light which is least able to focus perfectly on the surface of the retina. It focuses either slightly ahead or behind the surface (don't recall which from physics class!) Hence, objects viewed while illuminated under bluish light will appear somewhat fuzzy and indistinct.

Blue scatter and blue fringe. Yes.

Here's something I learned not too long ago from jamaica. The eye relies on the differing focus between the colors in one of several servo loops maintaining optimum focus overall (by balancing red and blue defocus, green focus is optimized).

The eye's optics have a longer focal length for red light, roughly neutral for green, and shorter focal length for blue.

Accordingly, a nearsighted (myopic) person's focus is improved by red light, and worsened by blue. Vice versa for farsighted (hyperopic) folks.

Turbo DV8 said:
Ever heard of Blue Blocker sunglasses? Objects appear razor-sharp due to the very fact that all the blue light is filtered out. Finally, if blue light produces better visibility for a driver, why do driving glasses filter out blue light?

Night and day. Rods and cones. Scotopic and photopic.

Turbo DV8 said:
there is no way that blue light can produce better visibility for any human....snip

I have a different view. See post #32 by cobb. He's legally blind.

Odd thing. I can see detail edges better with bluer light but prefer semi-full spectrum incandescent lights for tromping around in the woods.

heliyardsale -

It could be that you are experiencing some perception recalibration. Every week that goes by all of my lights get a little dimmer. I can recalibrate my processor or get brighter lights. I have been doing both for a while now.

Monocrom · Dec 31, 2006

carrot said:
I hate my LED lights too... that's why I carry incan.

I hate my LEDs so much, I bought several Incas from Surefire and Streamlight..... all on the same day!

Oh wait, that wasn't the reason why I got them!
I think I have a problem too! :ohgeez:

I HATE LED LIGHTS MORE AND MORE EVERYDAY

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