EV or LE, which appears brighter?

I have an LE, is the EV a must buy?

Comparing white to turqiouse isn`t exactly fair, they are so different. But ignoring colour issues, the "EV" turquoise gives out more total light than the LE white. The bluegreen colour is right at the human eye`s most sensitive region so it can be easier to see things by and probably appear brighter still, plus it has a much wider beam than the white, more of a flood illuminating a larger area. Trouble is, being turquoise you can`t really tell colours apart. It isn`t as monochromatic as green or red, still- if you need to see colours white is your only choice.

But the turquoise EV would be a good choice for general navigation indoors or out if you don`t mind the colour. It is a rather attreactive bluey-green shade...


kinda like the colour of this little grinning fellow....

Hmmm. Tough question. Chris points out some great points.

Personally, I have exactly one LED light that is not white. It is the EV. I probably have ten AAA white around here right now (bunch of LE's, bunch of standards and my CPF). So, for what it's worth - if you absolutely need to have a colored LED, the EV is a great choice. I don't use mine much except to tell friends "hey, look. This is the color that's in the new traffic lights." Everybody goes, Wow. And I turn it off. The battery should last quite a while.

I don't use mine much except to tell friends "hey, look. This is the color that's in the new traffic lights." Everybody goes, Wow.

The very reason why I still keep my turquoise Photon-2 on my mammouth sized keychain (which also has an Infinity and an Arc AAA, v2.0 white- pushing my daily carry torch total to six!). LED traffic lights are popping up all over the country now. I like`em.
Occasionally tempted to climb up and half-inch a "green" cluster, but there must be 200+ diodes in there, what on earth would I do with that many used LEDs? LED retrofit for a Maxabeam perhaps....

I have several EV's, I like them alot but one other problem with the colored LED is banding, the output of the white LED's is smooth.

yeah... bands, blobs, rings, off-center hot-spots. Whatever you want to call them, they show up way more in the colored ones than in the white. I belive it is the Phosphor coating on the whites that makes them so much smoother.