Problems with whitewall hunting....

Nope, no technical problems here

I mean, I was shining my 3 AAA Lux I around out of boredom one night and noticed that on the wall it seemed to have a slight yellow tint to it. I know it's more of a blue tint from general use especially on dying batts.

Then I got thinking, 2 things.

1) Wall has some texture to it. while I can still see rings in the beam, the wall must smooth things out a bit.

2) Wall is not perfectly white, off white? Hence the slight yellow tint. I tried a piece of "white" paper, but it has a 88 brightness factor, still yellowish, moreso than the wall. If I had some good heavier 90+ brightness paper, I could get better results. Alas I have none.

Other than an integrating sphere, what would be a better way to see a more accurate representation for the tint? Not so worried about the rings.
Interesting stuffs

I don't see why you would need that level of tint distinguishment against a white object. One suggestion would be to test against varied colored backgrounds such as plants or something, and see which lights best represent those colors. The tint preference could then be made by which one best distinguishes colors from each other. Warmer tints should do this better.

I'm just curious as to how much tint my light has. I'm happy with it, but just wondering.
I know the tint in my 2nd gen X1 is pretty purplely, but does what I need it to.

Incan still rules for the great outdoors, makes me want an A2 sometimes.

It depend how white the wall is, old paint shows up as yellow

Maybe there are posterboards that you could buy that are whiter than standard paper or your walls. A posterboard would be a smooth and consistent reference point to compare flashlights. Would something like that work?

I need white as possible for digital photography close up.Which single AA nimh flashlight will do the job. Dont want to do any mods.Heard the Fenix cree has yellow tint. Any specific flashlight suggestions ?

There are calibration targets made for photography work that use a fabric that reflects all colors about equally. The large ones are a bit pricey, but the smaller ones are pretty reasonable. PhotovisionVideo is one source. (www.photovisionvideo.com?)


A low budget item might be a Kodak gray card. The back is white and should be pretty close. Store it in a clean package to keep it from getting dingy or discolored.

All my ceilings are highly reflective "ceiling white".

To get a really good idea of a light's tint and to compare it to another one I'll shine them on the smooth white enameled front on the freezer down in the basement. I think I get the truest view this way.

Geoff

BAH, everyone loves their silly "white wall" test, take that light outside and USE it. Walk your dog, go camping, spot some deer, make sure you like it for what it's really used for. It's much easier (for me) to justify spending hard earned money on something that really excels at what i need it for.

A projector screen should be nice and white.

2) Wall is not perfectly white, off white? Hence the slight yellow tint. I tried a piece of "white" paper, but it has a 88 brightness factor, still yellowish, moreso than the wall. If I had some good heavier 90+ brightness paper, I could get better results. Alas I have none.

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A lot of the super high brightness papers (ie 98 bright) simply add a blue fluorescent die to "mask" the yellowness of a paper. With an LED, that contains no violet or UV light, the fluorescent die does nothing. However, one cool effect is that it's possibel to read from those sorts of sheets using a UV flashlight.

For tint comparison, try:

A4 paper ?

A3 paper better.

Any large white paper product.

Take a picture of a poster board in high noon direct daylight with a camera's white balance set manually. Then take pictures of your flashlights indoors with the same white balance setting. Compare the pictures side by side. That should give you a relative comparison between your lights' tint and the sun's "white".

Wish I had a digital cam

I think I'm gonna try some high brightness paper and see how it looks. I'm only curious as to the actual color of the tint. I've been outdoors, very pale.

TORCH_BOY said:

It depend how white the wall is, old paint shows up as yellow

Click to expand...

depends on whether theres a smoker in the house

The best way to estabish tint is not by finding a whiter wall... it's by shining a known standard reference "white" tint light next to the light you are trying to test.

Try it sometime... even if you don't have a standard "white" tint light, a slightly off-blue or off-green light can work almost as well.

Be careful when hunting them white walls....before you know it, they'll have you surrounded.

Hehe, no wonder I can't seem to get anywhere.............

Thump....(turns)....Bump............