Led: Types / Brands / Lumens

Please post here a comprehencive list of the led's that are available and which you think if the perfect led right now for brightness and runtime etc. The only things i know are "Luxeon star" "nichia + rigel" "Cree" Thats it.. I hear something about k2 but that sounds like a mountain to me..

I think the main players today are the Luxeon I, Luxeon III, Luxeon V, Cree and SSC. I think that most of the others are trying to hit price points rather than improved the technology. Crees and SSCs are the most effecient. The Lux Vs are probably best if you want the widest hotstop, but they tend to have more issues with donut holes and though they've been out for several years, the X bin Lux Vs are still basically impossible to get.

Bottom line, for a brand new light for an EDC, a Cree or SSC with a proper heatsink is likely the best choice for 99% of lighting needs. The USW0H is, in my opinion, the most choice bin. The USW0I will have slightly less runtime but I wouldn't sweat the difference.

ok i dont know what "bin" is, and what does SSC stand for?
Thanks

techwg said:

ok i dont know what "bin" is, and what does SSC stand for?
Thanks

Click to expand...

bins are basically performance groups. there are different brightness bins and different tint bins.

ssc is the seoul semiconductor company. the make the zpower p4 led....generally refered to a seoul....even though they make different models. this is the cree xre alternative. again peuple say cree when they refer to the xre...cree is the manufacturer.

anothr led is the osram ostar series. they are multi die like the lux V....but can take a lot more power.

Stu

Ok so whats the real world difference between the cree range thats in the fenix CE lights, compared to a SSC led? is it the same led with a different stamp on it? or is there benifits of one and not the other somehow?

Cree-XRE's have different bins to denote different brightnesses
The Q3 is the highest bin and at the moment seems to be unobtainable
Q2's are just starting to become available and are next highest and
brightest to date.

The SSC-P4s (or Seoul-P4-U-bins) are all of a similar brightness and
all readily available. To my eyes at least, they are brighter at a given
drive level that the Cree's which I have at the moment (ie. P4-bin Crees)
There may not be much difference between them and the Q2 Crees though.

The other huge difference is that the angle of beam emission is radically
different between Cree-XRE's and SSC-P4's. The latter is similar to a
luxeon (lambertian) and as a result can be used to retrofit luxeon lights
without many issues. On the other hand, Cree-XRE's need different optics
due to the much narrower beam (the reflectors need to be deeper, for
instance)

What is quite interesting is that the basic die used by both Cree-XRE and
SSC-P4 is the same (the EZ-1000 die manufactured by Cree)

The difference in the beam angle is due to the different surrounds between
these 2 leds (glass dome of Cree and gummy dome on SSC-P4)

These are some of the basic differences, but there are far more detailed
aspects that can be found by using the Search facility, particularly
the fascinating and informative posts written by the retired "Newbie"