Quiet Revolution in small LED? Are they brighter?

OK, I am not the expert, so someone with more knowledge correct me but . . .

Wasn't it last year, when a top ranked Nichia LED was 5600, then late last year, went up to 6400?

Weren't the "famed" ARC AAA LE's a special bin of "S" ranked 6400 LED?

Now are they up to 9200 or 9600 mcd?

Have we been so excited about the LS, that we missed this?

Isn't that like a THIRD more light?

Then there are these Yoldol and Kingbright competitors too.

That might mean, that the same led light you bought a year ago, could now be made, with the same # of LED's, and be 50 % brighter?

Imagine an Aurora headlamp at 50% brighter!

I'm certainly no expert /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif , but I seem to remember that Nichia changed their led-ranking system, and the increase in brightess is way less than the numbers would suggest... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

didnt they also rerate them at a higher current?
maybe they saw how well they can take overdriving.

Do they have a tighter beam angle, (eg. 15 vs. 20 degree) which could account for the higher mcd rating?

According to the Nichia website, they "changed the way LEDs were measured" to get higher mcd numbers. Unfortunately I don't know what changed, so I still measure mine "the old fashioned way", which is to hold the LED 12" from the sensor and wave it about until the highest reading is obtained. Even the ProMetric system that I use for beam profile analyses says I should position the sensor for the highest reading and record that.

I don't know what Nichia is doing different when they measure LEDs for brightness, but it's SOMETHING.

bump to re-activate topic!