Your favorite colored tint?

Please explain what you like and give a reference as far as a beamshot or the light it is in.

I prefer cool/neutral maybe even slightly blue. I think the yellow or warm tint is a little depressing as it reminds me on incandescents like the Maglites before there were LED replacement bulbs.

Here is a picture from Selfbuilts 2AA roundup.



I am assuming when people say they prefer the warm white they are wanting what appears in thre above picture as the beam from the TK20-Q2. Again it reminds me of the sickly yellow of a Krypton bulb from 1977. I prefer the Q5 tint of the L2D shown or others like it.

Anyone like the E01 violet tint? Not my favorite, but I don't mind it like some people on here complain about it.

I used to prefer a white tint but now I don't care if it is slightly cool or warm.

I've found that a warm emitter works best in outdoor/nature situations, where the tint helps bring out natural colors, whereas the cool Crees are right at home in an urban/parking lot environment, where they blend in nicely with the streetlights.

I prefer to carry a non-warm tint; the quality of warm tint light is indistinguishable from a $2 incandescent to onlookers/passersby, I want people to see plainly that it's a quality light.

But one thing I did discover during the recent Earth Hour lights-out event, is that using a cool tint LED to light a room is not very cozy or welcoming. This is the one place I would prefer a warm tint LED, and I'll probably eventually end up getting one just for this specific application.

Neutral white for general indoors

Creamy white for photography

Green for outdoors

warm white when I shower

Blue when I camp

When you really need a light...it don't really matter

Beacon of Light:

When I first got into this hobby, I was thrilled to get away from the sickly yellow Krypton bulbs and into some really WHITE beams.

A year later, I find myself appreciating some of the finer advantages of the incan's.

- The LED's tend to emphasize a tighter band of colors, mainly in the green and blue range. Everything green gets greener, everything blue gets bluer. It's not so much that the light fails to render reds or yellows, it just overemphasizes the blues and greens. While the Incan's seem to do the same for reds and yellows that the LED's did for greens and blues, it seems to me that the degree of overexaggeration is less pronounced.

- The net effect at the 1 to 10 lumen output range that I favor, is that the LED's cast everything in what I call a "deathly pallor", the effect one sees say 100 feet down on the seafloor. There's color, but very little. For this output range, the light from the incan's provides better color differentiation.

- More recently, I've been experimenting with higher output incan's. (I suppose this is because I picked up an ED-P72 and a Milky Gossamer, so my interest in higher output flashlights as a whole was piqued.) I've been pleasantly surprised to find the color advantage for the incan's is even greater at high output levels than at low levels. Of course, the incan's weaknesses in power consumption and heat build-up are also emphasized.

Bottom line, individual tastes differ and different lights "shine" under different applications. Use the light that best suits your situation.

how about WHITE, don't need any tint

idash1, I never expected anyone to make a case for incans in this day and age, especially on the LED forum lol.

I used to favour more clean "pure" white tints.

Now I want to change everything to warm/nuetral tints. Around 4000K (Cree 5A) tint.

The throw and impact is less impressive, but it is just a lot more pleasant to use and renders better.

I also like the increased depth perception I get with these tints.

I like warm or white.

Ok so again I see a few here already saying they prefer warm to neutral white. In that picture I posted, for those that prefer warmer whites, would prefer the beam of the Fenix TK20? Seriously???

I like warm, to me it seems like the warm tints are considerably brighter.

I like slight green tint. Although I am warming up to warmer whites.
Green looks more "white" than blue or purple.

As a side note: There is no such thing as a non-tinted white light. I've owned dozens of lights and never found a white one yet. They all favor something off white. If you think you have a pure white LED you just haven't looked hard enough at it. YMMV

1dash1 said:

When I first got into this hobby, I was thrilled to get away from the sickly yellow Krypton bulbs and into some really WHITE beams.

A year later, I find myself appreciating some of the finer advantages of the incan's.

Click to expand...

+1

For leds I like warmer tints because they are closer to the color rendition of incan. The exception would be night fishing when its easier to tie knots under cooler tints as my line seems to be more visible. I use co-polymer and bluer tints reflect off of it better due to its purple/blue color.

I prefer the neutral tints, from about 4000K to 4400K. These put me (to my eyes) smack dab in the middle of an incan and a WC Bin Cree.

With the neutral tints, you get the benefit of better color rendition with reds, browns, oranges, etc...

You also get much better color contrast, especially in an outdoor setting.

Nice and white!

I like the cool blue-white tint from my SureFire 6PL.

4A (in cree terms)
Approaching 5000K in color temp but not pink/ magenta hued.
WH is my choice for cool white crees.

I'm happily awaiting the arrival of the high CRI LEDs. I think one of the reasons many folks are leaning towards the warmer tints (displayed quite nicely in the above photo of the TK-20 with the Q2 emitter) is that most LEDs up till know have had a very narrow spectrum of light output, leaning heavily towards the blue end of the spectrum...... so warmer tints help to offset that a bit.

Once we have LEDs that offer a more balanced spectral output I think regular folks will begin to accept LEDs as a viable alternative to incandescent lighting.

I've seen a few high CRI LEDs appearing, so I'm excited to watch this next chapter in LED technology unfold.

Personally, I currently like a bit of pinkish-red in my tint.

I like the warmer tints and don't mind giving up a bit of output to have a light that is more pleasant to see by and lights things up in a manner that doesn't leave everything pale and cold.