Two identical Surefire G2L's with different beams?

So I recently bought a Surefire G2L. Love it. But I found the same light in the more visible yellow color for less. Comparing the two lights side by side, one has a more yellowish beam, and the other has a more blueish beam. It's debatable on which one is brighter.

Which one is preferred? Is there a reason why the temperature of the light color isn't identical? Trying to figure out which one to keep.

Thanks!

-Freq

It's a much loved yet also hated feature of LEDs which we call the tint lottery. As a general rule, warmer more yellow tints show colors well outdoors. The purple tint you're seeing in the first one won't affect anything, but it is a common theme on the Surefire P60L lamp.

If you have a stock Surefire G2L that you'd describe as "yellowish", then you've won the tint lottery!

so can you explain in further detail why the yellow tint is better?


-Freq

The more yellow tinted LED will make outdoor colors, greens, reds etc, seem clearer andmore defined. I really can't say why from a science point of view, but there are plenty of clever people on the forum, I'm sure one of them will be along soon.

All I can say is that I personally have no interest at all in regular white LEDs, neutral/warm all the way for me.

One thing though, you mentioned that it's "yellowish". That's quite rare, especially in a Surefire P60L. It's probably not even worth asking, but just in case, are you 100% sure it's the LED version you have and not the incan? You mentioned that the new G2 cost less, it could be the incan model. Just a thought.

freq18hz said:

so can you explain in further detail why the yellow tint is better?


-Freq

Click to expand...

The theory that sticks out in my mind that I keep reading is the one that says humans are 'hardwired" for the warm light with our yellow sun and millions of years of evolution of using fire as a means of light. Not really sure if that is scientifically accurate or not but it kinda makes sense. :shrug:

:thinking: :candle:

definitely both LEDs


-Freq

freq18hz said:

so can you explain in further detail why the yellow tint is better?


-Freq

Click to expand...

Basically it has to do with the colors that are reflected by things in nature. Most plant pigmentation reflects alot of yellow light, and absorbs blue, so "warmer" tints tend to work better outdoors. Moreso with actual neutral/warm phosphors that put out signifigantly more of their output in the yellow/red region which is very common in nature. Blue/purple tints work great indoors and in urban areas because white walls don't soak up the blue light, and has a very different appearance to normal street lighting so it stands out more. This all assumes the bluish white and warm white LED's have the same output and beam shape.

Thanks all for the help...now for which light to keep...


-Freq

if both appear equally bright, then I would check the LED dome on the yellowish one to see if there are any burn mark, if none found, it's a keeper.

so one of the lights is in the yellow nitrolon color that I prefer for visibility reasons, it happens to be the bluish light. Is there a way to swap the lamp assemblies, or is that a bad idea?


-Freq

Unscrew the head, remove each lamp (don't touch the inner surface of the reflector), swap 'em around, screw back the heads.

Easy

When you've done it once, you'll see why the P60LED and it's various upgrades are called "drop ins".

Being new and just having put a P60 drop-in (a Thrunite 1.5V XP-G) in my Surefire, I can attest that it really is just that easy. It will be even more so, since you're swapping a SF for a SF.

For me, when I first started unscrewing the head, I was concerned b/c it made this scraping noise. However, once I got it removed I saw that it was just the spring giving some resistance and there was no way anything was going to be damaged.

It really is simple and no way to muck it up.