Nailbender SST-50 5700K vs. SST-90 3000K (beamshots)

Just received my 2nd Nailbender P60 drop-in: an SST-90 3000k 83CRI to go along with my SST-50 5700k. I decided to purchase the 3000k after going for a couple walks outdoors with the 5700k and noticing how poorly some of the colors were being rendered.

I won't lie, when I first turned the new 3000k on, I was a bit taken aback at how warm the light is. It is really warm. The hotspot is a pleasing yellow, but the spill quickly fades into what's probably best described as pink. I've heard that some of the higher CRI emitters do put out an amber/pink light, but this being my first, I had yet to see it first-hand.

Anyways, decided to go for a little walk with them both to compare. I must say, for anyone who's going to be using their light outdoors at night, the 3000k 83CRI is a gorgeous tint. It's not a perfect incan tint - grass that appeared brown and green under my A2's incan bulb appears very reddish brown under the 3000k - but it is still very pleasing to the eye. Forest that appears cold and a little spooky under the 5700k instantly changes to warm and deep with the 3000k. And of course, the SST-90 emitter puts out a real wall of light. You don't notice it in the house staring at a wall, but when you're 15 yards from the bushline and you fire it up, it's a wall of light.

Took a couple pictures in case anyone is interested. It's a little windy outside so the longer exposure caught the tree branches shaking. The camera wouldn't focus quite as nicely on the 3000k as I'd like, maybe because of less contrast on the edges of the branches. Aperture, exposure, and white balance locked for both.

Nailbender SST-50 5700k


Nailbender SST-90 3000k 83CRI


Hope that helps anyone currently trying to decide between the two. Cheers!

Thanks! you've just answered a question that been bugging me for ages.

^Gurthang said:

Thanks for the pics, very interesting. 3000K is very warm [in general terms not just your drop-in] but it does look like an incandescent lamp. What is the current draw? Certainly appears to be a NB "wall of light"... +1, nice stuff...

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Not sure on the current draw, sorry. Nailbender put a 2.8 amp regulated driver in it so I could use CR123A primaries, so I imagine it wouldn't be exceeding 2.8a.

Looks like the 5700K rendered the colors much closer to what I assume it looks like in daylight, makes sense I guess as daylight is closer to 5700K than 3000K. With the 3000K things look too reddish brown to me.

Thanks for the beamshots though, for me I think it would be a choice between 5700K and 4700K.

offroad said:

Looks like the 5700K rendered the colors much closer to what I assume it looks like in daylight, makes sense I guess as daylight is closer to 5700K than 3000K. With the 3000K things look too reddish brown to me.

Thanks for the beamshots though, for me I think it would be a choice between 5700K and 4700K.

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5700K may look more accurate in the photo but I still think that color temp is still too cool in reality. 3500-4500K is just about right for accuracy but warmer color temps do seem to be more pleasing. Of course the last statement is very subjective.

I have the 3000K SST-90 dropin too and I can affirm what you are saying. It doesn't really provide any better color rendition than an overly cool LED. It's an 'overly warm' tint, too much red and too little blue, the exact opposite of an overly cool. If you like incandescents you might like this LED. The light itself is very mellow and comfortable to look at. Aside from the 'pimp purple' border around the spill it's strikingly similar to an incandescent.

If you want high CRI you want an actual high CRI emitter which this is not. If you want a wall of LED light, yet you also want a yellow incandescent-ish tint, this is the LED for you.

nice pics! one looks like a winter shot, and the other a fall shot.

I too, have the sst-90 3000k, and sst-50 4500k. and I prefer the 3000k more.