Fenix E01 - two different tints?

My E01 has a very high temperature blue light. I recently saw a beam shot of another E01 on this forum that had a much whiter tint. Is there any evidence of two different tints available? Maybe a new bin?

It may be related to the white balance of the camera.

Aquanaut said:

My E01 has a very high temperature blue light. I recently saw a beam shot of another E01 on this forum that had a much whiter tint. Is there any evidence of two different tints available? Maybe a new bin?

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First, the camera, photo compression, and your monitor make comparing brightness/tint over the internet TOTALLY unreliable. The only time it has any value is if you see the actual lights all in the same picture (for comparison only) or if the same camera takes the pictures in RAW format and they are uploaded without changing balance on any of them (still only good for comparison between lights). Second, LEDs themselves often have minor color and efficiency swings, even in the same bin.

I based my question on the following post in another forum. It includes comparative beam shots in the same photo.

http://thebrightsideforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=384

Especially check out the last photo in the first post. Is it a camera white balance issue? Maybe. There seems to be an inconsistency with the blue tint/white tint E01/E05 comparison shot.

Aquanaut said:

I based my question on the following post in another forum. It includes comparative beam shots in the same photo.

http://thebrightsideforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=384

Especially check out the last photo in the first post. Is it a camera white balance issue? Maybe. There seems to be an inconsistency with the blue tint/white tint E01/E05 comparison shot.

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Cameras are absolutely not eyes. One of the key parameters in any photo is the 'white balance' chosen for a camera. You know how sodium-vapor lights look orange, but most people kinda get used to it? Cameras don't. The white balance setting greatly emphasizes the differences in color temperature of lights. Here's one example. My friends and I shoot in RAW, so we pick a color balance later that best represents the scene we see. This slightly clouds the issue, but also shows that nothing will make a camera's image look like the eye saw things. In that photo, the camera's white balance was set - any difference between the LEDs will be emphasized.

LEDs have different tints. Not only are there tint bins, but there's variation within the bins. At different drive currents, the tint of a single LED will shift. PWM drive is sometimes called "constant-tint" for this reason.

Fire and WC LED
Fire's color temperature is pretty low compared to an LED. White balance was set to around 4000K, making the flames yellowish and Connor's WC-color tint light look blue.

Fire and NW LED
Again, fire and white balance. The other light sources are a Quark MiNi neutral-white pointed at the camera (in center) and a HID light pointed away from the camera. The fire makes the 7000K HID light downright blue.

'Fire' white balance with sunlight
See how blue it gets? The camera emphasizes the difference between Sunlight and fire.

Fire, HID, and sunlight
The burning steel is white, the sunlight is slightly blue, and the HID looks like I put a gel on it. Not my picture.

You always want to know these camera settings to compare, but each camera is also different. It's hard enough to compare two reasonably-different lights in the same shot due to the limited range of a camera, and you cannot really compare shots of different parameters. Since you're asking about color temperature I didn't dig out the full EXIF data for the above shots.

ISO, exposure time, f/stop, white balance. Any corrections applied.

You can take a look at the picture in my signature. The photo is heavily stitched, but I almost never mess with colors once I choose an appropriate white balance. You can see LED, neutral LED, and incandescent glowing with different auras on the water.

I have 2, one has a very purple tint and the other, at least in comparison, has only a slightly bluish, almost white tint. Probably just natural/normal variation in the LED tints, not different LEDs available.

sabre7 said:

I have 2, one has a very purple tint and the other, at least in comparison, has only a slightly bluish, almost white tint. Probably just natural/normal variation in the LED tints, not different LEDs available.

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Thank you. That was my intuitive guess.

I looked up the EXIF info on the photos, and there was no white balance information, although the camera can set white balance, including an "auto" setting. My two E01s have the same blue tint.

Thank you Apple Snail for the extensive informative post.

I remember seeing a picture here on CPF with approx. 10 E01 lying side by side with many different tints. So it is not only a matter of the camera

Cheers
Thorsten

@Aquanaut, here is something that I posted a while ago in another thread...

(link to the thread here if you are interested )

yes... there are different tints available, the E01 linked in your post above is the light #2 (from right). :devil:

edit: and the blue-tinted shot of the books before the runtime shots is using the light #5 (left-most)... fyi...

Rookiedaddy, that certainly clinches the tint issue. Thanks for the photo comparison.

Last night, I used my E01 in pitch black on an asphalt and gravel surface and tried to notice the blue tint. I could not. Maybe the tint isn't so important for the E01's intended use.

Aquanaut said:

Rookiedaddy, that certainly clinches the tint issue. Thanks for the photo comparison.

Last night, I used my E01 in pitch black on an asphalt and gravel surface and tried to notice the blue tint. I could not. Maybe the tint isn't so important for the E01's intended use.

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Your eyes adjust for tint. Unless you're around mixed light sources, most people won't notice any tints.

Try shining it at a white piece of paper for awhile then turning on the lights and see what color it is on the paper.