XP-G LED. A bad LED or is it just me?

KLowD9x · Jun 18, 2011

I have three XPG lights. The Lumapower Trust 2, Quark Mini AA2, and an iTP A3 EOS R5. All three of those lights annoy me because they make everything seem dead. The iTP that I had before with the XPE had an almost neutral white color but the warranty replacement has an XPG R5 LED and I can not stand the way this light looks now. All of these lights make everything look dead and gray.

Is it just my lights or are all XPG LEDs really bad at color rendering?

kramer5150 · Jun 18, 2011

I don't notice XPG CRI to be any better or worse than the other emitters. I have found low CRI to be low CRI... regardless of emitter, or color tint BIN. I only have a couple XPG lights though, (DIY P60 modules) so its not a good representation across a population.

Low CRI warm color tints (generally) still can't quite match the CRI an old fashioned incan... IMHO

robostudent5000 · Jun 18, 2011

i think you would need to know the tint bins of your xp-g's and xp-e's to do an apples to apples comparison. could be you got a batch of really cold cool whites. i have some neutral xp-g's and they look fine to me.

jabe1 · Jun 18, 2011

It's not XP-Gs specifically. Like Kramer alluded to, it's cool tints and lower CRI. I have a few lights that have the same effect.

I primarily use neutral tint lights now, and when high CRI are more prevalent, I'll switch to those.

RedForest UK · Jun 18, 2011

Yeah, it all depends on the bin used. There do seem to be a higher incidence of production lights with lower CRI XP-Gs, as they have been so popular and efficiency/price is generally chosen over tint and CRI. The fact that the first 90+ CRI Cree leds are XP-G prove the generalisation to all of them wrong though.

Fireclaw18 · Jun 18, 2011

I have plenty of XPGs that look fine. A nice pure white. Some are uglier than others (the XPG in my PA01 looks a tad greenish). And some are prettier (the neutral white XPG in my Shiningbeam S-mini has an absolutely gorgeous tint.

As others have mentioned, it's not fair to generalize all XPGs. They come in so many different flavors it really depends on what color bin you have.

beerwax · Jun 18, 2011

,,,,,,,,,

Fireclaw18 · Jun 18, 2011

beerwax said:
i have 1 fine xpg r5. they do exist. i have many that match the op description. i m hoping for better things with the xml. i had good luck with xpe.

So far I have 4 XML flashlights (Xeno E03, Thrunite neutron 1C, Yezl Z1X, Zebralight SC600) and 2 XML stars purchased from Shiningbeam.com. All of them are cool white, but have fairly good tints for cool white ranging from pure white to slightly neutralish. Not an ugly XML with greenish or bluish tint in the bunch.

I would like to get hold of a neutral tint XML. So far they are hard to find.

KLowD9x · Jun 18, 2011

Fireclaw18 said:
So far I have 4 XML flashlights (Xeno E03, Thrunite neutron 1C, Yezl Z1X, Zebralight SC600) and 2 XML stars purchased from Shiningbeam.com. All of them are cool white, but have fairly good tints for cool white ranging from pure white to slightly neutralish. Not an ugly XML with greenish or bluish tint in the bunch.

I would like to get hold of a neutral tint XML. So far they are hard to find.

I have a neutral white XML (T5 4B) and I love it. The spill is a perfect neutral white but hot spot is very warm white, almost incandescent warm. It is an amazing light and I don't think I will buy another cool white LED again. I also have a pen light that has a Cree XP-C neutral white LED that also looks amazing. It's too bad the optics in the pen light are crap because it ruins the hot spot. But, that was only 25 bucks.

Napalm · Jun 18, 2011

Well the tint depends just on the bin from which the flashlight mfg bought...

I personally have a different gripe with the XP-G - the hotspot profile. On several lights (different brands) it looks like a disc with sharp edges (no smooth transition to the spill) and the center of the disc is slightly darker than the edges.
I'd rather prefer a gradual transition without (overbright) edges.

Nap.

swan · Jun 18, 2011

I have two, jetbeam bc10 r5 and rrt2 r5, the bc10 is slightly cooler but are more neutral and give good colour rendition. I also have xml bc40 which is a very bright white.

tre · Jun 18, 2011

KLowD9x, I agree with you. In general all my XPE cool white lights had a much better tint than any XPG cool white I've ever seen. Like everybody says, it "should" depend on the tint bin of the emitter used in the light but I never had any run of the mill cool XPE light look as bad as ALL my cool XPG tinted lights. It sounds like you have "seen the light" and will not purchase any more cool tins just like me and many others.

Who ever says cool tints are "pure white" has clearly not owned enough lights to notice that they are really purple, blue, or green (anything other than pure white). The only cool emitter I've ever owned that was close to pure white is my Zebralight SC50+.

My 3 year old was playing with one of my cool tinted lights the other day. She pointed it at a white door and said "look daddy, it's purple". She was totally right. cool tint = :sick2:

KLowD9x · Jun 18, 2011

tre said:
KLowD9x, I agree with you. In general all my XPE cool white lights had a much better tint than any XPG cool white I've ever seen. Like everybody says, it "should" depend on the tint bin of the emitter used in the light but I never had any run of the mill cool XPE light look as bad as ALL my cool XPG tinted lights. It sounds like you have "seen the light" and will not purchase any more cool tins just like me and many others.

Who ever says cool tints are "pure white" has clearly not owned enough lights to notice that they are really purple, blue, or green (anything other than pure white). The only cool emitter I've ever owned that was close to pure white is my Zebralight SC50+.

My 3 year old was playing with one of my cool tinted lights the other day. She pointed it at a white door and said "look daddy, it's purple". She was totally right. cool tint = :sick2:

Ever since I purchased my two neutral white LEDs, I don't think I can ever go back to cool white. The technology is just so far advanced now that I don't have to worry about sacrificing ~10% of my total output because the XML is so powerful that even on the lowest modes I still have enough light.

On purple LEDs, I have a Streamlight PT2L that uses the old Cree XRE and it is VERY purple. I think Cree was getting stingy with the coatings for the emitter and I have essentially a UV LED with a dusting of yellow phosphor to bring it in to the very edge of the ANSI white spectrum.

skyfire · Jun 19, 2011

i think i know what you mean. many of the "cool" tint XR-E and XP-E had a nicer tint than the "cool" XP-Gs that are used in most lights. i had a cool tint SST-50 light, and it made everything look dead.
but i also think its has alot to do with the CRI.
I love the high CRI XP-Gs, has a gorgeous unglaring warm tint. and lumens output doesnt seem to be a big difference either.
i recently modded my catapult with a neutral XM-L from a warm tint XM-L, and dont see a lumens difference at all... just tint.
if you like neutral... you might want to give a warm tint light a try... it took some time getting used to the "orangey" tint, but now i llove it.

XP-G LED. A bad LED or is it just me?

KLowD9x

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kramer5150

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robostudent5000

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jabe1

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RedForest UK

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Fireclaw18

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beerwax

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Fireclaw18

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KLowD9x

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Napalm

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swan

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tre

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KLowD9x

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