Magenta flavored LED tints, what's currently out there?

Of all the neutral, warm and high CRI Cree LED's I have held in my hands (of the XP-G and XM-L variety) they all share a common tinting, being dominantly yellow or yellow/orange (upper half of the ANSI white charts; B,C,T,U,S rather than A,D,U and R).

See the cart I am referring to here: http://swhs.home.xs4all.nl/fiets/tests/verlichting/experimenten/ANSI-white.jpg

Don't get me wrong the yellow tinting is not bad at all, in fact I absolutely love the tint on my new SC600w which is a near perfect noon sunlight tint representation. But I just can't help but want a tint that leans more towards magenta rather than yellow/orange, as this is what most of my incandescent flashlight tints are like.

So I ask those of the CPF, what is out there, in an LED, that gives a nice magenta flavored tint without breaking the bank? I would also like to know what others think about this, and if I am alone in ultimately preferring a stronger magenta tint (vs yellow/orange) in my LED flashlights.

Thanks!

Malkoff M61HCRI drop-in from Illumination Supply. The sample I have has a strong magenta tint and I run this drop-in in a Malkoff MD2 with hi/lo ring.

Howdy Theorem29,
There are many of us on CPF who are tint geeks. The easiest and least expensive way to begin dabbling with tints is to buy a Lee Filter Swatch Book (about $5 for one, $7 for two).

Check out this thread for all the info:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?320811-Changing-LED-Tint-With-Filters

Go straight to page 6 to see what I did with my SC600 (cool white LED version). It's really fun being able to try all the different filters ...... and if you change your mind...... it's easy as pie to try another filter.

SO much easier than trying to find the right LED with the right tint, arrrgh.

By the way, I'm with you.... I tend to prefer a tiny bit of magenta in my tint as well. I think my many years as a professional color printer left me with an aversion to green tints because it makes skin look really bad, while a bit of magenta makes skin glow.

Good luck with your quest .

pjandyho - Thanks for the suggestion! A bit expensive for a drop-in, but good to know it has a nice magenta infused tint. I have heard nothing but good things of Malkoff, so this is good to know.


Derek Dean - Appreciate the post! I actually have a Lee filter book (thanks to your postings on it ) and have done many experiments with the tints on my various lights. Sadly the Lee filters are just not practical or acceptable for me, I would greatly prefer the tint to be the way I want it straight from the source without having to add colored filters to the lens window of my lights. Not only for aesthetic reasons (the filter sitting on the lens window often looks odd and unappealing when the light is on/off) but also because the filters are not exactly easy to cut out since many times they need to be absolutely perfect in order to fit right. But thank you for the reply!

Oh, I'm sorry the filters didn't work out for you. I actually think the pink color over the front glass cover looks cool when the light is off, but maybe I'm a bit strange .

However, the reason I mentioned the filters was because you said you had an SC600w, and on my SC600 there is no thread lock on the bezel, so it screws right off, and once the bezel is off it really is easy to cut out the filter. Just place the glass cover down on the filter material and trace, then cut it out. It doesn't have to be very precise at all when you're placing the filter behind the glass cover.

After you've cut out the filter, place it on the top of the reflector, then place the glass cover on top of the filter, then screw the bezel back on.

Of course you do need to be careful when taking the glass cover off not to get dust inside the reflector. I make sure the room is still (no fans or air conditioning) and nobody is going to disturb me, and then after taking off the glass cover I turn the light upside down on the table.

You also have to be careful about cleaning the front glass cover as it has special anti-reflective coating on it. I use optical cleaning tissue for that, which is also what I use to clean the filter when I'm finished cutting it out.

If your light has a bit of thread lock, then use a hair dryer to heat it up the bezel. Often that's enough to loosen the thread lock. On one particularly stubborn light (NiteCore IFE2) I ended up heating the bezel for about 5 minutes (with the 1200 watt hair dryer) and then using a pair of strap wenches to finally get it open, but it worked like a charm and didn't leave a mark.

In any case, if you don't want to do any of that, and you're more interested in learning about tint bins, soldering etc., then you should probably check out the CPF LED forum for suggestions for different LEDs that might work better for you:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?91-LED

Then check out the Homemade and Modified Flashlights forum for tips on how to solder, etc:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?17-Homemade-and-Modified-Flashlights-Discussion

Modifying your own lights can be a lot of fun too .