Fell over into the 'HI-CRI' side (Nichia 219) Now my XML beams feel garish and fugly.

Does the phrase "Quality, Not Quantity". I guess that holds true for photons as well.

I mean these Nichia's awash your surroundings in a natural warm feeling glow. It's like cherry blossoms in the spring.
You literally feel at peace bathing in the light.

So freaking loving it.

Lumens can be so overrated.

ledmitter_nli said:

Does the phrase "Quality, Not Quantity". I guess that holds true for photons as well.

I mean these Nichia's awash your surroundings in a natural warm feeling glow. It's like cherry blossoms in the spring.
You literally feel at peace bathing in the light.

So freaking loving it.

Lumens can be so overrated.

Click to expand...

Could not agree more - enjoy

Welcome to the Club of Tint Snobs! :wave:

You can't beat a good neutral. The 219 isn't the perfect one though, only in my opinion. I think there a few neutral XPG's that are even better than this Japanese LED. The 219 lends itself to the pink side. Some wouldn't mind or notice and the pink can 'burn off' after a while; it's a world apart from any 'angry blue' regular unleaded LED. But to me, wasn't the 'next big thing' that I had hoped. But yes, a 219 makes an XML look :green:

DuncanHynes said:

The 219 isn't the perfect one though, only in my opinion. I think there a few neutral XPG's that are even better than this Japanese LED. look

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better than the 219? perhaps the 119 nichia, but there are others? :huh: :huh:

ledmitter_nli said:

Does the phrase "Quality, Not Quantity". I guess that holds true for photons as well. I mean these Nichia's awash your surroundings in a natural warm feeling glow. It's like cherry blossoms in the spring. You literally feel at peace bathing in the light. So freaking loving it. Lumens can be so overrated.

Click to expand...

The 5000K one does seem close to ideal. Certainly a step up from the fugly yellow beams that pass themselves off as neutral.

I have some of the 4500K 219 from Illumination Supply that I've used in flood 'mule lights' for use during power outage. Yes, they have spoiled me for tint and Hi-CRI. Some of the Neutral XP-G's are close but the big problem I have with the XM-L is color separation. Yes, it is a problem in all of the LED's but the super size die of the XM-L puts it over the edge for my use. The cooler, almost purple light comes straight out the top while the warmer and yellows come out towards the edge. Depending on secondary optics or diffusion to put it back together has 'mixed' results.

ledmitter_nli said:

...awash your surroundings in a natural warm feeling glow. It's like cherry blossoms in the spring.
You literally feel at peace bathing in the light.

Click to expand...

Truer words were never spoken... or typed.

When the 4sevens hi-cri lights came out a while back, I got a Mini AA just out of curiosity. For a while I was a bit put off by the yellow/gold tint of the beam, but I think it's been growing on me lately. I just ordered a one of the cr123a quarks in high cri, which I'll add to my daily carry routine and see how it goes.

Stress_Test said:

When the 4sevens hi-cri lights came out a while back, I got a Mini AA just out of curiosity. For a while I was a bit put off by the yellow/gold tint of the beam, but I think it's been growing on me lately. I just ordered a one of the cr123a quarks in high cri, which I'll add to my daily carry routine and see how it goes.

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What LED? The Nichia's have a very slightly warm pink tint, but it just seems to work. That's why the reference to cherry blossoms in the spring time

It's like one of those expensive fluorescent salt water reef aquarium lights that shows the corals and marine fish at their best colors (not talking about UV lights either)

All "Hi-CRI" LED's where not created equal. No yellow issues here.

DuncanHynes said:

You can't beat a good neutral. The 219 isn't the perfect one though, only in my opinion. I think there a few neutral XPG's that are even better than this Japanese LED. The 219 lends itself to the pink side. Some wouldn't mind or notice and the pink can 'burn off' after a while; it's a world apart from any 'angry blue' regular unleaded LED. But to me, wasn't the 'next big thing' that I had hoped. But yes, a 219 makes an XML look :green:

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I'm using a Kenji quad Nichia 219 so there is lots of output. I notice the natural light pushes through more than the pink.

It's slight. But I love it.

I would say the improvement going Hi-CRI Nichia 219 looks to be the same as what's happening here in this post #105 from this thread.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...With-Filters&p=3777529&viewfull=1#post3777529

Before (Cree):



After (Nichia)



^^^ Now imagine that 4X brighter with a quad Nichia dropin That's what I have.

Another "filtered" example from that thread

Before:



After:



The same slightly pink hue. Not nearly as deep as the above referenced "filter" photo. I can see perhaps 30% of that hue from my Nichia's, the rest is natural looking light. The Nichia turns whiter with more power.

Light feels good and right.

I would suggest that the Nichia 219 Hi-CRI 92+ from Dave @ Nailbender in his potted drop-in with his new LOP reflector achieves a level of perfection that is astounding. L, M, H, with memory (mine) and a very useful 220+ Lu. (OTF): The tint is perfect! The transition from hot spot to spill is totally without any rings or color shift; it is seamless and the spill solid and useful. Thanks Dave. :thumbsup:

Sparky's Magic said:

I would suggest that the Nichia 219 Hi-CRI 92+ from Dave @ Nailbender in his potted drop-in with his new LOP reflector achieves a level of perfection that is astounding. L, M, H, with memory (mine) and a very useful 220+ Lu. (OTF): The tint is perfect! The transition from hot spot to spill is totally without any rings or color shift; it is seamless and the spill solid and useful. Thanks Dave. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

And if you want much more output, go with a Kenji quad. $220 but worth it.

ledmitter_nli said:

And if you want much more output, go with a Kenji quad. $220 but worth it.

Click to expand...

More output, but less reach Win some, loose some.. as always.

I'm all for the importance of tint and getting manufacturers to pay attention to the need for better quality light.

But in comparing the tint of Nichia 92CRI 219 to "Cree" LED's at least compare Apples to Apples; use a known spec tint bin. If comparing to the 4500K Nichia 219, should be the Cree 3C-4C tint bin range instead of some no-name sickly green looks like 0S-0T bin range. Cree can't help it if the flashlight manufacturer wants to save some $ and buy the lower priced off color bins.....

Nichia does have the highest CRI in a 4500K LED,(that I'm aware of). As the LED moves more into home and ambient lighting, expect to see increased emphasis on hi-CRI LED's. It's a good thing.

ledmitter_nli said:

And if you want much more output, go with a Kenji quad. $220 but worth it.

Click to expand...

...and there is always Matt Wright's (Matteus) tripple 219 Nichia - Superbly made and Au.$110.00 here in Australia with the same beautiful tint as the Nailbender and lots of pure flood!

jorn said:

More output, but less reach

Win some, loose some.. as always.

Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet a quad nichia driven at 1.4 amps per LED with carlco spotlight optics (granted it's still all flood) can achieve the same amount of throw as single led nailbender in its LOP reflector just from sheer output standpoint alone.

Not enough to bet my life on it, but a worthwhile bet

Vesper said:

Truer words were never spoken... or typed.

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Nichia 219 :naughty:

None of my "multiled" p60, has beaten my normal reflectored p60 (lop or smo) in throw. Bet the 219 is no diffenent. But yes, the multileds got pretty good reach for a floodlight, but runtimes is not that good in this mode hehe.