SC52W - "Green tint" poll

After seeing many concerns and reports of tint color in the other more general SC52/SC52W thread, I figured it best to create a dedicated thread to discuss these concerns.

Please post your beamshots and reports of tint compared to other neutral white lights in this thread.

I recieved my SC52W on 6/28/13 and it has a pretty heavy green/yellow cast:


Order of appearance: Eagletac D25A NW, L10 Nichia 219, Zebralight SC52W


L10 Nichia on the left, SC52W right:

I can't post photos but my SC52 absolutely has a horrible green tint, doesn't keep me from using it at all but its my biggest (and only) complaint. I really prefer warm tint (~3200-3500k) tho so to other people it might not look as bad.

What K temp would you consider your 219 there? Idk if its just the pic but my wife's L10 w/ 219 is very warm, maybe 3750k, much much redder than that pic.

edit: man I'm sorry, I skewed your poll results, I don't realize you were talking about the SC52W, I have a CW SC52 and its what I was talking about being very green.

Not sure we need another thread for the sc52w tint issue but I'll be watching.

That beamshot is depressing for someone with an SC52w on backorder.

In the above photo, the L10 N219 looks about right, but I'm surprised the D25A NW looks so green too.

KITROBASKIN said:

Not sure we need another thread for the sc52w tint issue but I'll be watching.

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The other thread is 39 pages long of mostly general SC52 and SC52W discussion.

reppans said:

In the above photo, the L10 N219 looks about right, but I'm surprised the D25A NW looks so green too.

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I'm not. If you are going to compare Cree neutrals to Nichia 219's, nobody is going to be happy. Almost nothing can compare to that high CRI LED without showing some kind of tint bias. If you want 219 performance, buy a 219 light. But you will compromise your brightness in order to get it.

Hondo said:

I'm not. If you are going to compare Cree neutrals to Nichia 219's, nobody is going to be happy. Almost nothing can compare to that high CRI LED without showing some kind of tint bias. If you want 219 performance, buy a 219 light. But you will compromise your brightness in order to get it.

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Now, that's what I'm talking about!:twothumbs

You can have a very nice pure white tint with or without high CRI. Remember there are alot of incandescent lights than have a very yellow tint but have great CRIs.

I'm happy with my SC52 (non W). It's a CW but only a little cold. Especially on a current controlled light a green tint will really jump out at low levels.

Wiggle said:

You can have a very nice pure white tint with or without high CRI. Remember there are alot of incandescent lights than have a very yellow tint but have great CRIs.

I'm happy with my SC52 (non W). It's a CW but only a little cold. Especially on a current controlled light a green tint will really jump out at low levels.

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Absolutely correct! Without question one of my favorite threads since joining.

High CRI is mostly irrelevant in white wall comparisons, where CCT (correlated color temperature) plays a much larger role in how a light appears against a white background.

Color rendering index seems to be a very misunderstood term here on CPF.

Needless to say, the apparent color against a white wall can vary independently of the light sources CRI value, high CRI, low CRI, etc. There's no question the Nichia renders colors more faithfully as proved by its index value, the point of the comparison picture between the Cree and Nichia is simply to demonstrate the heavy green-bias of the XM-L2 used in some SC52W lights.

One thing I would say is that both of my Nichia 219s show a pink/red bias in my opinion, something which is probably necessary in order to achieve high CRI across the spectrum. With a camera on auto colour balance that could however make less red tints look much greener than they would otherwise appear.

I would be interested to see a direct comparison photo between an SC52 cool white and an SC52w considered to have a green tint.

RedForest UK said:

One thing I would say is that both of my Nichia 219s show a pink/red bias in my opinion, something which is probably necessary in order to achieve high CRI across the spectrum.

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I'm not sure if that is right or wrong, but the 119's in my Haiku's don't exhibit the rosiness reported from some 219 owners.

Mine is very acceptable, I like it.

Left to right, SC52w, XM-18 Alpha 4500k, Spy XM-L2 5000K, M61N 4000K, Malkoff MDC Cool white.



Left to right: Haiku AA CRI, HDS Rotary CRI, SC52w, Oveready Triple Copper cool xpg2.

Cool light collection, policescannerman.

Here's mine. I got the WB on the camera to reproduce their tints as closely as I could to what I actually see.

From left to right: SC52, SC52W, L10 w/ Nichia 129, Olight S10 NW (lens swapped)

creyc said:

Cool light collection, policescannerman.

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Agreed, but shouldn't it rather be called a neutral white or high CRI light collection...;-)

Wow, we've got some greenies going on here! Before we start talking too much about comparing with the (perfect) Nichia 219, here's a shot next to my H600w.

I don't care how you use it or how much of a non-tintsnob you may be. When you have something that should be the same or similar tint and get this, it's pretty upsetting.

Sc52(non w) V11r
About 1.5m distance photo taken by iphone


Sc52(non w) V11r
About 2m distance photo taken by iphone

I am happy with my sc52 as you can see why. It produce a whiter tint and stronger beam compare to v11r. My wall is purple/white colour.

markr6 said:

Wow, we've got some greenies going on here!

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I don't have any green in mine. I can see how the photo may seem that way, but I've got a nice warm yellow going on. The light to the right that's green is the S10.

Yours however, I can see how that'd be extremely unpleasant to look at.