L5 is not really "white"

L5 is not really \"white\"

Greetings to the group. First, I must say I own a Surefire L4 and *love it* - it is by far the best flashlight I have owned, I use it all the time and can't say enough good about it.


My concern is that, I just got my L5 from Dan, I noticed it has much more of a blue tint than my L4, but is also much brighter, is this normal? The beamshots on Sean's page do not seem as blue - not sure what to think. ?

Re: L5 is not really

Alas, such is the Luxeon lottery. My L5 from Dan is whiter than the L4 I also got from Dan which I thought was already very white.

Re: L5 is not really

Geekdom, you may want to order another one from Dan and sell the one you have in the B/S/T. That is why some people buy multiple lights and sell the "non-perfect" version. As Grnamin said it is the Luxeon lottery.

Re: L5 is not really \"white\"

I have now had my L5 for two weeks and am still mesmerized by it. The beam is not only exceptionally white, it is beautifully smooth. Of the seven "high tech" flashlights that I own the L5 is easily my favorite for beam quality.It appears that I must be one of the winners in the Luxeon Lottery. i could not be happier with the L5 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Tery F

Re: L5 is not really

Also, maybe you just have an exceptionally white L4.

Re: L5 is not really

People will always say they have one that has a perfectly white beam and I don't doubt that to their eyes it is. Peoples' eyes have different perceptions of colors. One may see pure white while another may see some blue or green. I have had people tell me how pure white their LED light is and I'll see some green or blue and vice-versa. I've had many luxeon lights and to my eyes, I've only had ONE that was pure white. The prior owner though didn't think it was white enough! If YOU see the blue though and it bothers you, then you'll have to decide if you can live with it.

Re: L5 is not really

[ QUOTE ]
cue003 said:
Geekdom, you may want to order another one from Dan and sell the one you have in the B/S/T. That is why some people buy multiple lights and sell the "non-perfect" version. As Grnamin said it is the Luxeon lottery.



[/ QUOTE ]
Cue, that's exactly what I did with my L4. My first one was greenish so I ordered a KL4 from Dan. It was white as heck. I then sold the old KL4 in the B/S/T forum with a disclaimer that it was greenish. I would go with Cue's suggestion, Geekdom. Other option would have been a modding of your KL5, but McGizmo already sacrificed one trying to open it up. It can't be modded, at least not destructively. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Re: L5 is not really

The L4 & L5 I have on my website both have a slight blue/violet tint to them. The pictures don't show this because it's so subtle. In isolation they look white, but if I examine them hard enough I see the tint. My L6 had a slight green tint, but compared to my L5, L4 and Arc LSH's, the L6 was the whitest.

My experience and opinion is that there is no such thing as a true, tintless white LED, although you can get very close to white. Much closer than with incandescents.

Re: L5 is not really

Hi guys,

Don't let your eyes fool you. My friend has an L4 and me a KL5 for the M2 (still no L5 in Singapore yet). When I used my KL5 I thought it was very very white. Yes it is because there is nothing for me to compare to. I knew that my friend's L4 throws out a slightly greenish tint so I thought I should do a side by side comparison. After looking at the L4 and later looking at the beam from the KL5, I could not help feeling the KL5 is nearer to blue than white.

Sometimes our eyes see colors differently and adjust itself to the color temperature. I just found this out that day when I was sitting in Burger King for about an hour. My friend ask to play with my E2e. I showed it to him and as he projected the beam on the white wall, the beam looks completely white!! I was shocked, I thought something was wrong with my eyes and my friend confirmed he saw white too instead of incandescent. I later realized that the flourescent lighting inside Burger King is warm and our eyes had adjusted to the warm glow so it made the warm from my incand look white. After walking out of BK, we played with the E2e again and is relieved to see the warm incand beam again.

Andy Ho