Zebralight SC52d and SC62d - Where's the love?

Hello again, flashlight folks!

Reading through this forum, I'm just not seeing much positive comment on the Zebralight SC52d and SC62d. I don't know if this is because people just aren't aware of these lights, or if the lumen numbers aren't high enough for the spec-heads, or if there's some other reason that people just aren't digging these lights. So... I thought I'd ask!

I own SC52w, SC52d, SC62w, and SC62d lights. I started out with the "w" models then bought the "d" models later, and I've used them all pretty extensively while hiking, camping, and doing around the yard stuff at night. I realized today that the SC52w and SC62w lights have been collecting dust, as I've been using the "d" models so much lately. The tint of the SC52d and the pair of SC62d that I own is perfectly uniform, there seems to be zero variation between the 3 lights. They all have the nice neutral bright whiteness in the hot spot, with the slight halo of yellow-green in the corona. Spill is white with just the slightest hint of lavender. Overall, a very pleasing tint that just makes colors "pop" and jump out vividly, especially vegetation and earth tones. I love, love LOVE these lights outdoors, they make night walks a fairy land!

The brightness of all 3 lights is just fine, the SC52d (after step-down) is on the edge of acceptable (when I need high) though - much dimmer and I probably wouldn't reach for it much. The SC62d is PLENTY bright though, I have no complaints at all with its output. Losing 600+ lumens coming from the SC62w might seem like a huge deal - but it really truly isn't... it seems like visually the SC62w is only about 50% brighter, if even that.

Anyway, I like both lights very much, and would love to hear other user's experiences with them.

Subscribed. I'm loathe to give up output, but quality of light is gaining importance. Tint varies widely between units of the same model, and brightness less so. Without a large (and expensive) range of samples to choose from, it's hard for any one person to know where the balance is between lumens and tint, but at least with lumens, it's generally a safer bet that lights within the same model line will be more consistent (or the inconsistencies are less noticeable, anyway).

I'm curious to see if owners of the "d" model ZLs report a better tint consistency within that line, as compared to the other ZLs.

I have the SC62W and I absolutely love it, it's a nice balance between tint (CRI) and brightness. I don't have the need nor the intention for a big throwy flashlight so the high lumen count on SC62W can help me reach a bit farther. As for the SC62d, I'm willing to pay double the price if they can produce 700+ lumens on turbo with 90min run time, step down included, but I guess I will need to wait a bit longer for the high CRI LED tech to evolve.

Btw I heard the new SC63 series are coming out this year, are they any good? It would be nice to have some info.

The d series should use higher CRI led like Nichia 219 or HiCRI osram.

recDNA said:

The d series should use higher CRI led like Nichia 219 or HiCRI osram.

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It DOES use a high CRI LED. The SC62d is rated at 85 CRI...the difference between that and a Nichia at 92 CRI is negligible. Unless you are comparing side-by-side color wheels (and maybe even then), I bet you couldn't even tell the difference if they had the same tint.

As for me, Amelia's description was all I needed to ensure I stay away. Yellow, green, and lavender...sounds like a pretty awful combination, even if subtle. And I use my lights for work...I'm not one of those who regularly uses moon modes...I am trying to overcome ambient light, and see in the shadows, so I do actually need decent brightness (most of my heavy use is on medium or high modes, with an occasional blast in turbo). The cool or neutral versions have TRIPLE the brightness...that is not something I can overlook.

thedoc007 said:

It DOES use a high CRI LED. The SC62d is rated at 85 CRI...the difference between that and a Nichia at 92 CRI is negligible. Unless you are comparing side-by-side color wheels (and maybe even then), I bet you couldn't even tell the difference if they had the same tint.

As for me, Amelia's description was all I needed to ensure I stay away. Yellow, green, and lavender...sounds like a pretty awful combination, even if subtle. And I use my lights for work...I'm not one of those who regularly uses moon modes...I am trying to overcome ambient light, and see in the shadows, so I do actually need decent brightness (most of my heavy use is on medium or high modes, with an occasional blast in turbo). The cool or neutral versions have TRIPLE the efficiency...that is not something I can overlook.

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It is an interestingly tinted light, and my description really doesn't do it the justice it deserves. When I initially got my first SC62d, I was expecting something like a Nichia 219B, with its light tan/orange tint. When I first fired up the SC62d, my first thought was "Woah... interesting". The dominant tint of the light (mostly in the corona) is yellow-green, but not the typical sickly, creepy green like a Cree emitter. The Luxeon T green is, for lack of a better description, PURE and CLEAR green - kind of like if mid-day sunlight passes through a piece of lightly tinted yellow/green glass or water with a little algae in it or something like that. Yeah, I can hear you saying now, "green is green". That's what I thought too, until I started using the light and looking at the tint more. Anyway, the closest I can come to really describing the light that comes from these emitters is "bright and pure" - it really is pleasing, especially when you start illuminating things with it.

As for the slightly lavender tinted spill, that's something I see in almost all LED emitters - to some degree. I've always been a bit "tint sensitive", and I can kind of make out a similar slightly lavender glow from short wave UV sources - so the "lavender" might actually be some UV perception that many people might not be able to see at all. I was showing a friend some tint examples one time, and she could only see white in the spill of the light I was using, so who knows - maybe it's a defect in the lens of my eye or something. Anyway, the lavender is not intense in these "d" emitters at all - more of a faint background glow that I notice but only against a white background and only faintly.

Anyway, I urge you to seek out someone who has a Zebralight "d" light if you can, and take a look at the tint of the light and the way it illuminates various objects before you judge it as unsuitable for your uses... you might be surprised!

The Luxeon T LED has never really interested me. Too cool for my tastes, and from what I've read, it still has some imperfections in the tint.

I'd be all over a SC52n, with a Nichia 219A, if they offered it. I wouldn't mind giving up the output for the perfect tint of the 219A. It's warm enough for my preferences, and the overall tint across the entire beam is perfect.

My reason is simple...I like the tint of the SC62w. The fact that it's brighter is 'gravy', so to speak. I have one of the 'd' version headlamps and really like it, but for my purposes the 'w' is great.

I had both and sold them. I'm a tint freak, but there comes a point where you just have to throw in the towel.

My SC62w tint is good, not great. At 930lm, I'm happy. If the SC62d was something around 600lm, I would take the slight hit in output for high CRI. But at 320lm, it's not even in the same ballpark.

I don't like to use the "it's bright enough for 95% of my uses" argument. If that were true, I wouldn't have $1000 worth of nice flashlights. In fact, I wouldn't even be on this forum. I would probably have a couple $20 Wal-Mart lights and be satisfied that it was enough. But there is no such thing as "enough" as I have found out here!!

markr6 said:

My SC62w tint is good, not great. At 930lm, I'm happy. If the SC62d was something around 600lm, I would take the slight hit in output for high CRI. But at 320lm, it's not even in the same ballpark.

I don't like to use the "it's bright enough for 95% of my uses" argument.

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Well said. A minor hit is one thing...but the SC62w is THREE TIMES as bright, and significantly more efficient as well. Over and above the tint issues, this is just not acceptable to me, given my usage pattern.

And of course, if your light is bright enough ninety-five percent of the time, it is NOT bright enough five percent of the time. For me, in an EDC light, that is a major problem. EDC lights must be flexible, and cover a broad ranges of uses, since that is the category you really depend on. Don't always know what I might need it for...but I do know that the brighter versions will cover more situations.

If someone wanted to send me an SC62d to try out, I'd be happy to do so. But I'm not going to buy a new light that is dimmer and less efficient just to experiment...I'll leave that to the tint snobs.

Interestingly enough the best tint I have in any of my flashlights wasn't a Nichia but instead the new SC5w. It had the purest most neutral tint of any light of mine, even with several lights that have Nichia emitters this particular copy of the SC5w had the best tint. I may have gotten lucky on that but it definitely is the best. My SC62w has pretty good tint and is good enough for all my EDC purposes. I've never tried one of the higher CRI lights though so I might just to see what they are like if I get a chance.

thedoc007 said:

Well said. A minor hit is one thing...but the SC62w is THREE TIMES as efficient.

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That statement is wrong. Do not confuse maximum brightness with efficiency. If you look at the specs and compare equivalent brightness, the SC62d runs 3 hours at 320 lumens. The SC62w runs 3.9 hours at 326 lumens. So the SC62w is only about 33% more efficient. It has 3x the maximum brightness, only because it can be driven much harder.

snowlover91 said:

Interestingly enough the best tint I have in any of my flashlights wasn't a Nichia but instead the new SC5w.

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I also have a SC52w-L2 with a great tint. Not quite as perfect as a Nichia 219A, but the extra efficiency makes a good compromise. For regular use, it's really hard to tell the difference between my SC52w-L2 and my Nichia219A. But, yes, it's a tint lottery with Zebralight.

There was a topic for the SC62D somewhere, but it's not very active. I think the majority of people on CPF like the potential higher output and warmer tint of the 62W.

I really enjoy the 5000k 85CRI Luxeon T emitter in the 62D. To me, 62D is probably a select rare breed of flashlight that ticks nearly all your needs in one package.

-small, compact, edc'able
-bright and long runtime
-great color rendition and natural tint
-tail stand
-instant moonlight and instant max output
-no stepdowns in brightness

How many other lights can say they meet all those requirements? Not too many.


I get the idea of wanting 1000 lumens in the same package, and I also get the idea of liking warmer tints, but I never quite liked the idea of having a max output that gradually lowered in output to compensate for a body that was too small to run it in the first place, and I never liked the idea of illuminating the outdoors with a tint that was warmer than what direct, natural sunlight is. For most purposes, I think the Luxeon T at 5000k is the best outdoors hiking light, as it replicates the sunlight better than most other LEDs out there while remaining high in color rendering. By comparison, a Nichia 219B at 4500k 92CRI looks like an incandescent and unnatural. I have no tried the 5000k 85CRI Nichia 219 though.

Also, the difference between the Nichia's 92CRI vs the the Luxeon's 85CRI is near indistinguishable. I think what most people comment on is the difference in tint, and not the CRI. The only thing I wish the Luxeon T improved on was the slight tint variations in its beam pattern, so slightly less green in the corona, and slightly less blue/purple in the spill.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

That statement is wrong. Do not confuse maximum brightness with efficiency. If you look at the specs and compare equivalent brightness, the SC62d runs 3 hours at 320 lumens. The SC62w runs 3.9 hours at 326 lumens. So the SC62w is only about 33% more efficient. It has 3x the maximum brightness, only because it can be driven much harder.

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Fair enough. Thank you for the correction.

The problem with wanting 5000K to illuminate things outdoors is that it almost never happens. If you go outside a few hours after sunrise or before sunset, it's a neutral-warm. At noon, it may technically be close to 5000K, but that light is reflecting off grass, trees, houses, concrete, dirt, diffused thru leaves (green, yellow, red, etc), clouds, haze, etc. So it really comes down to what you see as natural.

I was comparing my MX25L3C w/ Nichia (4500K) with a XP-L V6 3D (~4800K) last night. While the XP-L has a great tint (cool but in a good way), it just didn't look natural compared to the Nichia. Not only was that due to the lower CRI, but more because of the cooler tint (bluish/purple leaves, bark, grass, etc)

Not that it would ever happen, but it would be interesting if someone could shine a 10,000,000lm flashlight from above. I think something around 4500K would be much more pleasing than 5000K.

markr6 said:

The problem with wanting 5000K to illuminate things outdoors is that it almost never happens. If you go outside a few hours after sunrise or before sunset, it's a neutral-warm. At noon, it may technically be close to 5000K, but that light is reflecting off grass, trees, houses, concrete, dirt, diffused thru leaves (green, yellow, red, etc), clouds, haze, etc. So it really comes down to what you see as natural.

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I'll go further than that, and say that "natural" isn't necessarily what is best or most pleasing. A 5500K "natural" light at noon tends to look somewhat stark to me. I much prefer the warmer light in the early morning or evening, which is closer to 4500K or even warmer. It's also "natural", but much more pleasing. Colours are more vibrant, and things look nicer.

So, tint comes down to preference, not necessarily what is most natural. If you look at sales of lights for household use, I think you'll find that most people prefer warm tints to cool tints. If you look at sales of flashlights, you'll find that most people only look at the lumen numbers and don't even realize you can get them in different tints.

That's true that 5000k almost never happens, but it's closer to the 5500-5700k direct sunlight that illuminates the outdoors anywhere around mid-day, and that kind of color temperature incorporates a way larger chunk of the day than say the 45 minutes after sunrise and prior to sunset, where direct sunlight finally starts dipping below 5000k, and even down to the 2000s at the extremes.

In this argument, 5000k is definitely more natural looking than 4500k when talking about trying to make the outdoors look like actual sunlight is illuminating your surroundings during a good 80-90% of any given sunny day. The Nichia is too pinkish/warmish and looks like in incandescent, as I mentioned prior.

If all things were equal, and a 5500k flashlight had no tint variations and the same amount of CRI as a 4500k flashlight, the 5500k would look more like direct sunlight. However, I can see why many people have a natural bias that strays against common cool-white flashlights, because they often lack the necessary CRI and have ugly green and purple tint shifts that make them displeasing to look at. This isn't to completely dismiss the Nichia, because it is very good at rendering colors and has a pleasing quality to it, but when it comes to replicating the sun throughout the majority of the day, the Luxeon simply does a better job.

(All this is commenting on the 219B with 4500k 92cri however, it would be very interesting to compare the 5000k 85cri Luxeon vs the 5000k (really 4700-5200k) 85cri Nichia.)

And one last thing, colors are not more vibrant during these extremes of the day where sunlight is on the warmer side. The colors are just warmer, not more vibrant. Sunlight doesn't magically get more CRI the warmer it is.

What is the reason for my 5000K Cree LED bulbs in my garage looking TOTALLY DIFFERENT than sunlight? CRI, cheap LEDs with a bad tint, combination of both? The difference is huge...not even close to noon sunlight.

The d series is too green for me. ANY green is too green for me. Just a question of personal choice. Nichia is not only higher CRI it has a nice consistent tint.

What I would really like is a triple Nichia in an sc62!

twistedraven said:

...Fot most purposes, I think the Luxeon T at 5000k is the best outdoors hiking light...

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This.

The SC62w is a bit warmer, but I just find the SC62d light to be more pleasing and "natural" looking to hike with. Something about the vibrant purity and "cleanness" of the light, not at all "harsh" and "stark" like most cool white lights of similar color temperatures. Again, don't let the light green tint reports turn you off to these emitters - give one a fair chance in real-world conditions and you might be really surprised! I know I was.