I think I got the tint virus too!

I've never had issues with the tint of the lights I've been using and, but I think I got the tint virus now. I was working on a cunstruction site couple of days ago. We were moving floor tiles and I was working in the basement which didn't have lightning in the room. The other rooms had lightning. I think they had normal light bulbs since the light was really warm. I had to use my cool white Thrunite TN12 to illuminate the room by bouncing the light back from the gray concrete roof so that I could work. I'm not sure if the other rooms had their walls painted or what it was but the difference between the athmosphere of the rooms was depressing! I also tried using my Armytek Tiara A1, but it too has coolish white light and all the dust floating in the air just got lit in front of my eys.



I decided the next flashlight I'm going to buy is going to have warm light. I'm now wondering if I should buy warm / neutral white (the warmer) version of the two lights I mentioned above. They're my favorite and I use them most often. What do you think, am I going to be disappointed or really happy with the warm versions? I know the answer may be light specific. In general, do you have experience in changing from neutral/cool white to warmer version of a flashlight?

It just depends on:

1. your preference
2. your luck (most of the time). You can (and I have) order 4 of the same light with a NW and you may get a yellowish, greenish, PERFECT, and coolish tint. Hopefully you get a perfect one, but it's just the "tint lottery" as we call it. Some manufacturers may be more consistent than others, either intentional or unintentional.

If you sit in a room and continually switch back and forth, you will probably end up seeing blue>yellow>blue>yellow...but after using one by itself without comparing, both may look fine and end up as a personal preference thing. Personally, I like a neutral leaning towards cool (5000K or so).

I absolutely love warm tints. My fave is currently Zebralight SC52d. I got super lucky and it's so warm that it lets me see better than cool white lights that are overall brighter.

Cool white wall bounce off of wood paneling: ick. Warm white wood panel bounce? Yummy!

more_vampires said:

I absolutely love warm tints. My fave is currently Zebralight SC52d. I got super lucky and it's so warm that it lets me see better than cool white lights that are overall brighter.

Cool white wall bounce off of wood paneling: ick. Warm white wood panel bounce? Yummy!

Click to expand...

Excellent! A fellow SCx2d fan! I was beginning to wonder if we were an extinct species. I have a pair of each (SC52d, SC62d) and while I wouldn't describe them as "warm" by any stretch of the imagination, I would describe them as just plain PLEASANT lights to use. The light they emit is so "pure" and "clean" - from lack of a better description.

To the OP: The tint virus is incurable... occasionally expensive... and in the long run really rewarding! Be glad you were infected!

Agree, Amelia. Hard to put into words how good the beam on my SCX2d is. More like sunlight, less like bad flourescent lighting? I guess?

To OP: Play with your tint! It's cheap, easy, and fun! You don't need to swap emitters!

Something like Lee filters, or other photography and lighting filters. Some of these companies send out free sampler books that seem tailor made for the hobbyist flashlight enthusiast.

Simply shine the light through each page of the book, pick the one you want to go with, cut out a little piece, slip it under the lens.

It's the cheapest tint mod you can do: free materials plus your labor (but you were playing with it anyway.)

Wish I could see some comparison shots or videos of the SC52d compared to the w.

Yes, I never thought about tint till recently I finally noticed my Surefires have a really greenish corona on low, but hard to tell on high. Never noticed my Maratac is sickly cold blue until I got to experience a Nichia 219b and my SC52w. I'll never go back to a cool tint now. I'm even considering having the Maratac modded for a XP-G2 5000K now. My SC52w looks maybe a little green on low but can't tell on high. My L11C with the Nichia looks amazing at any level and really a joy to use.

I absolutely feel like I can see better with neutral to warm tints.

uofaengr said:

Wish I could see some comparison shots or videos of the SC52d compared to the w.

Yes, I never thought about tint till recently I finally noticed my Surefires have a really greenish corona on low, but hard to tell on high. Never noticed my Maratac is sickly cold blue until I got to experience a Nichia 219b and my SC52w. I'll never go back to a cool tint now. I'm even considering having the Maratac modded for a XP-G2 5000K now. My SC52w looks maybe a little green on low but can't tell on high. My L11C with the Nichia looks amazing at any level and really a joy to use.

I absolutely feel like I can see better with neutral to warm tints.

Click to expand...

Here's a shot, but remember the camera is not 100% correct and I found Zebralight tints to vary LIKE CRAZY. I remember the SC62d being more bluish/green in person, but not much.

markr6 said:

Here's a shot, but remember the camera is not 100% correct and I found Zebralight tints to vary LIKE CRAZY. I remember the SC62d being more bluish/green in person, but not much.

Click to expand...

Actually Mark, that's a very good and accurate photo of the relative emitter tints. Best I've seen yet! It does a fine job of capturing both the N219 and Luxeon D (SC62d) tints.

That Luxeon D emitter is a strange beast. By FAR the most "uniform" and consistent emitter I've ever seen, all 4 of mine are IDENTICAL to a degree that's impossible to describe without actually seeing them in person - I've tried and tried to see any differences between any of them, and failed completely. The other strange thing about those emitters is the "tint" - depending on the day, I could swear they have yellow-green tint, then not a few hours later looking at the same light it just looks pure and white to me with maybe the faintest touch of yellow. Most of the time it looks very close to what your photo above shows, a very nice pure light. At this point, I don't know about the "green" in the Luxeon, I tend to think it is there, but that it really depends on what you are illuminating as to how noticeable it is. All I'm really certain of at this point is that these are very strange, but VERY excellent LED's... I vastly prefer them to XM-L2 in just about every way, and I'm more than happy to take the lumen "hit" in order to have lights of such quality and light purity. I hardly use my SC52w and SC62w lights any more - it's SC52d and SC62d pretty much all the time now!

You guys are infected!

Ever thought maybe of carrying around a stick on fire and a parabolic mirror or something?

You'd get about same output, runtime and as a byproduct induced sleepy behavior perfect for a nap where ever.
Makes me think you need sleepwalking lighting.
Gloworm perhaps.
Idk.

J/K 😀
Back to your regular scheduled programming.

Interestingly there are hcri emitters only in warm led's.. the highest cri is usually the warmest with an exception of nichia 219b's they are not extremely warm , more like 4750-5000k with 92+cri , I'm used to neutral tints with cree emitters and find the neutral light much more useable..

WarRaven said:

Ever thought maybe of carrying around a stick on fire and a parabolic mirror or something?

Click to expand...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...Fire-on-a-stick-Review-A-Layman-s-Perspective
Yes, actually. FANTASTIC TINT!

sinner-cpf said:

Interestingly there are hcri emitters only in warm led's.. the highest cri is usually the warmest with an exception of nichia 219b's they are not extremely warm , more like 4750-5000k with 92+cri , I'm used to neutral tints with cree emitters and find the neutral light much more useable..

Click to expand...

Sir, what do you make of the 219C?
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?402839-Nichia-219C&highlight=nichia+219c

I stand duly corrected, you are prepared!

sinner-cpf said:

Interestingly there are hcri emitters only in warm led's.. the highest cri is usually the warmest with an exception of nichia 219b's they are not extremely warm , more like 4750-5000k with 92+cri , I'm used to neutral tints with cree emitters and find the neutral light much more useable..

Click to expand...

The Luxeon D emitter (85 CRI) in the SC52d and SC62d is not warm... more toward the cold end of neutral at 5000K... actually less warm than most of the high-CRI N219 variants!

So if you have a Nichia 219b 5000K and a XP-G2 5000K, what makes the Nichia 92+ CRI and the G2 less?

Amelia said:

The Luxeon D emitter (85 CRI) in the SC52d and SC62d is not warm... more toward the cold end of neutral at 5000K... actually less warm than most of the high-CRI N219 variants!

Click to expand...

Definitely a few others too with NW and hcri, these are the best ones if esp. if you're comparing them with cree nw emitters with cri 70, Im just discussing the ones that I've had experience with.

uofaengr said:

So if you have a Nichia 219b 5000K and a XP-G2 5000K, what makes the Nichia 92+ CRI and the G2 less?

Click to expand...

If you compare CCT vs. CRI the nichia wins hands down.. Cree datasheets for XP (tint & bin) list the highest cri for 5000k emitters as 75 cri..
ref/:

sinner-cpf said:

Definitely a few others too with NW and hcri, these are the best ones if esp. if you're comparing them with cree nw emitters with cri 70, Im just discussing the ones that I've had experience with.


If you compare CCT vs. CRI the nichia wins hands down.. Cree datasheets for XP (tint & bin) list the highest cri for 5000k emitters as 75 cri..
ref/:

Click to expand...

I'm trying to understand the relationship between CRI and CCT. If two lights both have a tint of 5000K then how can lthey not show colors the same?

thats an interesting thought, it could be quite simply how perceived white light is also a spectrum that builds up visibility to the human eye.. Also nichia are known for their cutting edge advancements in Lasers (UV and visible) and LED's their products are extremely well developed to say the least.. The phosphor and LED substrate composition matters a lot in this case, and could vary largely when comparing to cree xp series emitters.

That photo totally looks like a frame from a science fiction movie, with the big modular space freighter rolling past the planet up top.

A ship of poor souls, unable to escape an outbreak of

THE TINT VIRUS

"I dunnae Captain, half the crew refauses to wark, won't shutup abaout the bloddy green emittars in the warp section!"

"Spark, can we - salvage some warm whites - out of the recreation deck?"

"No, Captain, it took all we had just to keep bridge CRI above 85."

"How about - the medical section?"

"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor not a Mouser! You cleaned us out last week, now *everybody* looks sick no matter what I do, virus or not!"

"Well, we - can't just turn all the light off and - fly the ship in the dark. Alura, hail the Cree - tell them that we have - no - choice but to beam down to the planet!"

"I'm sorry Sir, but their terms remain the same. They refuse to accept the risk of the Tint Virus breaking out among their population, they are simply not equipped to handle the riots."

"Sir, a wattlesheep off the starbard bow!"

"Spark, analysis."

"It's a 4500k class battleship with a full-spectrum array of advanced phosphor weaponry, sir. Equipped with advanced metameric shielding. Nothing we have can touch it."

"Are they friendly?"

"We had better hope so, Captain. Scanners indicate the interior lighting on that ship is - just - heavenly. By the way, this bridge is starting to look like a cat peed in it ---"

"SECURITY TO THE BRIDGE!!"

"Captain, the alien ship is hailing us, demanding terms of our surrender.

It's the Nichians."

DUN-DUNNNNHH!

Amelia said:

The Luxeon D emitter (85 CRI) in the SC52d and SC62d is not warm... more toward the cold end of neutral at 5000K... actually less warm than most of the high-CRI N219 variants!

Click to expand...

What is the code name for the Luxeon D. I googled Luxeon D and got no results.

Bill

Amelia said:

Excellent! A fellow SCx2d fan! I was beginning to wonder if we were an extinct species. I have a pair of each (SC52d, SC62d) and while I wouldn't describe them as "warm" by any stretch of the imagination, I would describe them as just plain PLEASANT lights to use. The light they emit is so "pure" and "clean" - from lack of a better description.

To the OP: The tint virus is incurable... occasionally expensive... and in the long run really rewarding! Be glad you were infected!

Click to expand...

Agreed. I have all three of Zebralight's current daylight tinted lights (SC62d, SC52d, and H502d). But I wouldn't describe the tint of any of them as warm. They are actually pretty much EXACTLY neutral - warm/neutral XM-L2 lights make the 'd' lights look cool, and cool XM-L2 lights make the 'd' lights look warm. There is, however the Zebralight SC62c and the H502c. These use a warm/neutral version of the Luxeon T.