Lets talk about light tint advantages and disadvantages.. and where to use them...

As I understand it, cool white is good for indoors and natural or warm white is better for outdoors because it cuts through the air, fog, pollution, haze better ... does that sound right? Red light won't scare animals, won't announce your position and is easy on the eyes, blue will freak your felon partner out and light up blood trails and so on.

What I'm wondering is, if natural white or warmer white is good for flashlights outdoors, why are all these new fangled cars running around with ice cold blue headlight beams? I mean, they are sharp and blinding in some cases. Light is light outside whether it's a flashlight, car light, bike light, motorcycle, or lightning bug.

Any experts here who can chime in?

Duplicate thread ... I didn't see the other tint thread... please delete.

I believe I'm in a minority, but I don't get overly concerned with tint. Our eyes must accommodate a wide range of color temperature and "tint" every day (and night), from both natural and artificial light sources. To me, the quality of the beam itself (reflector quality/design) is more important than color temperature of the light. The only time LED flashlight tint registers in my mind is if I do a "white wall test" or a side-by-side comparison between lights. Otherwise, build quality/durability, UI, ergonomics and run time are far more important to me.

The HID auto headlights you refer to are indeed annoying to oncoming traffic, but that is due more to reflector design than the color of the light. HID low beams are designed with a sharp cut off at the top of the beam, but when oncoming traffic is coming uphill we get the full dose of light because the cut off is now above our eye level. Some high end vehicles have self-leveling headlights that compensate for this.

The other blue light we see in cars is what I call "Ricer Bulbs" - replacement halogen lamps with a blue coating to make them look like HID lights. They annoy me even more...

NH Lumens said:

I believe I'm in a minority, but I don't get overly concerned with tint. Our eyes must accommodate a wide range of color temperature and "tint" every day (and night), from both natural and artificial light sources. To me, the quality of the beam itself (reflector quality/design) is more important than color temperature of the light. The only time LED flashlight tint registers in my mind is if I do a "white wall test" or a side-by-side comparison between lights. Otherwise, build quality/durability, UI, ergonomics and run time are far more important to me.

The HID auto headlights you refer to are indeed annoying to oncoming traffic, but that is due more to reflector design than the color of the light. HID low beams are designed with a sharp cut off at the top of the beam, but when oncoming traffic is coming uphill we get the full dose of light because the cut off is now above our eye level. Some high end vehicles have self-leveling headlights that compensate for this.

The other blue light we see in cars is what I call "Ricer Bulbs" - replacement halogen lamps with a blue coating to make them look like HID lights. They annoy me even more...

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Good points! I think the overall package is what is important to me as well.

Ricer bulbs, Ha! Plenty of those around.

Some prefer warm, i know i do indoors......cozy feel of warmth etc. Some prefer cool, as long as not silly cool you get more lumans, brighter etc.........

Now in between warm and cool is neutral, this is pretty good for all things, be it indoors for rendition on colours, to outdoor for the same.

There are no rights or wrongs, just preferences......simple as that. Out doors i like 4500-6000k, ideally 5000k but 5700k is fine by me if pure white or creamy white.

I can change any tint i have with another light next to it, its so easy to play tricks on our eyes. I can see really warm neutrals if next to a cool beam as an example.

For work, metals(machines) cables/wires then more neutral is suited for me, yet many have ice cold tints and get on just fine!! Maybe ignorance just works for many.........

My advice is to try different tints in cheap formats like convoy or alike. Try some warmer 4000k, 5000k and 6000k against something set up with colours. If you want them exaggerated then go warmer, want them washed out go cooler, want a happy medium then neutral............thats my simple analogy.

Once you find a preferred tint , look into it further in form factor /brand and UI to get pretty close to your perfect light(subjective of course). This is all very basic , but it may help you decide what you like. I love 5700k which is cool, i find a very good rendition of colours to my eyes,i also love 5000k more and more. Once i drop bellow 4500k i find a little too artificial for me........others love it!! Most important bit is simply respect others choices, you may dislike but we tend to see things different(general comment and not aimed at anyone.....just they way i work).

So living near a wooded area of greens and browns, one could argue a warmer/neutral tint is better than a cooler tint. Working with concrete in tunnels, cool white may not be the best choice too.

I have all my bases covered, so a light for pretty much every type of use. Variety is the spice of light

Ricer bulbs are annoying.

Some are actual emitters with a blue tint. My son has 6k in his car, which are indeed a better bulb at cutting through light pollution in the city, yet aren't so blue the poh-lease hassle him for illegal lights.
But his low profile wedge shaped front is low enough to not bother most people.

Regarding tints, when it really counts there are some tints that do better than others, yet in terms of each user, based on that users experiences, that too can vary.

Ever notice NASCAR crews wearing yellow lenses for night racing? It causes surroundings to appear brighter without having to use bright enough lighting nearby to blind them. So you have that whole scenario as well...flashback seems worse with some tints than others.

Some 'drivers' glasses are a shade of brown that causes items to appear brighter without drastically changing the appearance of colors you see.

There is only one perfect tint for every possible use...sunlight.
The rest is varying attempts to duplicate it.

To me the Malkoff M61NL is a right darn good attempt. But that's based on my experiences.

Just fitted some 3500k bulbs to my car. Not powerful but easy on my eyes. I struggle seeing with cool lights. Warm lights my eyes noticeably relax. Much better for long drives and stuff.
I remember french cars in the 80s wearing yellow lenses.

bykfixer said:

There is only one perfect tint for every possible use...sunlight.
The rest is varying attempts to duplicate it.

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Ah but at what time, morning, noon, evening..............so many different K

I do notice though in bright sun(trust me its rare in the UK :laughing: that colours are washed out, greens are pale etc etc, maybe 5500k+ dont know ,maybe the brightness is the main factor in the washing out.

Having a cool white light(lets pluck one out) the pd35, on lower modes colours seem fine, of course on turbo and closer up the sheer brightness washes colours out and fade...........

tints do shift due to the output as well, 100lm compared to 4000lm i see a shift.

ven said:

Ah but at what time, morning, noon, evening..............so many different K

I do notice though in bright sun(trust me its rare in the UK :laughing: that colours are washed out

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Afternoon/evening please. Yep I dont like bright sun. Dont think all the white surrounding cloud helps though !

zs&tas said:

Afternoon/evening please. Yep I dont like bright sun. Dont think all the white surrounding cloud helps though !

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You have white cloud!!! only a dark cloud over me :laughing:

I have found from my use cool white gives more contrast and there some detail is lost in shadow; warmer light keeps contrast more limited so more detail in shadow can still be seen by the eye.

Blue is an optically inefficient light to work with.
It does have some utility in controlling the contraction of the iris.
If you haven't "burned out" your dyes, and your lenses haven't yellowed from age & UV exposure, you'll find 5K cool-white interior lighting a harsh blue. 4K would be better-which is why it is not available in stores.
3K sucessfully matches halogen lights.

The reason for horrid near 6K LED headlights is the result of the marketing department with the BS 'closer to sunlight' canard. Closer to moonlight would be much better-and that is what you get with new HID capsules. With age, they end up a harsh dim 5k, and should be replaced.

ven said:

Ah but at what time, morning, noon, evening..............so many different K

I do notice though in bright sun(trust me its rare in the UK :laughing: that colours are washed out, greens are pale etc etc, maybe 5500k+ dont know ,maybe the brightness is the main factor in the washing out.

Having a cool white light(lets pluck one out) the pd35, on lower modes colours seem fine, of course on turbo and closer up the sheer brightness washes colours out and fade...........

tints do shift due to the output as well, 100lm compared to 4000lm i see a shift.

Click to expand...

Ahhhhh,
Morning is my favorite.
One more day on the right side of the grass baby!

But anytime I can see sky straight up above, regardless of time of day, a tree looks like a tree to these eyes....cloudy or not.

ven said:

Ah but at what time, morning, noon, evening..............so many different K

I do notice though in bright sun(trust me its rare in the UK :laughing: that colours are washed out, greens are pale etc etc, maybe 5500k+ dont know ,maybe the brightness is the main factor in the washing out.

Having a cool white light(lets pluck one out) the pd35, on lower modes colours seem fine, of course on turbo and closer up the sheer brightness washes colours out and fade...........

tints do shift due to the output as well, 100lm compared to 4000lm i see a shift.

Click to expand...

Ahhhhh,
Morning is my favorite.
One more day on the right side of the grass baby!

But anytime I can see sky straight up above, regardless of time of day, a tree looks like a tree to these eyes....cloudy or not.