SC62c: What's the tint REALLY like?

StorminMatt

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Messages
2,263
Location
Norcal
Ever since the SC63 came out, I have noticed that Zebralight has this light on sale. The savings may not be HUGE. But this may be the last opportunity to buy this light new at a reasonable price. This light has ALWAYS interested me, as I like the idea of a warm/neutral high CRI light. But it is far and away the least popular member of the SC62 family. I was thinking about picking one up. But I have never really heard anything about the tint or even saw a beamshot. How good is the tint on this light? Is it a nice warm, halogen-like tint? Or is it a rather less pleasant yellow/green? This is important to me, as tint is the only reason why I would buy this light.
 

Martin L

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 7, 2014
Messages
82
Location
Sweden
I have been in the light business for about 3 years, working me through maybe 10 different lights with careful hunt... I became and am a tint snob. I like the UI of the Zebras. I love Nichia. I love the consistency of a dedome emitter. That said. Since I got my 62c it became my new EDC favorite. It put my SC52w II, SC62w, PD32UE into shelf queens... I can say that this c version with the Luxeon has a very nice tint, IMO. It is not only a nice warm neutral (not close to **** yellow, just more Nichia like with browns/rose/champagne), BUT with a better more even tint from spill to hotspot (important to me). Yes, it is warmer than Nichia 219b (4500k), it should be and I love it! It is my favorite tint of all my lights, it is so NOT disturbing when you use it (hard to put words on it). I had the SC52d earlier but that was waaay to cold, the spill was blue... I sold that one pretty fast.

Soooo, I recently sold the 52w, 62w and the PD32UE thanks to this light. I also like the smaller hotspot, making it a little bit more throwy. The beam profile is very nice, both a little throwie with a descent corona/spill and if you don´t care for a mega large hotspot like the rest of the lights I have mentioned I think you will like it.

Honestly I am not far away to buy a spare of the 62c.
 

jon_slider

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Messages
5,110
...I like the idea of a warm/neutral high CRI light… tint is the only reason why I would buy this light.

I dont have the answer to your question, but here are a couple other Zebras, a "d" with CCT of 4710, and a "c" with CCT of 3650.

images courtesy of maukka:
ChCPzNu.png




click the SC5Sc photo to see his review with more info

and here are several posts comparing and contrasting the c to the w
 
Last edited:

Jose Marin

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 4, 2015
Messages
543
Location
St. Louis


Sc62, sc62d, sc62w, sc62c, surefire 6p incan

The sc62 doesnt look that blue in real life. I would just stick with the sc62w and skip the c version in my opinion. i cant tell the difference of the higher cri personally and the w is more efficient at the same lumens. The w also looks really close to the same tint as the c, sometimes these white wall shots with cell phone cameras makes comparing more confusing lol. Hope this helps anyways
 
Last edited:

BigBluefish

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Messages
1,461
I have a SC62d, and next to the Nichia 219, it is my favorite tint. While not as bright as the 62w, the color rendering is excellent. I think the "c" tint should be equally pleasing.
 

jon_slider

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Messages
5,110
Here is a Nichia 219b, notice how much wider the red and green spectrums are than on the Zebra's. The c LED on a Zebra is closest to a Nichia in tint (CCT), but cant match the CRI (width of spectrum)
0GNbe5p.png


gj5PxLu.png
 

fnsooner

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Messages
755
The tint is fine if you like them a little warmer. I own the c,d and w. The reason I don't carry the c or d is the small hotspot and lack of lumens compared to the w. Plus the SC62w tint is very nice and I don't feel like I am sacrificing tint for output at all.YMMV
 

KeepingItLight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
May 25, 2015
Messages
1,823
Location
California
The sc62 doesnt look that blue in real life... sometimes these white wall shots with cell phone cameras makes comparing more confusing.

Although I do not own the cool-white ZebraLight SC62, I suspect this is right. Even though your camera sees it as bluish, our brains strip away some of the blue cast through a process called color adaption. The blue is real, and our eyes see it. Later, however, in our brains, the color cast is stripped away.

In order to better duplicate what our brains see, I have been toying with the notion of increasing the white-balance setting when photographing a cool-white tint. A setting of 5600K or 5700K might do the trick. As yet, I have not tested the idea to see if it works.

On your phone, some sort of auto-white-balance is averaging the various tints. My guess is that the resulting white-balance setting used in the in photograph is closer to 4800K or 5000K than 5600K.


I can't tell the difference of the higher CRI personally...

This surprises me. When I tested the neutral-white ZebraLight SC62w against the high-CRI Nichia emitter of the BLF-348, the difference was easy to spot. Perhaps the SC62w, with a CRI of 75 (Ra), is too close to the ZebraLight SC62c, which has a CRI of 85 (Ra).

One test that usually works is to shine your lights on a light-colored wood surface, such as oak furniture or flooring. You can also try other colorful subjects, such as magazine pages. Pay special attention to the reds, browns, tans, and cyans (i.e., blue-greens), as well as the other colors. In all likelihood, you will notice a difference.

If you have time to try this, please let us know your findings.
 

StorminMatt

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Messages
2,263
Location
Norcal
Here is a Nichia 219b, notice how much wider the red and green spectrums are than on the Zebra's. The c LED on a Zebra is closest to a Nichia in tint (CCT), but cant match the CRI (width of spectrum)
0GNbe5p.png


gj5PxLu.png

Then again, keep in mind that you are comparing the Nichia 219 with the warm Cree XM-L2 Easywhite. That's an altogether different emitter from the Luxeon T used in the SC62c. I actually received my SC62c a couple of days ago. And if anything, I feel like this emitter actually makes reds 'pop' BETTER than the Nichia 219! It would be interesting to see the spectrum produced by the Luxeon T, if it is even available.
 

Brasso

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 17, 2005
Messages
1,638
Location
Alabama
The reason it's on sale is because people care more about lumens, even if they don't really need them, than they do about the quality of the beam.

The tint of the "c" model is one of my favorites also.
 

jon_slider

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Messages
5,110
It would be interesting to see the spectrum produced by the Luxeon T, if it is even available.
I agree. Have not found a Spectrograph for the Luxeon. Maybe someone with both lights can share some photos illuminating Apples, raspberries, carrots, or other red things side by side. If the photo is from something like my iPhone, it is important to shoot both lights on at the same time, side by side, not separately (because the white balance changes automatically)

fwiw, the CRI and CCT specs are very similar for both the SC62c and SC5fc
SC62c LED: Philips LUXEON T (Typical CRI: 85, Nominal CCT 4000K)
SC5fc LED: Cree XM-L2 EasyWhite (Typical CRI: 83-85, Nominal CCT 4000K)

if or when we do find a Spectrograph of the Luxeon, I suspect it will have a very similar color curve as the EasyWhite, and the Nichia will still have Higher CRI. The tradeoff is brightness, the Nichia will have less lumens.
 

KDM

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
May 31, 2012
Messages
2,010
Location
Tennessee
I agree the c models have the best tint ZL has to offer. It has a nice balance without any distinct colors.
 

eraursls1984

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 19, 2012
Messages
1,434
Location
Tallahassee, FL.
The reason it's on sale is because people care more about lumens, even if they don't really need them, than they do about the quality of the beam.

The tint of the "c" model is one of my favorites also.
I'm really interested in the C model, I like that I could have both a ~100 lumen mode and a ~300 lumen mode. My issue is the efficiency. If it was close to the efficiency of XM-L2 and XP-L, but just couldn't be driven as hard it would be perfect.
 

StorminMatt

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Messages
2,263
Location
Norcal
I'm really interested in the C model, I like that I could have both a ~100 lumen mode and a ~300 lumen mode. My issue is the efficiency. If it was close to the efficiency of XM-L2 and XP-L, but just couldn't be driven as hard it would be perfect.

As far as efficiency, the SC62c/d will run for 3 hours at 320 lumens vs 3.9 hours at 326 lumens for the SC62w. So at this output, the Luxeon T has about 77% of the efficiency of the XM-L2.
 

Tachead

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
3,872
Location
Northwestern Ontario, Canada
Really how much do you need to use your flashlight for 4+ hours at a time guys or even in a day. Flashlight efficiency is more of a numbers/hobby kind of thing vs. a real world benefit imo. If I need extreme runtime I just bring an extra cell with me but, that is only on multi day excursions off the grid really. Otherwise just charging at night while sleeping makes it a non-issue. LED efficiency is so high these days that extra is just a bonus but not really a real world requirement imo.
 
Last edited:

jon_slider

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
Messages
5,110
the efficiency of XM-L2

The XM-L2 efficiency comes with Cooler temperature and or Lower CRI

I could not find the SC62w XM-L2 spec for CRI, but it has slightly Cooler tint than the Luxeon. You can see that the SC5fw with XM-L2 is 1000K cooler than the SC62c with Luxeon, at similar CRI (Luxeon potentially just 2CRI higher)

SC5fw LED: Cree XM-L2 EasyWhite (Typical CRI: 83-85, Nominal CCT 5000K)
SC62w LED: Cree XM-L2 Neutral White (Nominal CCT 4400K)
SC62c LED: Philips LUXEON T (Typical CRI: 85, Nominal CCT 4000K)
 

Tachead

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
3,872
Location
Northwestern Ontario, Canada
The XM-L2 efficiency comes with Cooler temperature and or Lower CRI

I could not find the SC62w XM-L2 spec for CRI, but it has slightly Cooler tint than the Luxeon. You can see that the SC5fw with XM-L2 is 1000K cooler than the SC62c with Luxeon, at similar CRI (Luxeon potentially just 2CRI higher)

SC5fw LED: Cree XM-L2 EasyWhite (Typical CRI: 83-85, Nominal CCT 5000K)
SC62w LED: Cree XM-L2 Neutral White (Nominal CCT 4400K)
SC62c LED: Philips LUXEON T (Typical CRI: 85, Nominal CCT 4000K)

75 CRI
 
Top