So Here's the reading List:
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Thanks for the links! I chuckled a little as I read your post. It sounds you like may have found the Cree sausage-making factory. Oh man, please don't tell us what happens there!
Glad to hear ZL took care of you.
I am a fan of high CRI, but it's not the stuff I read that converted me. I became a fan when I tried out a couple of inexpensive Nichia 219B 1xAAA flashlights.
At a BLF modding party, another forum member and I carefully compared cool-white, neutral-white, and high-CRI emitters. It is easy to do. All you have to do is find some lightly colored oak furniture or flooring, shine your flashlights on it, and do some A/B comparisons. There is no right or wrong. Just decide whether you can see any difference, and, if so, determine which emitter you prefer.
Next, shine your flashlights as you flip through the pages of a magazine that has a lot of color photos. Make a critical comparison of skin tones, reds, greens, tans, and browns, along with all the other colors. Can you see a difference?
In my case, I could. In fact, it was quite obvious. Even my neutral-white
ZebraLight SC62w looked pale compared to the illumination of the 5000K CCT, 92 CRI (Ra) Nichia 219B emitter in my
BLF-348. And the cool-white tint from the Cree XM-L2 in my
ThorFire C8 made color look awful.
When I use a flashlight to get a job done, I don't really worry about tint and CRI. Changing a tire is changing a tire.
Using a flashlight for recreation is another thing entirely. When I go camping or hiking, I'm in it for the pleasure. A lot of the time I won't really pay attention to color and CRI. When I do, however, the richer reds, browns, and greens revealed by my high-CRI flashlight enhance the fun.
I need to warn you about this. We all know that ignorance is bliss. For less than $10 USD, you could get the Nichia-based
Astrolux A01, and do some of these tests yourself. But you may want to pass. If you are like me, you probably have used flashlights for decades without ever noticing the tint at all. Maybe you should keep it that way! If you have a stable full of cool-white flashlights that you are happy with, you may be better off never getting a Nichia emitter.
That way, you won't know what you are missing!