Convoy C8 Color Temperature vs Sunlight

I recently purchased a Convoy C8 with the "5000K" 3A bin, since I wanted to try something that was "neutral white". At nighttime or in isolation, I would describe the light as "white". The light is noticeably "cleaner" and warmer compared to previous cheap LEDs that I owned. However, in daytime, if I shine the light next to a patch of sunlight that is coming into my house, the light looks relatively cold/purple compared to the actual sunlight. This is true in either morning (around 9-10am) or afternoon (around 2-3pm). I know that the temp of sunlight shifts depending on the time of day but I wasn't expecting 5000K to look purplish next to real sunlight. Do other people observe this with their "5000K" lights? Should I consider warmer lights like more in the 3000-4000K range if I want to better match afternoon light?

I attempted to take a picture but unfortunately, at least on my Sony a5000, the picture doesn't render at all what I see with my own eyes. In the picture, the light looks fine next to sunlight.

This is the specific model that I purchased - Convoy C8 XPL HI U6 3A:
http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_356677.html

EDIT: I did find this blurb on Wikipedia "The color temperature varies by time of day. During sunrise and sunset, color temperature tends to be around 2,000 K, during the "golden hour" it is around 3,500 K and during midday it is around 5,500 K (the color temperature can vary significantly based on altitude, latitude and weather conditions)" so maybe I'll have to consider a warmer tint if I want to better match afternoon light.

5000k should look yellowish/warm next to sunlight, at least, that has been my experience with 5000k and 4500k lights. The Color Temperature of midday sunlight is 5700k.

I have no idea why your 5000k emitter would look purple/cool next to a patch of sunlight, unless you made the comparison during morning hours or evening hours.

twistedraven said:

5000k should look yellowish/warm next to sunlight, at least, that has been my experience with 5000k and 4500k lights. The Color Temperature of midday sunlight is 5700k.

I have no idea why your 5000k emitter would look purple/cool next to a patch of sunlight, unless you made the comparison during morning hours or evening hours.

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I had previously made the comparison in the morning, around 9-10am. I just recently compared it again at about 2:40pm and am able to tell that the C8 is colder than the sunlight. Solar noon is 12:53pm at my location per timeanddate.com. So, less than 2 hours after solar noon.

Maybe they gave you the cool white version instead of the Neutral white?

twistedraven said:

Maybe they gave you the cool white version instead of the Neutral white?

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That had occurred to me. The box says U6 3A but since the light itself isn't labelled, a mix-up is possible.

I also considered that it might be a fake, but the workmanship is good (clean cuts and smooth threads) and it looks legit to me. Interestingly, the driver itself says Convoy, which I had not seen in anyone else's pictures:

Can you take a pic of the LED itself? The color of the phosphor over the emitter should be able to denote whether it's something in the 6000k range or a 5000k emitter. 6500k cool whites have a phosphor that's almost neon yellow-green looking, while ones that are 5000k-4500k are more deep yellow.

twistedraven said:

Can you take a pic of the LED itself? The color of the phosphor over the emitter should be able to denote whether it's something in the 6000k range or a 5000k emitter. 6500k cool whites have a phosphor that's almost neon yellow-green looking, while ones that are 5000k-4500k are more deep yellow.

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I would describe it as appearing yellow. Although, the color is roughly similar to the LEDs on my cheaper lights which are cooler than this so IDK.

That does look like a 5000k emitter. In general it should appear warmer than midday sunlight, but it might be that because it lacks a decent amount of deep red rendering, that when comparing it to patches of sunlight when illuminating things like dead leaves or tree bark etc, it might appear to be greenish.

In my experience, sunlight is a very high bar, the ultimate really, for comparison, and can put the tint of a LED light in very bad light.
I have a light that looks greenish yellow by itself at night, but puke green next to sunlight.
Also, what are you shining the light on? That makes a difference as well.
Don't go chasing the sun, buddy. Only handpicked LEDs with good tint, bare or paired with the right optic can even come close to appearing half decent next to not messing around sunlight.

twistedraven said:

That does look like a 5000k emitter. In general it should appear warmer than midday sunlight, but it might be that because it lacks a decent amount of deep red rendering, that when comparing it to patches of sunlight when illuminating things like dead leaves or tree bark etc, it might appear to be greenish.

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scs said:

In my experience, sunlight is a very high bar, the ultimate really, for comparison, and can put the tint of a LED light in very bad light.
I have a light that looks greenish yellow by itself at night, but puke green next to sunlight.
Also, what are you shining the light on? That makes a difference as well.
Don't go chasing the sun, buddy. Only handpicked LEDs with good tint, bare or paired with the right optic can even come close to appearing half decent next to not messing around sunlight.

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Thanks for all the replies. I think you both have good points here. I tried my comparisons on a few different surfaces: earth-tone tile (here the difference is very obvious but it may be because of the lack of ability to render reds/browns as well), a white bedsheet (difference not as obvious but still there) and concrete (hardest to tell the difference here). I do think that this is probably a function of color rendering and the LED's ability to render the warmer end of the spectrum proportionately to the cool end.

You know now that I think about it, I'm willing to bet he's shining the LED light on a white or white-ish wall next to the patches of sunlight.

Even my 5000k lights are purple-lish in the spill by comparison. Overall they still should be warmer though. The tint however, is going to look purple. A lot of LED lights' color temperature is listed as the overall output, but often times the hotspot, where the majority of the light is, will be close to the advertised CCT, while the spill will be considerably cooler. Lights with really bad tint shift from hotspot to spill can have a hotspot that's around 5000k and a spill that's closer to 6000k at the edges, and often times they're greenish in the hotspot and magenta-ish in the spill.

There's a possibility that your windows have a green-tinge to them, so the sunlight coming through the windows is a bit green, which can further exaggera the purple look to your light.

Simply, you cannot get a 70CRI LED to match 100CRI sunlight, the spectrum is completely different. There are more important things in the world to worry about!

Yep.

Incan at ~2400K doesn't match sunlight tint even thought they are both 100CRI. My 95 CRI Yuji doesn't match 100 CRI incan or 100 CRI sunlight.

LeanBurn said:

Yep.

Incan at ~2400K doesn't match sunlight tint even thought they are both 100CRI. My 95 CRI Yuji doesn't match 100 CRI incan or 100 CRI sunlight.

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CRI, Tint and Color temp measure 3 different things.

You will struggle to replicate sunlight with any LED, nichia's 92+ CRI emitters will come reasonably close but don't fixate on colour temp as its all relative. If using in the daytime to light up close items then 5000-6500K (to me) seems fine but use that same temp at night and it will appear very cold because your eyes will have adjusted to the much warmer ambient light temp of dusk. I use a triple xp2 setup that's around 5500k in the day but a ~3000k light at night. For me 5500k+ at night is too white/blueish and I start to get eye strain.