To me those high CRI lights put out a more pleasing tint. Yet the 6200 kelvin emitter helps me ID things faster.
Case in point was at 4:30 this morning I walked past the clothes I set out last night to wear today. I shined a new light to light my path and noticed my shirt for today was brown. "Brown? Wait, I do not own a brown t-shirt" my foggy brain thought. This must not be a high CRI light I thought. So I went back to my night stand and grabbed one stated to be 90+ CRI and shined it on the 'brown' shirt, which again looked brown.
Thinking "well this one makes colors pop" my brain was perplexed. So I went back and grabbed a different light that is also a high CRI rated number. And again the shirt looked brown. Well that's strange. Let me go grab one I know is 6200 kelvin and……tadah. It's my gray Va Ready Mix Concrete shirt. It's the light I carry in my pocket every day.
Now to be fair it is an odd shade of gray with a hint of brown. And I knew that the first time I looked at it this morning. It's a "clay" color. But it confirmed my belief that at least to my eyes those neutral and warm high CRI lights are not as good at casting a tint of light that my eyes can be peruaded to correctly identify some things as well as the 6200 kelvin light I carry with me every day. Those that bias reds or yellows just do not work for me. Nor does the incan beam.
Here's the shirt under incan room lighting.
I used this photo because this is what the shirt looked like to me at 4:30 am lit by a high CRI flashlight.
This is what it looks like in daylight.
Not saying anybody is right or wrong here. Just that lights with a high CRI value while more pleasing to my eyes they just don't identify colors to my eyeballs as the mid-daylight mimicing LED's do.