Luxeon Lottery & Tint: Does it Really Matter?

WX1S 5 watt plus Blaster 6 = ?

  • a fun pursuit

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • irrelevant

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5

Codeman

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Nov 26, 2004
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The Luxeon lottery isn't a big deal to me, nor are tint variations in general. When I bought my first MagLite years ago, it seemed bright & white. Same for my first Pelican, E2, G2Z, Z3, and A2. Now, my U2 seems "whitest" and all the others seems yellow. Or maybe the U2 is slightly blue and all the others are closer to white. But I only notice it when comparing them. If I walk outside at night with any of my SF's, it looks fine and I can see. I'm not trying to light a color-correct environment for photography, so a slight tint shift isn't an issue.

Besides, what I think most people want when they talk about a white beam is to see things exactly as they would appear in daylight, whatever that is. Trouble is, daylight changes constantly, so even that isn't a fixed target.

Human vision and our brains have a lot to do with our perception of color and tint. An object that looks yellow under flourescent lighting is remembered as being the same yellow when we see the same object in sunlight. Scientific measurements would prove that the properties of the light being reflected by the "yellow" object are different under the different lighting conditions. But, our brain remembers them as the same object, and thus we "see" the same color. After all, it's the same object. Light shining on it doesn't change the object's actual color, only its perceived color.

Given that variability, the search for a perfectly tinted LED is academic at best. A fun search, to be sure, but one without any functional payoff.

What do you think? Are their situations other than photography where having an almost perfect tint is functionally important to you, or is it just personal desire?
 

cratz2

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I mean this as no disrespect, but I think a lot of folks on this forum spend a quite a bit of time comparing two lights on a white or off-white wall at close distances. In actual use, I think that within reason, it's largely irrelevant. For example, not how often someone says the phrase, 'it's pretty blue, but I only notice when comparing it to a whiter light' or something similar.

Don't get me wrong, I mean, just last night I spent probably 15 or 20 minutes at Target comparing different Coast Lux 1 lights comparing the tint. But in actual use, I think that any of them would suffice 99% of the time. If something absolutely needs to be color correct, then something over $40 might be the ticket.
 

sigp6

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Sep 21, 2003
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Not a big deal to me. I used to think my L4 was amazingly white. But when I compare it to my L6 or L2 it seems a bit on the greenish side. It doesn't bother me at all however because it only appears green when side by side with one of my other lights. When I use it normally it appears to be amazingly white.

Tom
 

ubermensch

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[ QUOTE ]
codeman said:
Given that variability, the search for a perfectly tinted LED is academic at best. A fun search, to be sure, but one without any functional payoff.


[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, to a point. But I have never sought a perfectly tinted light, just one that was actually white, not blue or green or yellow or pink or purple. One of the major selling points of luxeons is that "they are whiter that incandescent bulbs!" and if I got sucked into LED technology because of that claim, then upon receipt of the light I would expect a white tint.
I think tint is important in lots of situations, even the most mundane. I often use my L4 when I cook, to look in the oven to see if things are getting browned-up nicely, but often times I cannot distinguish between the subtle shades of brown given the bluish tint of the L4.
Also, the functional payoff depends on how you define functional. If better tint gives flashoholics peace of mind then that is a function. It is just really upsetting to me to use a light with poor tint, I just think, "How much money did I spend on this thing, and it isn't even white. . . grumble, grumble, grumble."
 

tequilathursday

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fine tint differences are no big deal. All of various tints are still very white and usefull. BUT- I have a few that are unexceptible to me. My L5 is green enough to ruin my perseption and quite dim in comparison to most others. My L6 is green, but quite exceptable.

I have 2 that I don't use due to horrible tint. THey are my L5 and my streamlight tl2-led. The L5 breaks my heart because I waited so long for the back order and it's almost 4 times the cost of the tl2. As I posted in another thread, I'm keeping the L5 because its otherwise perfect. I'll just wait for a nice w or x emmiter to swap in...
 

ACMarina

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Sep 10, 2004
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In some cases, tint makes a huge difference. There are times that a pure, white light is the only thing I can use, and at other times a smidgen of blue, green, yellow or whatever doesn't make a difference at all. A side-by-side comparison is a directly simple way to see the range of what you've got. I've won and lost on the lotto, but for the most part I feel that I've done okay. .
 

Haesslich

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Nov 2, 2003
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I've never really noticed the differences in light, unless I did the side-by-side comparison, truthfully. The cool blue of my Q-III doesn't bother me any... though if you want perfectly tinted, or nearly-perfect tints in a Luxeon, you HAVE to buy custom. No getting around that - only those people who build lights by hand have time to see what sort of tint's in an LED before mounting it on a board, and who will pick a 'pretty good white' light for you.

I remember comparing an Aleph TWOJ to the abovementioned Q-III.. and that's when I knew what 'pure white' looked like in a flashlight. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

turbodog

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Doesn't matter much to me unless the tint is waaaaaay out there in left field. All that said, let's remember how POOR a job that luxeons do in the red part of the spectrum. Go into the woods at night with a lot of brown leaves lying around. See what looks better, a luxeon or an incandescent bulb.
 

Flatscan

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Jul 30, 2002
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I don't own any production Luxeon lights, but I think anything with a LuxIII run at a reasonable bias (500mA+) would work fine for my needs. I would definitely want a production LuxV examined before buying (either by me or the CPFer BSTing it).

I tend to use LuxIII TV1x because I like the warmer yellow (not green) tint, they tend to be a little cheaper on BST, and I can actually find J-bin Vf for sale. In an EDC where a low mode without a huge color shift is desired, going with a whiter bin and hand-picking are both important.
 

McGizmo

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Good topic! As students of these lights, we tend to look at the beam and certainly we can see the differences and have our preferences. As users, we look at what the beam is illuminating and as has been said, for the most part, the tint becomes less significant and in some cases, the prefered tint is less effective than one less prefered; YMMV.
 

PlayboyJoeShmoe

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I voted "desireable".

But I must say, I HATED the KL3 as it came stock. It was PINK light.

And while I was blown away by the Madmax (my first LUX), as I got better ones I find it to be too purple.

I have never seen green tint. But I see lotsa blue!!!

I was most gratified when after telling Tony (Chop) that the bin didn't matter as long as it was white...

And it WAS!!! (and at the price it very well should have been!)

So what I mean by my vote is... VERY Desireable!!!!
 

Kiessling

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What turbodog said ... as long as it stays reasonably close to white everything is fine for me.
Anyway ... in a few months the new Luxeons will be out and a few months from then the even newer Luxeons etc. ... so what's the point fighting for the perfect tint if it'll be obsolete pretty soon?

bernhard
 

gadget_lover

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It's the extremes that bother me. I don't mind at all the slight tint, but early luxeons could be way off tint.

The way I look at it is if I'm paying comodity prices, I expect random grades. If I pay premium prices I expect a tint that ends in 'O' unless otherwise stated.

Personally, I find the V0 and V1 bins to be quite good at rendering reds and browns. They also render greens nicely.

Daniel
 

cratz2

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Well, having read over some other responses, I feel I need to update my answer. I agree that in the $1 - $50 price range, I've seen very few lights that the tint totally disguisted me. I don't know what it is about the L5. The first one I saw was another guy at a gunshop I used to hang out at. I really couldn't believe how off the tint was. In those price ranges, I guess I'd be somewhat upset if I received a light that looked like that.

At the lower price ranges, it's either a luck of the draw or buy five, keep the two best ones and sell the rest.
 

gessner17

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Dec 29, 2003
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I think the issue for me is spending preemo $$$$ and getting an ugly LED. My Firefly 2 has the greenest LUX III I have ever seen. Even in normal use, outside, inside, you can easily see how green it is. It kind of annoys me that I spent the XX amount of $$ on it and I got a crappy LED. I think it is a personal pref. On my U2 I was scared I was going to get a ugly greeny but I was please to get a bright white with slight blue/purple tint. I feel if you spend $270 for a light, you should get a Preemo LED.
 

tvodrd

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So out of 32 votes cast so far, I am the only one to vote "A fun persuit." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif

Larry
 

cratz2

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Wow... I'm kind of surprised at the Firefly II. I'm not ready to spend that kind of money on a light but I'd hope at that price, you'd consistantly get selected LEDs.
 

absoLite

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Nov 28, 2003
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I think it is really not that important, if it is only a slight tint in any direction.

But it can make you real sick once you start comparing some lights which looked very white when used without the other /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/Christo_pull_hair.gif
 
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