Are you a TintMaster?

There have been umpteen threads and posts about white led tints, bordering on the bazillions. My question to you, at this point, is are you still a TintMaster? (re: one who examines, compares and agonizes over tint)

I have had so many lights come through my hands by now that unless it's a really solid stinker, I deal with it and appreciate the light for it's other attributes. For me, only the real greenies are rejects, and that would be because they tend to be dimmer and actually look green, not white. I've only seen a couple of these on older lights, and have never actually owned one.

Everyone has preferences, warm white vs blue tint. But for me, I've left comparing tints by the wayside for the most part. Now, artifacts, beam shape and total outputs are entirely a different story!

Just wondering.

I would never have been if it weren't for this place . Of course, I would never have known about a lot of wonderful toys if not for this place, so I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

I do compare my lights and hope for as pure a white as possible. I suppose it bothers me a bit if they're not quite "perfect", but it is what it is. Ignorance is bliss man...

My U2 has a bit of a blue tint and I guess I would think that it's perfect if not for that. I just know it's there, you know.

I still compare the tints of new LED light with some of the others, but not to all of them, as was the case at first. Of course, I have more now than when this "hobby" started.

Only one that would be unacceptable was a friends LED Lenser. Way too blue, more so than some 5mm LEDs center blueish spot. None in my collection are too bad, though some are better than others. With all but one, they must be compared to another to see the tint.

My first LED lights back in 2000 had a slight bluish tint which I thought was cool. Now I prefer the whiter true to life. I'm not very picky, but I don't like LEDs that swing towards cat urine yellow (like an aging incandescent) or sea sick green.

I take note of the tint as I compare one light to another but I am never bothered by the tint on a particular flashlight as I use it. I don't have any of those cat urine green tinted lights either..

I've only seen one "real" greenie that came out of a KL1. Other than that, tints are more or less a "feature" of the light for me. For example, I like the violet tint of my ArcLSL (it's gotta be a YA). Also, color perception varies with people (even WO's seem a little on the green side to me. ), and they change as you compare two Luxes side by side. It's amazing to see your perfectly white Luxeon light shift to green as you shine a different Lux next to it.

I kinda still am. I like X0 tint. I don't even like W0 anymore, but I'd still go for it if it was the only tint avalible at the time. I'm more forgiving of a warmer yellower tint now though. My Fenix is *slightly* warmer than my X0. Probably a W0. But color rendition is not affected. I don't like the blue-green tinted ones, I think it's Y0. Makes things look washed out and old antique like.. That's the tint of my SL Jr Lux, but it's duty now is working under the hood of cars, so the tint isn't critical now.

I'll be getting a X1 tinted lux soon, I'm curious as to how I'll respond to it.

I've found that you can tell what tint (deviation from white) a Luxeon has by turning on the flashlight and looking at the beam as it bounces off the reflector/collimator from a 30-45 degree angle from the side. You're looking only at the beam itself as it reflects, not straight into the LED. The view would look like this (light turned off in order to take a proper picture):

I'm only a "tintmeister" in the aspect of if a light is REALLY blue then moving around with it will actually make me disoriented and dizzy. I tend to prefer the warmer tints and even just a HINT of green.

Unfortunately I have lost the Luxron lottery twice (one failed at about 7 hours and another was the greenest emerald green you've ever seen in your life) but both times I got replacements without hassles.

zespectre: you'd absolutly hate my LuxIII royal-blue light.. Hehehe It doesn't bother me a bit though!

IsaacHayes said:

zespectre: you'd absolutly hate my LuxIII royal-blue light.. Hehehe It doesn't bother me a bit though!

Click to expand...

You got that right! I have a blue Inova X5 that I love as a "be seen, please don't hit me in the crosswalk" light, but other than that I can't use the thing!

Well, I don't long to have extremely tinted lights, but generally tint doesn't bother me. I've only seen a couple very green Lux IIIs. I have several lights with selected bins and I agree with Isaac Hayes... I tend to prefer the X0s, then W0s, then Y0s then YAs. These are the ones that seem to give the best green to brown color rendition (outdoor, woodsy colors) in my experience.

The first Mag mods I built used TV1Ls which were definately the cheapest T-bins available at the time. They are not known to be pretty, but in actual use, outdoors, my eyes adjust in about two seconds. The difference is just a lot more pronounced indoors, on a white wall, and esp when compared to another light but also keep in mind that even with a color tint range, there are variations. I have two different lights that I have two of that each have the exact same bin star and the tints of both spread a bit.

Bottom line is, sure, I want a good tint but it's not important enough that I would usually buy five $100 lights and take a $50 total loss on reselling them in order to get the brightest one.

Although this thread is obviously concerning tints of White LEDS, the thing that chaps me most is ordering a cyan and getting a emerald green with almost no trace of blue in it.

Thurmond

Tritium: ah yes. I agree there partner! I have some S1JCyan LuxIII now, which is true cyan! I'm a happy camper finally!!!

I'm with your Phaserburn. For a flashlight, unless it is a puke green or anrgy blue, I simply accept what I am dealt. For a light for use inside the house however, I am a bit more fussy

I'm like Phaserburn in that freedom from artifacts, smooth beam, and output are my priorities. I have excellent color preception but high tolerance and fortunately have no lights with unacceptable tints.

In a perfect world incans would be bluer and LEDs yellower - then they'd both be white.

I like my urine green light because no one ask what that is. I turned on white light other days people tend to ask how much did I spend that HID