Any research on optimal color temperature for weapon lights?

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Originally Posted by ColtSeavers

This is a great thread, lots of good info!

Ended up waking up in the wee hours this morning, and since I coulddn't get back to sleep, I decided to temp fate and play with my WMLs in the backyard.

To my eyes at 0400...
Malkoff e1ht and e2xt heads have the coolest kelvin, just before blue sky.
Streamlight HL-X has a pretty close to neutral or direct sunlight kelvin.
Surefire M600DF has the warmest kelvin.

Also realized that my Arisaka 300 w/e1ht head, while having an amazing throw for such a little light, is really lacking for inside the house, out in the backyard or across the street duties IMO. Just not enough flood for those ranges and uses, you have to 'hunt' too much with the light.

So, I'll be switching it out for a Surefire M300C on my pistol build. I'll also enjoy the warmer kelvin.

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Messing around in the garage just now using the white walls as an equalizer.

https://thegreensunshineco.com/wp-co...re-Lights.jpeg
To put some numbers to my perceptions
Malkoff e1ht & e2xt ~ 6000k or just under
HL-X ~ 5000k or just over
Surefire M600DF ~ 3000k top end just under 4k, but really green
Surefire M600U (600lm) ~ 4500 and perfect, no green yellow or blue

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Originally Posted by ColtSeavers

Messing around in the garage just now using the white walls as an equalizer.

https://thegreensunshineco.com/wp-co...re-Lights.jpeg
To put some numbers to my perceptions
Malkoff e1ht & e2xt ~ 6000k or just under
HL-X ~ 5000k or just over
Surefire M600DF ~ 3000k top end just under 4k, but really green
Surefire M600U (600lm) ~ 4500 and perfect, no green yellow or blue

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Looks like Surefire really knows what the heck they are doing :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by mig1nc

Looks like Surefire really used to know what the heck they were doing :)

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FIFY :p

The 600 lumen x300u is the old model.

ETA:
I do look forward to the M300C though. Again, the Arisaka 300 w/e1ht head has an amazing throw for such a little light and just 1x CR123, but it is just too much of a laserbeam for me and my intended application. I purposely chose it initially for it's throw over the M300C as well.

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Originally Posted by mig1nc

So, that's another interesting factor. Studio lights are usually 3200K or a little higher for good reason. But what's starting to kind of materialize for me in this discussion is that you can optimize a weapon light for either detection indoor without optical barriers, outdoor with fog/rain/foliage, or for blinding effects. That's in addition to focus (floody vs hotspot coverage).

The following is just my conjecture.

So, if you were to optimize for outdoors with foliage if you had a large wooded property, you might want something in the upper range of the warm tones, very high CRI (90 or higher?), tighter hotspot for longer throw.

Indoor optimized weapon light might be 4500-5000K and floody for maximum room coverage while maintaining perception of brightness due to color temperature.

Blinding would be bright white-blue, 5500 or higher kelvin with a tight hotspot.

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I've played wtih a lot of stuff. My preference indoors is mid 3's, 90+ CRI. outdoors, I find that I get "brown out" with mid 3's, and prefer 4500-5500k or so, with CRI above 80-85, and 95+ being super nice.

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Originally Posted by WS6

I've played wtih a lot of stuff. My preference indoors is mid 3's, 90+ CRI. outdoors, I find that I get "brown out" with mid 3's, and prefer 4500-5500k or so, with CRI above 80-85, and 95+ being super nice.

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Interesting. I'd love to read more of your thoughts on the matter. Is your indoor preference dictated by a need to more clearly identify objects around furniture, so wash-out is a bigger problem? vis-a-vis the brighter perception of the bluer colors.

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Originally Posted by WS6

I've played wtih a lot of stuff. My preference indoors is mid 3's, 90+ CRI. outdoors, I find that I get "brown out" with mid 3's, and prefer 4500-5500k or so, with CRI above 80-85, and 95+ being super nice.

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Interesting. I'd love to read more of your thoughts on the matter. Is your indoor preference dictated by a need to more clearly identify objects around furniture, so wash-out is a bigger problem? vis-a-vis the brighter perception of the bluer colors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mig1nc

Interesting. I'd love to read more of your thoughts on the matter. Is your indoor preference dictated by a need to more clearly identify objects around furniture, so wash-out is a bigger problem? vis-a-vis the brighter perception of the bluer colors.

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I find that colors inside are typically less "natural" colors. They are brighter and offer more contrast. Outdoor colors, you need to distinguish them from one another and if you skew the tint too far "brown" or too far "cold", you will cause a washout effect. Too far warm/brown, and a rabbit looks like dead grass. Too far cold/blue, and a rabbit looks like green, dew-reflecting grass/gray at the outer reaches of the beam. A lot is also driven by personal preference. I have just settled on 4500-5500 and the highest CRI I can get outdoors. Indoors, it depends on your use/goal, but I like 3500-4K indoors. It makes interior colors "pop". Hardwoods, magazine/book covers/furniture, etc.