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Thread: LED tint preference

  1. #1
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    LED tint preference

    Just started diving into the light world. After farting around on google the past few days, I am actually taken back a bit by the HUGE family of LED flashlight enthusiasts. Of course they are different camps, Tactical,GP,Night time users, EDC carriers, etc. But I was shocked just how big the whole collective community is.

    Lumens/Candela output aside. It seems like the tint of the led is a huge factor for many people. If I had to break it down into oversimplified categories.
    Cool White= Tactical/HD
    Neutral white= GP/whatever you want it be
    Warm = those that don't need added brightness or likes the incandescent look/basic GP(dog walkers, joggers,campers) night time outdoor activity where the yellow spectrum will give you more details over something leaning into the blue spectrum

    Am I on the right path of describing the tints?

    Also, I did assume that Cool White= what someone would use for self defense due to how bright and disorienting a LED in this light spectrum can be. My question is does anyone use a weapon light or HD handheld in the neutral or warm spectrum? If so, what are the reasons for doing so?

    For all the light hounds that can help me grasp this better, thanks in advance.
    Last edited by praythenspray; 07-26-17 at 09:26.

  2. #2
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    I think that is a fairly accurate list. I would say most if not all of my lights fall into cool white/neutral white. To me it is hard to tell the difference of these two tints when over 500 lumens, but that is me.
    ETC (SW/AW), USN (1998-2008)
    CVN-65, USS Enterprise

  3. #3
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    For HD/SD, I simply want the most candelas and lumens I can get. For a task light, I prefer a high CRI (at least 90) over absolute output.

    Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

  4. #4
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    You are definitely on the right path. Cool/Neutral white for brightness and general ID. Warm and high CRI for better color rendition.

  5. #5
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    personal preference, but indoors, the cool/white LED doesn't make for fast target discretion for me

    sounds ridiculous, but the warm and neutral allow for a faster decision process of assessing what I'm looking at/who I'm looking at

  6. #6
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    Warm and Neutral (no Cool[s]) tints for my tired old seeing eyes.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by praythenspray View Post
    Just started diving into the light world. After farting around on google the past few days, I am actually taken back a bit by the HUGE family of LED flashlight enthusiasts. Of course they are different camps, Tactical,GP,Night time users, EDC carriers, etc. But I was shocked just how big the whole collective community is.

    Lumens/Candela output aside. It seems like the tint of the led is a huge factor for many people. If I had to break it down into oversimplified categories.
    Cool White= Tactical/HD
    Neutral white= GP/whatever you want it be
    Warm = those that don't need added brightness or likes the incandescent look/basic GP(dog walkers, joggers,campers) night time outdoor activity where the yellow spectrum will give you more details over something leaning into the blue spectrum

    Am I on the right path of describing the tints?

    Also, I did assume that Cool White= what someone would use for self defense due to how bright and disorienting a LED in this light spectrum can be. My question is does anyone use a weapon light or HD handheld in the neutral or warm spectrum? If so, what are the reasons for doing so?

    For all the light hounds that can help me grasp this better, thanks in advance.
    Honestly, I prefer warm tints for the vast majority of activities, and I struggle to think of a situation where I prefer any other tint, for that matter (certified flashaholic/light afficionado). Warmer tints generally are 20-25% less bright, but the CRI is so much better that they're well worth the reduction in output. Colors show up better, which is important for threat and object identification, and it's an easier tint on the eyes if you bounce off of a white wall. Some might say it's easier on a threat's eyes, but rest assured with a good beam pattern in the face, 500 vs 600 lumens doesn't look very different until your eyes adjust (which doesn't take long depending on where you're standing).

    In my view, being able to identify objects better and have better depth perception outweigh a 20% loss in output. Only if you compare side by side will you be able to tell the difference, and if you're hit in the face with either, you won't be able to tell a difference at all (given similar beam profiles).

    But aside from tint, beam pattern is huge. Focused beams coming from large reflectors/TIR/aspheric lenses produce highly focused beams, improving blinding potential at the cost of peripheral vision. Moving the other way, floody lights provide excellent light coverage and allow you to see more at the cost of focusing that light and not being as effective at blinding a threat. Most lights are usually somewhere in the middle between a pure hotspot and pure flood.

    As with anything, no one light can fulfill every task, so if you want to be flexible, you'll need several lights.

    Candlepowerforums is the resource for lights, but I pop in here and there.

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    I only have weapon lights with a warm tint, and consider cool white practically useless. High CRI and good beam pattern are important too, but the most important thing for me is the ability of the warmer tints to cut through trees and bushes.

    Warm light allows you to see much farther into the bushes, whereas cool white only lights up the closest leaves - which effectively blocks you from seeing everything that is trying to hide behind them.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Titan74 View Post
    I only have weapon lights with a warm tint, and consider cool white practically useless. High CRI and good beam pattern are important too, but the most important thing for me is the ability of the warmer tints to cut through trees and bushes.

    Warm light allows you to see much farther into the bushes, whereas cool white only lights up the closest leaves - which effectively blocks you from seeing everything that is trying to hide behind them.
    I'm not a SME but agree with this. I do not like cool lights. Warm to Neutral for me.


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  10. #10
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    Warm and neutral are my choices for everything

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