So, what do y'all know about Warm LEDs?

[Spoonrobot]

I've been quite smitten with getting a Warm LED for the past few days. Anyone have any input, beamshots, etc.?

My current lights are pretty neutral but the Warm LED samples I handled at the Blade show seemed to be more pleasurable to use.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I'm keen to try one too

[Millhouse]

I only have 1 light with a warm LED, a Jetbeam Jet 1 Pro V3 with a Q3-5A LED.

For me, the warm LED comes into its own where colour reproduction of what you are viewing is important. Though still not as good as an incan, it is a useful alternantive to people like me who are sticking with LED's.

Nutsak posted a link to CPF on the Jetbeam which can be found here clicky. On page 11, post 309 is a couple of pictures showing a comparison of the Jetbeam Q3-5A and a NDI using a Q5 LED.

[NutSAK]

I prefer neutral to warm.  When I say neutral, I don't mean cool bins that "appear" neutral, I mean LED tint bins in the 5A-5B range.  These will appear yellow compared to any "cool" tint, but nowhere near as yellow (or rose/peach colored) as the warm bins.  Warm-tinted LEDs are pretty much the same tint as an incan, but the CRI (color rendering index) still isn't as good as incan.

The Jetbeams that Millhouse is referring to are actually considered neutral, not warm.

Here is something you may want to look at for a comparison between cool, neutral and warm.  

[Benner]

For a colourblind person like myself, they make a real difference to colour rendition.

[Spoonrobot]

Thanks for the links guys. Looks like neutral may work better for me. If I'm understanding this correctly warm LEDs aren't as bright as cool/neutral LEDs in terms of total Lumen output?

Benner, that's a good thing to hear. I'm colorblind myself.

[Sazabi]

Benner's posted... he's alive!

[Benner]

As Terry said, they are no incans, but they are close enough IMO.

[NutSAK]

Thanks for the links guys. Looks like neutral may work better for me. If I'm understanding this correctly warm LEDs aren't as bright as cool/neutral LEDs in terms of total Lumen output?

That's correct.  Shifting the color toward "warm" requires more phosphor to be applied to the die.  The more phosphor present, the lower the output.

R4 bins are available now in XP-G neutral.  You'd have a hard time finding much output difference (visually) between R4 and R5.  I have a Quark Q-MiNi XP-G R4 neutral on the way. 

[Black Rose]

I prefer neutral to warm.  When I say neutral, I don't mean cool bins that "appear" neutral, I mean LED tint bins in the 5A-5B range.  These will appear yellow compared to any "cool" tint, but nowhere near as yellow (or rose/peach colored) as the warm bins.  Warm-tinted LEDs are pretty much the same tint as an incan, but the CRI (color rendering index) still isn't as good as incan.

I prefer neutrals to warms as well.

I have a Q3-5C that is OK, but I prefer the Rebel 90 neutral (4100K) that I've started using in P60 drop-in over the Q3-5C.

[NutSAK]

I have a Q3-5C that is OK, but I prefer the Rebel 90 neutral (4100K) that I've started using in P60 drop-in over the Q3-5C.

I would still consider the 5C in the neutral range, but it would be warmer than your Rebel, at ~3800K.  The Rebel would be similar to the 5A-5B range of the Crees.  The warm Cree XP-Gs I have are much warmer; in the 7A-7B range, or ~3100K.

[Spoonrobot]

I went ahead and split the difference and got a Preon 2 with the Neutral XP-G. So far I like it a lot better than the regular XP-G, color rendition is a lot better for my eyes. I'm going to take it out for a walk in the woods tonight and try to get some beamshots to help anyone else who may be trying to decide.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I went ahead and split the difference and got a Preon 2 with the Neutral XP-G. So far I like it a lot better than the regular XP-G, color rendition is a lot better for my eyes. I'm going to take it out for a walk in the woods tonight and try to get some beamshots to help anyone else who may be trying to decide.

Look forward to the shot's mate

[NutSAK]

I just received my neutral XP-G Q-MiNi AA also.  I'm lo.vin' it!  It's quite a bit brighter than my neutral XP-E MiNi (Q3 flux bin vs. R4)