Review of EnviroLite 96 CRI downlight

JoakimFlorence

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When I initially saw this, I thought it might be mistakenly labeled, or that it was just some cheap off-brand that was being deceptive about the specifications. The product overview did not really seem to make any big deal about the fact that the CRI was so high. So I had to try it. The 4000K version claims to be 96 CRI. Interestingly the 3000K version only claims to be 93 CRI.

So here's what I thought about it. When I first turned it on, I noticed that the light seemed just a little bit more crisp and in focus than usual LED lights. It kind of reminded me of some 96 CRI Oslon bare emitters I test reviewed a while ago, but not quite as good as that. The light has a good color tint. The color rendering for red colored objects is not quite as good as one would expect for 96 CRI, the red color rendering for this light is maybe more comparable to a 91-93 CRI LED. But other than that, it does make things look colorful.

Looking at the spectrum of this light source through a diffraction grating, I notice a few things. First, there's still a gap between blue and green, the gap does not appear much different from other LEDs. The blue however appears like it might be 5 nanometers longer in wavelength than a typical LED, judging by its color hue. I don't know if this is because the type of emitter that is being used or if the emitter is being drastically underdriven and that is causing the color shift. This could explain why the light appears just a little more crisp and why the color rendering index measurement could be bumped up (an underdriven blue LED can have a slightly wider average bandwidth emission in some situations). Looking at the red part of the spectra, the red seems to suddenly drop off. This makes me think there's a possibility it might be utilizing a narrow bandwidth emission red phosphor. This is kind of a new technology for LEDs, and result in better efficiencies.

Is the quality of this light "museum quality" ? I would say... almost.

I suspect the red color rendering was not higher because that can result in an efficiency tradeoff. Is it really 96 CRI ? Well, it could be. It certainly appears to be higher than 90. It's amazing that 96 CRI downlights are now appearing for standard home use, although maybe the LED chips inside these downlights were rated "94" or "95 CRI typical", and then the finished downlight was measured at 96.

Well, this is certainly better than your standard "high CRI" Cree TW series downlight.

Imagine one third regular LED light, one third cool fluorescent light and one third natural daylight pouring in through a skylight, mixed together, and that's what this downlight is like.

4000K is a good color temperature too, at lower lighting levels the color appears very white.
 
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ssanasisredna

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Can I ask what 100CRI -4000K source you compared this against to determine that the RED color rendering was "off". Would it be fair to assume this is purely personal opinion as really you have no reference for what "red" looks like at 4000K other than a few other emitters that could also have been deficient in some way?
 

dc38

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Can I ask what 100CRI -4000K source you compared this against to determine that the RED color rendering was "off". Would it be fair to assume this is purely personal opinion as really you have no reference for what "red" looks like at 4000K other than a few other emitters that could also have been deficient in some way?

Considering that the op mentioned having prior experience and expectations from the osram oslon high cri series, maybe it was in reference to that.
 

JoakimFlorence

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The light quality is very comparable to a Sylvania Ultra HD Professional Series (3000K) PAR lamp (which is supposed to be CRI 95 typical, although it isn't indicated on the packaging). I'd say the light quality of the Ultra HD is between "pretty good" and "excellent", excellent tint too.

The red color rendering of the Ultra HD (3000K) appears to be better by just a notch than the 4000K EnviroLite, though the quality of light from the EnviroLite appears just slightly more "smooth" and "in focus".

Yes, that does seem a little paradoxical against what one might expect, since normally red contrast tends to be accentuated at a higher color temperature, and lower color temperatures have less of the blue light that is harder to focus on.

I would say this though, as much as the Ultra HD feels more like halogen than standard LED, the EnviroLite feels more like sunlight than regular LED. I mean, it's nothing like Soraa, but it is noticeably high quality LED light.
(and Soraa uses a violet chip so that leads to a substantial decrease in efficiency, whereas the EnviroLite downlight claims 71 lumens per Watt )

I think the Sylvania Ultra HD line has been discontinued but I was just using it as a comparison. (Sylvania is an offshoot of Osram)


Can I ask what 100CRI -4000K source you compared this against to determine that the RED color rendering was "off".
Like dc28 mentioned, I did test review some 96 CRI Oslon emitters a while back, and while I did not directly compare side by side, I do remember exactly what the red color rendering looked like (in all its subtlety).

A beam of sunlight streaming through a window is also about 4000K, well depending on latitude, time of day and season. ("daylight" color temperature includes the backdrop of the blue sky, which is why it's color temperature is higher)

I have a 97 CRI 5000K PAR lamp as well, it's violet chip. So I have plenty to compare against.

When I say the red color rendering is not really at its best, I just mean it's not as brightly illuminated as it could be. It's not as "dead" as it is under regular CRI LED light, but it's just a little in that direction, well at least compared to other ultra-high CRI light sources I have seen. It's pretty good though.

On a finer point, the red saturation is more ruby colored than, say, Cree TrueWhite, but not quite to the level it would be under halogen or sunlight, if you look really closely. This is very subtle though, I don't want to give people who may be reading this the wrong idea. It's still fine enough to display artwork.
 
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ssanasisredna

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"Focus" is driven far more by intensity and blue content driven the pupil to close given depth of field than by any particular color balance at any typical indoor lighting levels. Compared to low CCT, this is why 4000K/5000K (with good CRI) tends to look what most people describe as "crisper". Improved depth of field across the scene from a reduced pupil size literally results in better ability to focus.

You mentioned you the 96CRI Oslon you reviewed. I found this: #21 Is that you as well?

I have tested pretty much every very high CRI emitter out there (Oslon, Bridgelux Vero, Xicato, LG, Yugi) at 3K and 4K in near lab conditions and found that across multiple viewers, there is very little difference in perceptive quality though with prompting, one can "force" false results pretty easily. As there is no apparent difference, people will hunt for differences that may not be there and if you give them a nudge, they will grab onto it.

I will question your ability to "remember" exactly what the red color looked like of a lamp you reviewed a year ago. People do not remember accurately the color subtleties of what they saw 10 minutes ago under the exact same illumination levels and with the exact same targets, let alone a year ago under different illumination levels and a differed scene even if subtle (not to mention period of conditioning and other effects). Comparing to other high CRI light sources at different CCTs would not be of value as the CCT difference will create far bigger perceptive differences than any spectral differences when already high CRI.




The light quality is very comparable to a Sylvania Ultra HD Professional Series (3000K) PAR lamp (which is supposed to be CRI 95 typical, although it isn't indicated on the packaging). I'd say the light quality of the Ultra HD is between "pretty good" and "excellent", excellent tint too.

The red color rendering of the Ultra HD (3000K) appears to be better by just a notch than the 4000K EnviroLite, though the quality of light from the EnviroLite appears just slightly more "smooth" and "in focus".

Yes, that does seem a little paradoxical against what one might expect, since normally red contrast tends to be accentuated at a higher color temperature, and lower color temperatures have less of the blue light that is harder to focus on.

I would say this though, as much as the Ultra HD feels more like halogen than standard LED, the EnviroLite feels more like sunlight than regular LED. I mean, it's nothing like Soraa, but it is noticeably high quality LED light.
(and Soraa uses a violet chip so that leads to a substantial decrease in efficiency, whereas the EnviroLite downlight claims 71 lumens per Watt )

I think the Sylvania Ultra HD line has been discontinued but I was just using it as a comparison. (Sylvania is an offshoot of Osram)



Like dc28 mentioned, I did test review some 96 CRI Oslon emitters a while back, and while I did not directly compare side by side, I do remember exactly what the red color rendering looked like (in all its subtlety).

A beam of sunlight streaming through a window is also about 4000K, well depending on latitude, time of day and season. ("daylight" color temperature includes the backdrop of the blue sky, which is why it's color temperature is higher)

I have a 97 CRI 5000K PAR lamp as well, it's violet chip. So I have plenty to compare against.

When I say the red color rendering is not really at its best, I just mean it's not as brightly illuminated as it could be. It's not as "dead" as it is under regular CRI LED light, but it's just a little in that direction, well at least compared to other ultra-high CRI light sources I have seen. It's pretty good though.

On a finer point, the red saturation is more ruby colored than, say, Cree TrueWhite, but not quite to the level it would be under halogen or sunlight, if you look really closely. This is very subtle though, I don't want to give people who may be reading this the wrong idea. It's still fine enough to display artwork.
 

JoakimFlorence

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Geesh, it's just a product review. And yes, trying to describe what light quality looks like is more than a bit subjective.
 

JoakimFlorence

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Edit: after more thought it seems the CRI for this light may only be about 90, the red color rendering simply isn't that good. (or the CRI could be somewhere between 86-91 as an upper and lower limit) The actual CRI might be higher, but in terms of red color rendering it's only as good as a 90 CRI LED light.

You may be interested to read that I tried combining the light from this lamp with an IKEA LED grow bulb (5000K and 660nm red emitters). The light felt improved, but I think it only brought up the CRI to 91. Red colors were certainly saturated and correct in hue, it was just there was still not enough of it to make skin tones appear as bright and lively as they should have (and too much 660nm will just make skin too reddish-pink). What is needed is some more red-orange amber wavelengths.

The deep red long wavelength made the light feel like it had more warmth somehow, more like an incandescent, or a sunset sky. The overall color of the grow lamp (by itself) is still pretty white, maybe a slight pinkish cast, especially compared to the slight yellowish cast of regular LED lamps. Maybe the tint reminded me of a CMH lamp stage spotlight.

Sorry, I know not many people are going to be interested in reading this but I provide all the details just in case.
 
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ssanasisredna

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People who test and play with color day in and day out with sophisticated equipment can't tell CRI to the accuracy you claim even in controlled settings. You cannot either.
 

dc38

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Edit: after more thought it seems the CRI for this light may only be about 90, the red color rendering simply isn't that good. (or the CRI could be somewhere between 86-91 as an upper and lower limit) The actual CRI might be higher, but in terms of red color rendering it's only as good as a 90 CRI LED light.

You may be interested to read that I tried combining the light from this lamp with an IKEA LED grow bulb (5000K and 660nm red emitters). The light felt improved, but I think it only brought up the CRI to 91. Red colors were certainly saturated and correct in hue, it was just there was still not enough of it to make skin tones appear as bright and lively as they should have (and too much 660nm will just make skin too reddish-pink). What is needed is some more red-orange amber wavelengths.

The deep red long wavelength made the light feel like it had more warmth somehow, more like an incandescent, or a sunset sky. The overall color of the grow lamp (by itself) is still pretty white, maybe a slight pinkish cast, especially compared to the slight yellowish cast of regular LED lamps. Maybe the tint reminded me of a CMH lamp stage spotlight.

Sorry, I know not many people are going to be interested in reading this but I provide all the details just in case.
Necro Post! Check out the R9 values of high CRI...I believe that the only real standard for CRI is based on R1-R8. R9 values provide the deep reds that you're looking for.
 

dc38

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People who test and play with color day in and day out with sophisticated equipment can't tell CRI to the accuracy you claim even in controlled settings. You cannot either.
People who have the extra rods and cones in their eyes CAN tell the difference. Anyone who remembers a deep red of a high r9 light source can see that something is faded u der other light sources.
 

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