# What's in between Cree XM-L2/XP-G2 5000K and 6500K?



## akula88 (May 13, 2013)

I own XP-G2 and XM-L2 5000K NW drop-ins. Personally, I feel that Neutral White is more slanted towards warm white. I've seen some bluish tint of Cool White (6500K), and owns an XML T6 (Klarus MT2C). I find the T6 much more appealing to my eyes.

Is there something offered that approximates the 'whiteness' of T6 as far as XM-L2 and XP-G2 emitters are concerned?


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## yellow (May 13, 2013)

unfortunately not,

_T6_ is the power (= _bin_) and does not give any hint to the light color (_tint_); can be anything.

If You have a light/led where You know the tint, then You can try to "guess" the other led ...
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/30/creexlampcwfull.jpg/
(pic stolen from DFiorentinos thread in led-sub-forum)


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## MichaelW (May 13, 2013)

5000K really isn't neutral-white.


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## yellow (May 13, 2013)

well, 
when that pic, I linked was "new", then WD-WC was "neutral" - which is 6.500 K
_NOW_ 5.000 is considered "neutral" ...

(thats why I often type that "what is neutral"-message in threads dealing with the topic)


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## tickled (May 13, 2013)

MichaelW said:


> 5000K really isn't neutral-white.


 Neither is 4000K.


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## akula88 (May 14, 2013)

yellow said:


> unfortunately not,
> 
> _T6_ is the power (= _bin_) and does not give any hint to the light color (_tint_); can be anything.



So this is rather a hit and miss, a trial and error? Apparently, most of the P60 drop-in mod'ders only state such. 5000K... 6500K... etc. 

Back in the days of the Lux-III, it was almost specific -- ex -- U*WO*K, T*VO*J, etc... 

Actually -- what I'm driving at is that I'm confused as to how *I can specify to a mod'der which tint of emitter I would like to get*.


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## uk_caver (May 14, 2013)

akula88 said:


> Actually -- what I'm driving at is that I'm confused as to how *I can specify to a mod'der which tint of emitter I would like to get*.


Tell them the CREE color bin you would like to have.

If they're buying LEDs from somewhere which supplies based on accurate colour bin descriptions, it should be possible for them to do what you want, if they think it worthwhile and their supplier has stock, though it might take additional time.


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## MichaelW (May 14, 2013)

tickled said:


> Neither is 4000K.


Yes, 4K is neutral. Ask Lumileds & Cree.


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## RoGuE_StreaK (May 14, 2013)

uk_caver said:


> Tell them the CREE color bin you would like to have.


Problem with the colour bin charts is to me _all_ of the cells look "coloured"; I can't look at one and have it yell at me "I'm white", all of them look like they have a tint of some sort on those charts. If I had to take a stab based on the charts, I'd personally say 1C looks closest to neutral according to my eyes and a colour picker; even with a colour picker, nothing shows up as "pure white".


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## idleprocess (May 14, 2013)

akula88 said:


> So this is rather a hit and miss, a trial and error? Apparently, most of the P60 drop-in mod'ders only state such. 5000K... 6500K... etc.
> 
> Back in the days of the Lux-III, it was almost specific -- ex -- U*WO*K, T*VO*J, etc...
> 
> Actually -- what I'm driving at is that I'm confused as to how *I can specify to a mod'der which tint of emitter I would like to get*.


Back in the days of the Luxeon when manufacturing variances were all over the place and Lumileds was trying to get as much yield as possible, there was tremendous tint and Vf bin variation. Now that the product has undergone several evolutionary steps and processes have been tightened up considerably, only flux seems to be binned - Vf is pretty standard and tint is generally a _part number_ difference. If you're willing to buy in quantities greater than a reel or two, the manufacturers might be able to supply you with a very specific tint bin ... but that's more than most hobbyists want to source.


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## idleprocess (May 14, 2013)

RoGuE_StreaK said:


> Problem with the colour bin charts is to me _all_ of the cells look "coloured"; I can't look at one and have it yell at me "I'm white", all of them look like they have a tint of some sort on those charts. If I had to take a stab based on the charts, I'd personally say 1C looks closest to neutral according to my eyes and a colour picker; even with a colour picker, nothing shows up as "pure white".



I believe that CIE color charts exaggerate tint by design so as to make the dominant shade more apparent.


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## RoGuE_StreaK (May 14, 2013)

Here's a few sources of XM-L2 U2's in the 1C bin, just as an example of the colour bin availabilities; note how Cutter have several similar but different colour bins available, Illumination Supply have the U2 in 1C or the T5 or T6 in 3C colour bins, etc. Most will only stock one or two tints, and many won't specify the tint at all. The brightness bin will be specified (T6, U2 etc), but what you want is the colour bin being specified as well.

http://www.cutter.com.au/products.php?cat=Cree+XML-2
https://illuminationsupply.com/cree...bare-u2-1c-tint-6500k-p-279.html#.UZLfzKJkNVF
https://illuminationsupply.com/cree-leds-c-52_36/
http://www.led-tech.de/en/High-Powe...E-XM-L2-U2-on-Copper-PCB-LT-2078_120_170.html


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## akula88 (May 19, 2013)

Here's a couple of P60 5K NW drop-ins by current active CPF mod'ders, relative to the old Lux-III TWO_x_.













Here's the old bin chart of Lux-III


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## WeLight (May 20, 2013)

The issue of 5000k being called neutral is probably related to 5000k normally being shipped across a 4 bin range ie with Cree 3ABCD, these range from 4800K to 5200K, so if you consider sub 5000k neutral, it loosely falls into that description. The issues you will always run into is without specific tint data from suppliers you run into the problem of getting extreme bins well off the BBL and you start to see green or purple tints.


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## videoman (May 20, 2013)

Is there a 3200k XM-L2 ? looking everywhere for it.


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