Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Zebra head lamps - which Kelvin rating?

I think I'm going to order my first Zebra head lamp in the next couple of months. They offer their lights in three (mostly two) Kelvin ratings.

Neutral: 4400 K
Daylight: 5000 K
Cool: 6300 K

For those of you who have tried two or more of these, which do you like? Or is there no practical difference up the side of a mountain?

Man, I was hoping someone would answer this for you. I've been meaning to get one of these but not sure what's what. Hope someone with experience will chime in.

The neutral is supposed to give truer color rendition. The higher the K color temp, the more blue-white the light is.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

I can ask this on the candlepower forum if nobody knows here, but do these LEDs run hotter with the higher K values?

I've never tried the cool ones, but I have both the H51w and this:

http://www.zebralight.com/H600w-Mk-II-18650-XM-L2-Headlamp-Neutral-White_p_117.html

The H600w is flat out amazing and I'd recommend it to anyone. The light color is perfect (not blue or green at all - just daylight colored) and the power & runtime is out of this world! I even use it as my mine light mountain biking - it's that bright! And for around the house the 330 lumen setting is perfect and it'll run for hours and hours on that setting.

I've been wiring up 12V led bulbs for our solar system. I've bought both "cool" white - around 6000 Kelvin and "warm" white - around 3000 K.

I haven't noticed a heat difference. They don't heat up at all, far as I can tell, just like LEDs on other lights - evidenced by the LED bulbs only using 3 watts of power for 2500 or so lumens. A comparable CFL would use 10 or so watts for those lumens and an old school bulb would use 40 or so watts. The LEDs don't waste power on producing heat.

In terms of color, the cold white seems to be brighter and harsher to the eyes, and light up a space better - sort of cuts through the dark. Surfaces reflect the light back to the eye better. It isn't much fun to hang out under cool light to read a book or eat dinner. The warm is a softer, easier light on your eyes and seems to get more absorbed by surfaces.

So, for a strict hunting headlight, I'd go for the cool color for max brightness and put up with the color, even if that brightness is just some interpretation by our human eyes and not registered as extra lumens.

Just in case anyone is confused, "warm" or "cool" light doesn't refer to the bulb's temperature, rather the color of the light being emitted. A cool light being more blue-ish and a warm light being more orange-ish

LEDs are very cool temp-wise. Any generated heat comes from the controller. The color is produced by elements added to the (light-emitting) diode.


Colors:

Red and Infrared LEDs are made with gallium arsenide
Bright Blue is made with GaN -gallium nitride
White LEDs are made with yttrium aluminum garnet

There are also orange, green, blue, violet, purple, ultraviolet LEDs.

What kind of battery does this run? I hate having batteries that are both expensive and unavailable locally.

I looked at those lights, and they are impressive-sounding. Who couldn't like 1,020 lumens?

But I'm put off by the battery which seems to be a special, rechargeable type. In fact, I've moved away from Surefire, because they're still very much married to those expensive 123 batteries. Something that takes AA or AAA is the way I'd prefer to roll.

The 18650 battery will take the place of two cr123 batteries and are rechargeable. What is there not to like about this. Chargers are around $15

Hardin, I don't like it because it's rechargeable and it's not AA or AAA. That's all.

Rechargeable is fine in my car, my cell phone and my laptop. But not in my flashlights. I toss my flashlight batteries before they're half-expended and they're replaced with new ones direct from the package. It's just the way I prefer to roll.

+1
I like knowing I could pull in a convenience store and get a replacement battery if I was in a pinch.

I'm sure glad I bought my zebra light before they had all these choices. Their operating instructions are bad enough with long clicks, short clicks, levels and sublevels.

I could not tell you what the Kelvin rating is on my zebra light. I just know it works and I can see well in the dark.

Lately I've been wanting this one... http://www.zebralight.com/H602w-18650-XM-L2-Flood-Headlamp-Neutral-White_p_115.html

What I don't know is if a guy can use a CR123A in them instead of the 18650 rechargeable? I like the specs on the light, and I already have a G20 with a Streamlight TLR1S handy most of the time. I like the idea of using that battery in a headlight because it's lithium and not as affected by cold as a AA (even a lithium AA)

I may run a rechargeable in it on shorter trips, and my bike rides home from work in the dark this time of year.

EdT tried a Surefire Minimus and said it went through those 123's PDQ. I don't see how the cold would affect AA Li batts moreso than 123's, but maybe I'm wrong.

2 things...

One, I don't know how Surefire stays in business. They're about out of Fanboys.

2... a CR123 is twive the voltage and twice the MaH of a lithium AA, and not much more money

That raises an interesting side issue; just how much voltage do I need in a headlamp.

Personally, I wasn't using the high settings much on the headlamps I had five years ago on backpacking forays. The new ones are uber-brighter by a huge margin. Again, I'm not using the high settings hardly at all.

So for me, three alkaline AAA batteries (or two AAs) are going to give me A) all the brightness I need or want, and B) more than sufficient run time. Spare batteries in the pack, of course, but I would do that with 123s, too.

Cold weather eats up AAA's quick. They live about half as long as they do when it's warm. That was my findings last winter with my Black Diamond Spot on it's highest setting XC skiing the golf course after dark last winter. You still got light, just not 115 lumens anymore...

That brings up another point.... I've been F'ing with weapons lights and some expensive flashlights lately. anything over 300 lumens really isn't needed in the real world. At least I don't feel that the lack of burn time at higher settings is worth it. 200 lumens in a headlamp with a "hotspot" type flood is good enough to ride a mountain bike on a singletrack in the dark.