Do You Need High CRI LED Bulbs?

[@C4RL1NN]

This is an apparently very underrated channel! Great very detailed but simplistic and easily understandable content. Definitely subbed to you guys!

[@LensVid]

Thanks, Carlin - so nice to hear. More stuff coming soon :)

[@freddyfriend5462]

I have noticed that I see better and clearer when the room is lit by 90+ CRI bulbs.

[@maukka1187]

Thanks for the test! These Yuji bulbs seem very good for sure. @2:30 The numbers you're reporting are lux @ 1 meter = candela, not lumens. You can't really calculate lumens from candela unless the light is perfectly uniform in all direction or you know the exact angular span of the source. Otherwise you'd need an integrating sphere for measuring the luminous flux in lumens.

[@LensVid]

M.... our test number is exactly the result of the Sekonic C700 from a distance of 1m.

[@maukka1187]

@@LensVid Yes, you measured candela (= lux at 1 meter), but your overlay says lm, which you didn't measure.

[@LensVid]

Oh got it - so it's a mistake in the text. It is lux from 1m.

[@dcouzin]

I've been using that same Yuji bulb around my apartment for the past 2-3 years. (Except at the bathroom sink where I won't quit tungsten-halogen.) Yuji provided its spectral power distribution. From this it's easy to calculate the basic CRI (which doesn't include R9!), the separate R1-R14, Asian R15, or the snazzier color fidelity measures of CIE 224-2017. Or calculate the TLCI, if that's what you need. There are spreadsheets in circulation doing the calculations once you enter the spectral power distribution. The SPD is the key data for our lamps. We must start sharing SPDs. A glance at the Yuji bulb's SPD shows why it can't render colors perfectly. There's a profound dip at around 460nm to 500nm. But many white LEDs have dips around there, and the Yuji's is less profound than theirs. Yuji in Beijing are artists of spectrally excellent LED white lights. They make them with CRI > 98 too (but not screw-ins). I expect these dip at shorter wavelengths where it matters less. Get the SPDs!

[@dcouzin]

tdrive.google.com/file/d/1fESqMm2buy9nhCPHp80f70AWyq58zy2M/view?usp=sharing This shows the SPD of a high class 3200K Yuji LED. The CRI is 96.5. The actual CCT is about 3100K. Comparison with the 3100K blackbody curve shows what the Yuji does and doesn't accomplish. The ripply deviations down to around 405 nm are well tamed. The LED falls short over around 650 nm. Color vision is quite potent until around 700 nm, so the shortfall in 650 - 700 nm will affect the colors of some colored things. Yet the Yuji's lowest fidelity for all the 99 objects in CIE 2017 is 86.9 for sample #81. Wow! Sample #81 is something from nature with color between magenta and violet, perhaps a flower. Cameras can be overly potent beyond 650 nm, so the TCLI can be worse than for vision.

[@bodinian]

I wasn't aware of the bad CRI of general purpose LED's until I started photography as a hobby and saw how the camera interprets scenes vs my eyes. My purple walls look pink, my purple bandana looks blue lit by particularly cheap LED strips, and my Canon M50 white balance is thrown way off compared to how it performs in sunlight. I'm not sure if it's from my brain making adjustments my camera doesn't or if my bulbs aren't good for the task.

[@IddoGenuth]

Most LED bulbs you buy in a store are junk in terms of CRI (not all though we got some fairly OK from a store we came across in Germany once). The question is why would you care - on their own - bulbs like these are too weak to be useful as main lights for most uses - they can be nice as practicals though or as lights for an editing room (or for other creative tasks that require accurate color reproduction).

[@1marcelfilms]

lidl bulbs have 97 cri @@IddoGenuth

[@Conchobhar]

My Yuji NormLites were the most expensive bulbs I've ever bought but every R number is over 90. It's insane.

[@weldonyoung1013]

Makes me wonder which PHILIPS light bulb they are being compared to. PHILIPS Ultra Definition are CRI of 95, though production does cover a wide range not every standard bulb colour & output is covered.

[@wingzing9076]

I got these expensive $72 for 4 3000K bulbs and there is a serious problem with all of them. After they've been turned on for a while and have heated up, they cannot be turned off and on again until they've cooled down and since the heatsink gets quite hot, it takes a long time before they can be turned on again. This is on the US 120V 60hz mains. I have a feeling yujileds did not test the bulbs enough with US power and there is a defect in the design.

[@IddoGenuth]

I am sorry to hear that. I highly suggest that you contact Yuji and explain what you experienced. Please update us on the results.

[@wingzing9076]

@@IddoGenuth I did and I finally got a refund and just shipped the bulbs back for analysis. We'll see how it goes from there. I had such high hopes for the bulbs.

[@wingzing9076]

@@IddoGenuth I have returned the bulbs for refund and yujileds is supposed to figure what went wrong. We'll see if that happens.

[@nuclearphish8051]

@@wingzing9076 Did you ever hear back from them?

[@wingzing9076]

@@nuclearphish8051 They took the bulbs back and refunded me.

[@chahahc]

One thing about the Yuji and Waveform Lighting A19 and A21 bulbs is their complete lack of flicker. I think this is extremely important for health as the combination of flicker free room lighting and flicker free computer displays makes for vastly reduced symptoms associated with looking at electronic displays.

[@weldonyoung1013]

It is also necessary with digital photography, something even smart phones do. Without flicker you won't see daek diagonal line in the scan.

[@neutronpcxt372]

This is a great review. However, what you measured is light intensity, and not brightness. You need some sort of integrating sphere or box to average it out, and get adequate readings. Anyway, here's a thanks from BudgetLightForum members from members such as Maukka and I.

[@LensVid]

Hi - look at the comment below and our answer.

[@jakubhrubco8697]

What is the flicker index of yuji bulb?

[@IddoGenuth]

I don't know what you mean by "flicker index" but there was no flicker at normal shooting speeds.

[@viper8177]

Very interesting. If they made a 6500k version with a bayonet cap I'd consider buying. You have the exact same lampshades as I have in my home. I really hate them. I hope to replace them with something different. I also need to get three bulbs for each one because one light just isn't enough. That 3-way splitter could be just what I need.

[@LensVid]

Yes they are not very powerful but the light quality is very good, I just showed the lampshade as a demo (Ikea?). I also suggest that you check out our new more powerful bulb review we did - it is much larger so keep this in mind kzbin.info/www/bejne/haDbi62VmM2Xh9U

[@handznet]

It is great that someone actually making these but the price is really high for such low-power lights, for any serious use you would need like 40 of them...

[@LensVid]

You have their more powerful bulbs but these are big and bulky...

[@diyweights3692]

I really like this video. Very high quality content. Would you be interested in testing a video LED light panel that I am working on which is is hoped to have a 95+ CRI?

[@friedmule5403]

Just to help you:-) CRI is a number for how natual the human eye sees the color, TLCI is the number for how natural the camera sees the color. So for camera usage, you can not use CRI, only TLCI.

[@LensVid]

At the end of the day there are only our eyes.

[@friedmule5403]

@@LensVid Ehm yes, but your eyes do look at a screen who gets it's pictures from a camera, who then again have to render the reality to usable colors. If the first step fails due to a low TLCI percentage, your eyes ends up not liking the unnatural look on the screen:-)

[@LensVid]

Possibly. The bottom line is that the C700 measures CRI and that is what we tested here and on any of our other lighting reviews.

[@friedmule5403]

@@LensVid As I understand it, have you chosen to make a great channel that has, helping and giving advice as some of it's main goals. I can only respect that and thank you for that. So to not just consume and demanding from you, did I chose to try to give something back to you, as a sort of thanks. :-) You were again making a video, to help people and I thought that you may be interested in knowing that your information were 90% correct, except about the CRI. :-)

[@LensVid]

Actually, if you want to talk about the best color measurement method now is probably TM-30: www.led-professional.com/resources-1/articles/tm-30-or-the-quest-for-new-metrics-to-measure-light-color-quality If we ever get the C800 - we will publish CRI/TLCI and TM-30 measurements for each light (the only problem is that the C800 cost $1600 but maybe we will have a little chat with Sekonic in 2020).

[@jelome1989]

Can you test the CRI of Philips Hue bulbs at 6500k?

[@LensVid]

I don't think that we will have a chance to get our hands on one in the near future sadly. From what I have seen online at least in the past they used to be ~80 CRI so not amazing at all (but maybe they improved...).

[@jelome1989]

Lensvid thanks for the reply, ye according to advertised specs on their site CRI > 80 for Hue leds @4000k but I wonder if there'll be compromise at higher color temps. What do you think?

[@LensVid]

80 is not a really usable CRI for photo/video work...

[@weldonyoung1013]

Sounds like you should both be considering the PHILIPS Ultra Definition series of light bulbs at CRI 95.

[@jelome1989]

@@weldonyoung1013 Thanks for the tip! Interesting this is a new release. The only problem is that all the models are 120v. In my country we have 220-240v for mains. Hoping they release a 240v version

[@GERALD_786]

My skintone actual looked better on the spiky spectrum of CFL, most white LED light are just void of red spectrum

[@b5a5m5]

1:50 And what the hell are they going to do in there? Cooling fins purpose are to increase surface area. If they just cover them up and have no way for air to flow through those fins they're worse than pointless, they're causing harm to the cooling capabilities by allowing air (an insulator) to get between the heat sink and the outer body which dissipates the heat...

[@jimlad01]

Interesting comment, I see your point according to reviews these do seem to run comparatively cooler - would you suggest there's another reason for this? Thanks.

[@b5a5m5]

@@jimlad01 They're probably built to be more efficient. Heat is an indicator of inefficiency when producing heat is not the goal.

[@easiersaidthandone-showbus7510]

But if you light a big space with these you'll see flicker and it gets worse when dimming.

[@IddoGenuth]

No flicker that we tested and these lights do NOT support dimming.

[@nassehk]

I am opting to just use a halogen instead. High CRI is not worth the added cost in my opinion

[@LensVid]

We are a photography/videography channel - most of our viewers care about colors. If you have other needs that is fine - there are enough other far less expensive options on the market.

[@nassehk]

@@LensVid that's fair.

[@farhan7393]

doesn't halogen give a higher CRI rating of 100? ​@@LensVid

[@LensVid]

@@farhan7393 Halogen and incandescent bulbs have a CRI of 100, but they are harder to find these days, consume much more electricity, and produce a lot more heat.

[@guguigugu]

yes. there is no discussion.

[@СтароверМедведьОнуфрий]

Nice vid , Yoda.

[@soundinput3601]

dubbing without deessing!? i'm sure I spelled it wrong

[@ezrakirkpatrick5365]

Incandescent bulbs are the only way to ensure 100% CRI. Black-body (heat-created) radiation is always 100% true. Substituting quality for efficiency never works for me.

[@armeniancrusader301]

Halogens are even better as they need less watts to create the same amount of light output as an incandescent bulb so Halogens would be the best option for 100% CRI along with better efficiency compared to incandescent.

[@ezrakirkpatrick5365]

​@@armeniancrusader301 You're right. I'm just a little old fashioned I guess lol I remember when you could shake the bulb and hear whether or not it was good

[@armeniancrusader301]

@@ezrakirkpatrick5365 Yes I remember that too I remember holding my hands over the bedside halogen bulb (I think it was a 40w bulb I don’t remember) in the winter as a child (of course we had heating but that halogen bulb was something else) it almost felt like holding your hands over a fire.. I also remember how I burned myself by accidentally touching an incandescent bulb while it was turned on, then I put my fingers in cold water for a few minutes and my fingers had light burn marks for a few days…

[@ezrakirkpatrick5365]

@@armeniancrusader301 Yep, that seems about right for incandescent bulbs 😂 There's just something about them that makes you feel happier and warmer. At least we know why they make us feel warmer lol

[@armeniancrusader301]

@@ezrakirkpatrick5365 Yeah they really make me feel happier, maybe it comes from them producing natural colors like the sun and no stupid flickering, buzz or blue light like from LEDs or fluorescent. In fact I don’t even understand the ban of incandescent and halogen bulbs besides "saving energy“ and "climate change“ I mean why do the governments even care about what type of light people use. USA, EU etc. should just lift the ban on incandescent and halogen bulbs and let people buy what they like, be it LED, halogen, incandescent etc. And if they also made the ban because of the heat they produce then they should just make companies put that warning heat symbol on the bulb itself, and besides who wouldn’t like that heat in the winter anyway ?

[@rob21]

Low CRI bulbs should be illegal in my opinion, so yes, everybody needs "high" CRI bulbs. But I hate that term. It should be normal CRI and low CRI. It's like calling it high-capacity magazines (guns) when it's actually the normal capacity as designed.

[@IddoGenuth]

You might be 100% correct but sadly this is not the world that we are currently living in and most "regular" LED bulbs that you buy on stores or online have very poor CRI.

[@GERALD_786]

High cri bulb maybe preferred but i dont want to spend some heck ton of money just to have a bulb thats slightly better at rendering color that will probably fail after 12 month for not using it carefully, high cri bulb is only just for color critical place where you need to film stuff, other than that it's purely just preference

[@rob21]

@@GERALD_786 To me it's more than preference; it's a step back from what we had. It's like preferring lossy MP3's to CD's. No thanks.

[@GERALD_786]

@@rob21 cd may have a better quality audio but mp3 is much more reliable and easy to store, it can even be shared online, "low" Cri LED might have an horrendous color to you but it is much more efficient and longer lasting than the perfect cri incandescent, there is always an option to both, there is still an high cri led for somewhat reasonable price and WAV file is always there for you

[@GERALD_786]

@@rob21 vinyl always have a better quality than cassette tape, but we switched to cassette tape because it is simply better in any other categories

[@guguigugu]

with such poor R9 values, they are still not good, even for domestic use. im sticking to halogen for my home. i wonder how many more decades i will have to wait for a domestic LED bulb that can even begin to compare to incandescent. this is not progress, people.

[@samsaek666]

Bro I think you should open your eyes a bit more

[@foofstarr4856]

So why are they not on Amazon? Seems shady to me. If I can find Nike on Amazon, I should be able to buy and return whatever chinese LED bulb i want without having to deal with their website hostage scenarios. So many high CRI bulbs on Amazon now with great reviews, no thanks!