CRI minimum for LED lights?

A

andrew00

Well-known member
Hey,

I'm looking at picking up an LED light for whenever usage. There's obviously a whole range in price and specifically CRI quotes for LED lightings.

I was wondering if there was a minimum CRI level that I should be looking at - 85+, 95+ etc - or if it's all subjective and so not as easy as that?

Basically if I need an LED for location work where skin tones are important do I need to pay top dollar or can I reasonably do with a cheaper, lower CRI product.
 
The problem is that CRI doesn't really tell the whole story when it comes to LED lights. It's better to look at the actual color curves, or measure the lights with a color meter. I can tell you that the Area 48, Cineo, and Prism fresnels have excellent color reproduction.
 
CRI is really pretty meaningless when you get up to the 80's. Some stuff with low CRI specs just looks right. Some high-CRI stuff looks poor. And there's often no backup as to how they settled on their CRI number.

You really have to rely on trusted reviewers and testers, find a good return policy, and test things with your setup. Mixing daylight sources has gotten to be a real zoo. Everything I own has tape strips with the gel combos it takes to make 'em neutral written down. If you use one type fixture in a shot, WB to it and be done. But mixing flos, HMIs, HIDs in the same shot... you need to test the hell out of your gear and figure out what color it's actually putting out. Takes an afternoon with a DSLR that shoots raw, and worth the effort. But you may find yourself ordering some oddball gel colors...
 
Cool I'll do some testing and see what I get then. There's going to be a point of diminishing returns in the spend but as long as the cheapo ones aren't worth ruling out blanket (only after a test) then it's a good sign.
 
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