High CRI LED Practicals

Angry Leprechaun

Angry Leprechaun

Well-known member
So I was originally going to buy a bunch of the A-Series LED bulbs from Quasar Science to replace practicals for a documentary, but unfortunately they're being redesigned and won't be available until August. As nice as they seem, I'm desperate to find an alternative. I'm trying to find something that's LED (shooting long term at these locations and don't want to run up my talent's power bill), high CRI, around 3000K (probably utilizing a lot of window light so I want the practicals to be warm but not ugly yellow) and won't completely break the bank.

I found this review for the Yuji High CRI LEDs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNEeuvY0tTY
They seem great and a perfect alternative to the quasars. Only problem is it's nowhere on their website! They have E27 it looks like but I'm shooting in the states so I need E26.

So any suggestions? There are so many options its hard to narrow it down. On paper it looks like the Euri E-Lite bulbs would work great but I know nothing about the brand or how good they are: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/200031/IRT-10112.html

And then there's the GE Reveal. I think it's 2870K with a supposed CRI of 90. Seems like the easiest one to try out at least. https://www.amazon.com/GE-Lighting-...1528831159&sr=8-3&keywords=ge+reveal+100+watt

Let me know what you guys think and if you've had any experience with these.
 
Ikea has the ledare family with really nice high CRI bulbs you can swap normal bulbs for. I can't find that British chaps table of LED CRI and TCLI ratings but he tested the ikea bulbs and they came out surprisingly high.
 
And Lowe's carries the GE Reveals if you want to pick some up for testing. FWIW I now notice that the boxes for the LED replacement bulbs now state not recommended for enclosed fixtures
 
I've been fairly happy with Hyperikons. I haven't tested them for color yet, but I also got some of their 4' T8 tubes, which I will test because they're likely to end up on skin tones
 
Good to hear! If you do any tests on the Hyperikons please share. I do remember I have one GE Reveal candelebra at my house and it does seem nice compared to the others but there is a bit of a magenta cast it seems, but I haven't checked out the regular bulbs yet.
 
I have one of the GE Reveal LED's in a room and I find it really ugly. VERY MAGENTA. I would not use it on-camera. If it was in a room that I was in all of the time, I would have changed it back to a "real" bulb.
 
I have a half dozen CREE LED bulbs for this purpose. The daylights blend very well... no idea on the CRI. They’re also an American company with a great warranty (had to replace one, no hassles)
 
Be careful with the Ledare bulbs... the R9 rating is pretty bad. So if you have a lot of red and it matters, well... get some other lights.
 
Run&Gun said:
I have one of the GE Reveal LED's in a room and I find it really ugly. VERY MAGENTA. I would not use it on-camera. If it was in a room that I was in all of the time, I would have changed it back to a "real" bulb.
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Thanks for confirming my suspicions! Whenever a company mentions "filtering out yellow light" I automatically think magenta.

legrevedotcom said:
Be careful with the Ledare bulbs... the R9 rating is pretty bad. So if you have a lot of red and it matters, well... get some other lights.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up! Yeah I've found that finding the R9 value on a lot of these bulbs to be difficult, probably because anything over 50 is considered a high R9 value.

So after more digging I found some other options:

Soraa Vivid LED: The pro is it has a CRI and R9 rating of 95 and not a bad price at $13. The con is it only comes in 2700k, and even though it's 11 watts it's only a 60 watt equivilant. Plus I've never heard of the company and don't see any reviews, but spec wise it seems good.
https://www.polar-ray.com/soraa-led-a19-60w-04214.html

Sylvania Ultra-HD LED: Pro is it comes in 2700k, 3000k, and 5000k and has a CRI of 92, plus it's a brand with a reliable history and only $8. The con is I have no idea what the R9 value is and it's nowhere on the spec sheet. Probably not a good sign.
https://www.polar-ray.com/sylvania-led-a21-100w-78115.html

Waveform Lighting: 95 CRI, 80 R9, 3000K. Probably not going with this one because it only comes in a 50 watt equivilant, but I feel bad because it only has one review and it's a negative one because it's some old guy complaining about getting e-mails from them. lol
https://store.waveformlighting.com/...lb-for-home-residential?variant=5771197906973

I feel like there needs to be a Great Consumer High CRI LED Shootout among all of these. Last time anyone's bothered reviewing a number of LED bulbs was CNET in 2014.
 
Angry Leprechaun said:
Thanks for confirming my suspicions! Whenever a company mentions "filtering out yellow light" I automatically think magenta.



Thanks for the heads up! Yeah I've found that finding the R9 value on a lot of these bulbs to be difficult, probably because anything over 50 is considered a high R9 value.

So after more digging I found some other options:

Soraa Vivid LED: The pro is it has a CRI and R9 rating of 95 and not a bad price at $13. The con is it only comes in 2700k, and even though it's 11 watts it's only a 60 watt equivilant. Plus I've never heard of the company and don't see any reviews, but spec wise it seems good.
https://www.polar-ray.com/soraa-led-a19-60w-04214.html

Sylvania Ultra-HD LED: Pro is it comes in 2700k, 3000k, and 5000k and has a CRI of 92, plus it's a brand with a reliable history and only $8. The con is I have no idea what the R9 value is and it's nowhere on the spec sheet. Probably not a good sign.
https://www.polar-ray.com/sylvania-led-a21-100w-78115.html

Waveform Lighting: 95 CRI, 80 R9, 3000K. Probably not going with this one because it only comes in a 50 watt equivilant, but I feel bad because it only has one review and it's a negative one because it's some old guy complaining about getting e-mails from them. lol
https://store.waveformlighting.com/...lb-for-home-residential?variant=5771197906973

I feel like there needs to be a Great Consumer High CRI LED Shootout among all of these. Last time anyone's bothered reviewing a number of LED bulbs was CNET in 2014.
Click to expand...

I use Soraa bulbs in my home. They are good, but subjectively to my eye they do look a bit green. I would not recommend using them for critical work, unless you can live with a slight green glow in frame.
 
mcbob said:
I have a half dozen CREE LED bulbs for this purpose. The daylights blend very well... no idea on the CRI. They’re also an American company with a great warranty (had to replace one, no hassles)
Click to expand...

I have four different kinds/brands of LED's in my house. One in a lamp in a bedroom that is too yellow. One in a lamp in a "pass through" room that is magenta(GE Reveal). One outside in a light over the front porch that looks pretty good(Philips, I think). And eight floodlights outside on the corners of the house. The BEST looking lights are the floodlights. They are "tungsten" balanced with CREE emitters and they look spot-on to the naked eye. I haven't put them "on camera", but they look like the real deal, as opposed to almost every other consumer LED light I've run across so far.
 
ozmorphasis said:
I use Soraa bulbs in my home. They are good, but subjectively to my eye they do look a bit green. I would not recommend using them for critical work, unless you can live with a slight green glow in frame.
Click to expand...

Hah! I just read an amazon review saying the same thing. Damn! I'm thinking about getting some of the Sylvanias or the Hyperikons for now to try out.
 
Run&Gun said:
I have four different kinds/brands of LED's in my house. One in a lamp in a bedroom that is too yellow. One in a lamp in a "pass through" room that is magenta(GE Reveal). One outside in a light over the front porch that looks pretty good(Philips, I think). And eight floodlights outside on the corners of the house. The BEST looking lights are the floodlights. They are "tungsten" balanced with CREE emitters and they look spot-on to the naked eye. I haven't put them "on camera", but they look like the real deal, as opposed to almost every other consumer LED light I've run across so far.
Click to expand...

And I guess I'll have to try a couple Cree lights too lol. I'm really hoping we get to a point where manufacturers treat CRI more importantly so we don't have to go through all this.
 
Have been using the GE Refresh bulbs on current series and they seem to be holding up well in daylight balanced environments. Slightly warmer than 5600 but that's fine, I prefer practicals to play a little warmer than window sources anyway. Color rendition seems pretty solid and no flicker issues so far.
 
Run&Gun said:
And eight floodlights outside on the corners of the house. The BEST looking lights are the floodlights. They are "tungsten" balanced with CREE emitters and they look spot-on to the naked eye. I haven't put them "on camera", but they look like the real deal, as opposed to almost every other consumer LED light I've run across so far.
Click to expand...

What are these floods? I need a bunch and want high quality outdoor LEDs. Brand? Store?
 
It's been a while since I put them up(few years, maybe)... Got them at either Lowe's or Home Depot and they may be Intellytech(I don't think it's connected to the same company). If I get a chance this weekend, maybe I can pull one down and see what it says.
 
If you are willing to spend a bit more money, I really like the new WiFi controlled LED bulbs. I carry a set around for practical replacement. Dimmable and RGB controllable. I have the tp link versions and don’t see any flicker. I just bought a cheap tiny WiFi router to carry with me and you can dial in whatever color and intensity you need.
 
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