CRI is a joke...LED video lights vs REAL Tungsten and Daylight with Sekonic C-800 color meter

Highest CRI LED lights are all the rage but a lot of it is hype. Photography and video lights are almost all LED lights now, and RGB LED video lights especially. If the CRI is so high, why do the colors look green and skin tones not so good? This video answers your CRI questions and compares the latest LEDs to REAL tungsten lights and real daylight. The results may shock you. See why Hollywood still uses a lot of real tungsten, halogen and HMI lights for the best skin tones possible. The best tool possible for testing, reading and setting perfect light colors is the Sekonic C-800 SpectroMaster Colour and Illuminance Meter. It can measure not just CRI and Ra value, but R9, SSI, M-30, color correction, CCi and even tells you what gels to use to correct and what camera white balance and magenta tint adjustments to make.
TEST RESULTS
Aputure 120D II R9 95 high blue spike green and yellow little higher than red
Aputure 300D CRI R9 96.8
Torch Bolt SWA RA 96.9 higher RA than 120T similar to 120T Tungsten R9 99.8
Ulanzi VL119 ultralight tube R9 49.5 5600S pectrum good, 3200blue spike little high R971.5
Neewer CL124 Light Wand 5600 CRI/RA 98.5 R9 90.4 similar to Aputure 120D II 3200 spectrum very good RA 97.6 good 3200 R9 89.1
4ft Feit foldable shop light Ra 84.1 R9 15.5
GenarayBL-5X7 RGB 5600 Ra 98 3200 Ra 96.9 R9 91.2 good spectrum
Godox ES30 panel Great 5600 R9 91.7 Ra 97.3 3200 spectrum very good Ra 98.4 R9 96
Godox LC500 tube 5600 Ra 96.9 R9 98.1 3200 Ra 98.2 R9 95.1
Godox LED36 High blue spike and yellow 5600 only Ra 89.3 R9 59.2
Godox LED64 Ra 89.8 R9 47.5 very high blue spike
ID10 5600 spectrum good Ra 97.1 R9 89.8 3200 spectrum good Ra 97.1 R9 94.7
Inkee 30 5600 spectrum great for LED Ra 97.2 R9 94.6
Itotin flat panel 5600 spectrum very good Ra 94.4 R9 74.7 3200 Ra 98.1 R9 98.3
Nanlite Pavotube 5600 spectrum Ra 91 R9 61.1 3200 Ra91.5 Good spectrum R9 76.4
Neewer 176S 5600 R9 87.8 3200 orange plastic actually pretty good spectrum Ra 93.8 R9 70.8
Neewer NL-288A RC big panel 5600 Ra 97.9 3200 spectrum very good Ra 97.7 R9 94.6
Philips light bulb Ra 93.6 R9 77.2 blue spike but strange yellow orange spike even higher than blue
Rayleno flat panel 5600 Ra 97.3 3200 Ra 98.4 R9 97.6 good spectrum
FD FEIDU FD100D 5600 Ra 97.9 R9 86 higher in cyan green 3200 Ra98.5 R9 92 3200 better than 5600
VidPro 330 5600 Ra 97.9 Spectrum good, lots of warm colors, tiny bit high in cyan green
VidPro 530 basic flat 3200 Ra 96.7 GREAT 3200 spectrum for LED R9 95.1
Viltrox 200T 5600 R9 72.5 3200 R9 76.4 Ra 92.5
Vjim 5600 R9 70.4 3200 Ra 97 R9 97.5 Great spectrum
Wellmaking 5600 Ra 97.4 spectrum high blue spike, little bit high in cyan green but not bad
Westcott bulb RA 97 R9 86.8 Great balanced spectrum for LED
YN300 III R9 95.7
YN600 R9 96.5
Zhiyun X100 5600 Ra 98.1 Good spectrum 3200 Ra 96.8 R9 97.7 Good spectrum
Zhiyun M40w Fiveray R9 86.8
Zhiyun G60 3200 Ra 97.3 R9 96.6 Good 3200 and 5600 spectrums Ra 97.6 R9 96.9
Zhiyun X60 5600 Ra 97 R9 95.1 Good spectrum 3200 Ra 96.8 R9 97.5 blue a little higher than others

Good for 3200
Torch Bolt SWX
Neewer CL124 Light Wand
IRayleno flat panel
GenarayBL-5X7 RGB
VidPro 530
Square FD FEIDU FD100D
Vjim

Good overall
Neewer CL124 Light Wand thin tube
Zhiyun G60
Godox ES30 panel
ID X10 on-camera light
Inkee 30 and 60
Zhiyun X100

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[WeebLabs]

At 3:55, you mention that mixing yellow and blue produces green. This would be correct if we were dealing with subtractive primaries as is the case with paint (red, yellow and blue) but lighting is additive. Mixing yellow and blue *light* actually produces white! The fact that some emitters exhibit either a green or magenta shift is due to binning. An emitter can exhibit R9 values above 95 and still fail to accurately track the planckian locus for its white point, resulting in either a green or magenta shift.

[jamesphilip]

The information today reminded me of a producer whose crew I assigned to shoot video in an elementary school classroom years ago. They set a Lowell light too close to the little American flag that was attached to the wall and hanging down next to the whiteboard. Needless to say, the flag caught fire. The producer grabbed the burning flag and proceeded to stomp on it. I can imagine how that looked from the school hallway.

[rudolfabelin]

When Markus says, I'm gonna blow your mind,
He always does.
Best Greetings from a true amateur in Sweden.

[Nantawat_Kittiwarakul]

This stuck me so hard that I really can't resist NOT to comment on this topic. Although not quite about photo or video shooting, but you'll get the idea...

I've been doing DIY Super8 film scanner setup for ages since the 3CCD miniDV camcorder era (ah, what a good old days...) to the mirrorless camera age, Panny GH5 as of now. Although everything else is perfect, but the resultant scan from negative film stock would always look a bit "off" - the color never seems quite right no matter what. Extensive color grading would only make it look passable, but not great.
Only early this year that I had a second though and replaced the original cheap LED panel with the most primitive light source ever - a typical 12v 50w halogen lamp found in any hardware store. Just for the heck of it - so what I initially thought.

The result is, to my shock, just WOW. It literally brought the overall color balance almost right to the target. Then I can nail the color grading with only just 3-4 nodes instead of 10-15 as it once was. Then hit the export, and be done with the job in minutes rather than hours. Literally a vast improvement in the workflow!

The fun part is when I shared my finding to a Facebook group dedicated to this topic, I was greeted with TONS of negative / insult comments. 9 out of 10 insist on $300 high CRI LED light source otherwise the result would be crap. The remaining one would think that's questionable - to say at least. In the end I just heck with that and stick with my $3 solution, and let them keep fumbling around with color grading up until today...

[Gabbybit]

Took the Panasonic 981 after your video, i love it! Keep those video coming 💪

[SceneOfAction]

I keep coming back to this video (at least 5 times now) and I learn something new every time. Markus I hope you know how much we appreciate your sharing your knowledge with us.

[perseusarkouda]

Just when I was thinking CRI must be BS, you come out with this video! Brilliant!

[sabatiniontech]

Great video. Markus knows his subject and presents it well. He is an amazing combination, he is truly an artist at heart but knows and understands his tools and the technology.

[Goodmanperson]

I appreciate that you also have a more quantitative explanation on why the CRI labels are still bull despite having those high numbers instead of dismissing the measurement entirely. I find it surprising that many manufacturers can actually cook the numbers on them when I thought it was just a simple and straightforward measurement.

[SashaGogosh]

need a month per video to even start grasping all the knowledge in it. TT ur a blessing

[realnikonlover]

Great info Markus (as usual). I keep an old Osram 500 watt 2 pin halogen bulb in my desk drawer as a reminder of how much I despise those old hot lights. It takes like a nano second to fry you if you brush up against one. Love your quick lessons on adjusting the white balance and fine tuning. Great advice. THANK YOU!

[daveinportland]

So much info in this video. I'll definitely be watching this one again. Thanks.

[tuppb]

Great video, as usual!

Soft boxes can be used with tungsten and HMI lights. They just have to be rated for such use.

I have several tungsten Rifa-light soft boxes. They are very quick and efficient.

[TekedixXx]

Seeing all those tungsten lights is bringing me back to when I took my first video class at the local career center when I was in middle school. The lighting kits the center had were really good but they always had to be checked out with tons of extension cords because having more than one of these lights plugged into the same circuit would blow it (Obviously). Now that's almost never a problem.


This was around the time miniDV was king, flash storage was out there but not many people had access to it.

[MTBs]

The best video you put out this year! 👍

[Nietzsche_K_Gote]

Every upload a blessing. Thanks for sharing these videos.

[mauriciolee]

Thank Markus for this EXCELLENT video. It's excellent because of the following reasons. First, it contains all the necessary charts & video footages to BACK UP your explanation. For example, when you say the blue color peak merges with the yellow peak, the LED light will give a green cast. Then you show the footage of your face turning green. It's hilarious and effective. Second, you share your UNIQUE solution of white balance adjustment using a piece of crumbled white paper. I've have never seen it before. Third, your good SENSE of HUMOR make a dry subject FUN. Thanks again.

[wildwestadventures]

Love this video! Great explanation! I've been trying to tell people for a long time hot lights were better than LEDs but didn't have this information to prove it. And it makes sense why a lot of production people use LEDs as they don't typically have the budget (time or funds) to rig fresnel and hmi lights. So it's good to know they're are some good LED lights out there or that they can be corrected.

Also just subed

[AT-jspy]

I have a dedolight dlh4 lying in the cabinet, maybe it’s time to take it out and play with it. Thanks Markus for sharing. Generous of you 🙏

[birdyvidsandstuff]

I so appreciate this video - I always enjoy your content but this one was a big learning experience that explains a lot of the real world issues with LED lights as a photographer - unrelated to my silly yt channel - Always appreciate you! That light meter is a beast.