As mentioned in our 2014 and 2015 new Milwaukee tool preview, the red team is coming out with some new LED lighting products that they boast has new TRUEVIEW technology.
According to Milwaukee, the TRUEVIEW technology offers things like “best-in-class” light quality, “High Definition,” and a “true representation of colors and details.
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So we asked…
What’s the color temperature of the light?
What’s the CRI rating of the light?
Color Temperature
Color temperature is a quantitative description of how “warm” or “cool” a light is. “Warm” is a yellow-orangey hue typically inherent to lower color temperatures, such as 3200K, while “cool” describes the blueish hue typically found closer to the 6000K color temperature range. These values are not exact, they’re just examples of what you would expect from warm and cool lights.
Milwaukee’s TRUEVIEW LED lighting products have a color temperature of 4000K, which is not quite what would be considered daylight (~5600K). 4000K is nearly right smack between warm and cool ends of the white light spectrum, and is quite pleasing.
My much-loved neutral white LED headlamp has a color temperature of 4400K. A 4000K source should be only slightly warmer.
A lot of LED lighting products have higher and cooler color temperatures. Personally, I find that cooler and bluer LED light is better suited for long-distance illumination, such as spotlight flashlights. For up-close work lighting, neutral or slightly warm LED color temperatures are easier on the eyes and more pleasing.
Milwaukee says that the 4000K color temperature of their TRUEVIEW LED products was specially chosen to closely match midday sunlight. Compared to other color temperatures, the 4000K light should provide best comfort and clarity to end users.
CRI, Color Rendering Index
The color rendering index (CRI) describes the color accuracy of a light. The highest value, 100, is possible with pure sunlight and incandescent light sources.
CRI is determined using as series of color swatches. These colors look truer in high CRI light sources, and muddied or off by a few shades in low CRI light sources.
LED emitters, and especially worklight products, have CRI values in the 60’s and 70’s range.
Low CRI values can change how colors look, which isn’t a problem most of the time – at least where factors beyond user comfort and convenience are concerned – but can be an issue at imes. Let’s say you’re working in an electrical panel with a lot of wiring. A poor CRI light can make it difficult to distinguish blue and purple wires.
Have you ever been in an office that looked and felt a little sterile? A bix box shop with fluorescent lights where everything looked a little dull and flat?
CRI isn’t as noticeable a light quality as color temperature, but it plays a big part in how objects and their colors look under illumination.
Milwaukee says that their TRUEVIEW LED products have a CRI of 85. 85 is not what would be considered “very high CRI,” but it’s somewhat of a high value. This means that colors should appear closer to their truer shades when illuminated with one of Milwaukee’s new LED worklights.
Some of the LED lamps I have also have CRI values of 85. I went down this path because CRI in the mid-80’s provides good color quality without too much of a sacrifice in intensity. Plus, there’s greater bang-for-the-buck compared to very high CRI lights.
Overall
In product descriptions, you’re going to see Milwaukee’s TRUEVIEW products described as mentioned above – with claims of exceptional light quality and better color rendering. I hope this rundown of color temperature and CRI gives you make better sense of why and how Milwaukee can make these claims.
Unless you see the light yourself firsthand, it can be difficult to understand what Milwaukee means when they talk about “better clarity, light quality, and color accuracy.” Once the LED products are available, I’ll put together a comparison so that you could see the difference a little more clearly.
Even so, the color temperature (4000K), and CRI (85), should give you a good idea of what you can expect from the TRUEVIEW LED lights. Light with CRI of 85 can be different depending on the LED emitter, but indicates rather good (at least for LED) color accuracy.
It’s hard to be impressed by a bunch of on-paper numbers, but I am very optimistic about the new TRUEVIEW LED products. The lights’ technical properties seem to back up Milwaukee’s claims about the benefits their TRUEVIEW technology can offer professional users.
Farid says
Interesting that they claim 4000K is more like midday sunlight. Midday sunlight is 5500K (light from northern facing window with blue sky often reads closer to 6000k and overcast day can be 6500k and up). My calibrated white balance checker always measures 5500k mid day light.
I would not match color swatches with a CRI in rating in the lower 80’s but it should be plenty sufficient to differentiate wire colors for example.
Overall it looks like a nice unit though. If the run time is good, it’ll make a good camping or emergency light as well.
Winston Ng says
Can it operate on 220 240VW50Hz State cost
Winston Ng
SteveR says
Winston–I believe this is a cordless (battery-powered) light, so no, it won’t operate on 220-240V. Check out the photo above, and you’ll notice there is no power cord attached. If you’re asking if the charger will, I’m assuming no again. Most items this size and capacity will charge strictly on 110-120V Stateside. If you’re outside the U.S., you should contact Milwaukee or a local distributor to determine if they offer a unit that will charge on the higher voltage (220-240V).
If you’re looking for a light that operates on that kind of voltage, you may need to contact some industrial suppliers, like Grainger, MSC or McMaster-Carr. This one appears to be intended more for home-use, rather than an industrial setting.
Jimmie says
LEDs with CRI as high as 97 are readily-available at supply houses like DigiKey.
Earlier this year, I hacked a desk magnifier lamp (the kind that use a circular fluorescent bulb) to use three 97CRI Bridgelux LEDs. I’m driving them at 300ma so total lumens is somewhere around 1700. To my eyes, the light quality is indistinguishable from halogen while the efficiency is still about 30% better than compact fluorescent bulbs. Yes, please.
In principle, the same sort of hack could be applied to a halogen floodlamp though to match a 500W halogen lamp’s lumens output, you’d need 100-120W worth of 97CRI LEDs. So you’d need a reasonable fan-cooled heatsink. It’d make an interesting weekend project (though personally I’d rather hack my kitchen track lights to use high-CRI LEDs instead).
KL says
Alleged retail on these is cheaper than the stick lights but they seem more complicated. I don’t understand the pricing but I still want one.
adam says
old thread I know, but while looking at add-on items for the M18 bundle at HD, I found out that the lantern has a USB port. quite handy in my opinion.
Stuart says
I don’t think I knew that, thanks!
Tcmsult says
I got the lateen as part of a bundle. It has been quite nice. I’ve only used the USB to try, but it worked. I really only need this as a direction lamp, but the option to go 360 illumination is nice.
I do wish the top had rubber bumpers as well. Most of my work is under a vehicle and usually lay it on its back. To keep it from getting scratched, I put some electrical on the edge of the top black plastic piece.