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ArCaver wrote:I've seen the Apex. Impressive. I'll keep my Justrite. Caves should look like caves, not industrial warehouses.
NZcaver wrote:I've seen the Apex. Impressive. I'll keep my Justrite. Caves should look like caves, not industrial warehouses.
So I'm curious - how exactly does using an Apex make a cave look like an industrial warehouse? :question:
You know that, generally speaking, "white" LED light is closer in frequency to natural light (sunlight) than either carbide flames or incandescent bulbs - right? Plus with the Apex, cavers *normally* use that big 3 watt beam just for spotting. The 4 LEDs are more practical for most cave travel.
ArCaver wrote:NZcaver wrote:So I'm curious - how exactly does using an Apex make a cave look like an industrial warehouse?
Too much light, and of the wrong color. I own two Princeton Tec Coronas and use one when I must but I find the blue cast ruins my night vision and gives false colors. The real problem is when several cavers have the high powered LEDs on at the same time. I'm dreading the day that I go underground to find it's brighter inside than on the surface.
The "white" LEDs are not white, they're blue. Natural sunlight is white for only part of the day, around midday. Mankind has used fire as the only supplemental light until incandescents that we may have evolved to better utilize yellow/red light.
Most "white" LEDs in production today use a LED chip which emits blue light, part of which is efficiently converted to a broad spectrum centered at about 580 nm (yellow). Since yellow light stimulates the red and green receptors of the eye, the resulting mix of blue and yellow light gives the appearance of white, the resulting shade often called "lunar white".
NZcaver wrote:That's an interesting opinion - you don't often hear cavers complain about too much light. As for color - yes, most of those white LEDs technically use chips that emit blue light.
Sure, experiencing a cave by flickering firelight looks cool in Hollywood movies - and on the occasional nostalgic caving trip - but now in the 21st Century it seems most cavers have moved on with their lighting choices. And as I'm sure you're aware, in some caves it's now forbidden to use carbide.
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