Saber Forum

So I understand that if I get a silver blade with color discs that it's going to be a lot dimmer with the discs than if I had just gotten a blade of that color. And from what I read on the forums the Tri-Cee leds are noticeably brighter than the regular ones.
So my question is, would a Tri silver blade with color disc be as good as a regular led w/out a color disc? Or would it still dimmer? Or even better?
Thanx in advance.

AS A GUESS, I would say that it would be brighter, but the colors would be washed out by the brighter light.  That’s always the balancing act you have to play.  If you are going to go with a Tri-Cree in Adegan Silver (assuming it’s an option— I haven’t checked), I would definitely get a set of color filters designed for theatre lighting.  Our go-to provider, Lee Filters, is currently out of stock on their swatch book, so I went to Amazon and found this:

Rosco Cinegel 1.5 Inch X 3.25 Inch Swatchbook
by BarnDoor Lighting Outfitters
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006OGNLNC/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_0BwyFbNMPJB06 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006OGNLNC/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_0BwyFbNMPJB06)

I remember reading on the forums that the brightest color is having a Tri-Cree of that actual color LED in your saber, something about the fact that when a light is filtered it will always lose some of its brightness. Don't quote me on the science, that's not anywhere near my pay grade. Cyclops might very well be right. We have quite a few AS Tri-Cree-ers here on the forum that will hopefully shed some light on the issue (ugh, what a pun.)

Edit: to clarify, you're asking that a Tri-Cree AS with blue color discs (or filters) would be brighter than a single LED Guardian Blue, for example?

I went to the Lee filters website and found my local dealer.  They gave me the designer and numeric swatch kits for free.  I can confirm that the light plastic strips are amazing with the tri Silver leds.

I've done tons of color filtering this year. Single silver, Tri-cree, discs, RGB, day blades etc.

What I've found is that, yes you want Tri-Silver as filtering colors dim the light considerably depending on the color.
I actually do NOT recommend color discs for Red, Purple, deep Blue or Green. The color saturation is weak and if you double up discs to fix the saturation, the brightness is significantly lost.

Orange, Yellow, light green and Icy blue, on the other hand do work well.
In fact, if you want Orange or Yellow, I'd get Tri-Silver with discs over Fire Orange or Sentinel Yellow all day.

http://youtu.be/goxsBihUXIM (http://youtu.be/goxsBihUXIM)

http://youtu.be/1eSFvtvGXvM (http://youtu.be/1eSFvtvGXvM)

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Agree with Galef 100%.

For some ideas on how versatile the Lee swatchbooks can be, check this thread out:
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=38175.0 (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=38175.0)

Basically, though, ANY color that approaches the basic colors or red, blue or green will be dimmer because you're filtering out so much of the light.  Blue, for example, can only be "pure" if ALL red and green are removed from it.  But light blue is a mix of blue and green, with even a little red involved sometimes, so you're filtering less out and hence get a brighter color.

Tri-Cree white stands up well to filtering due to more light to begin with.  Yellows and oranges and light colors/mixes look really good.   But if you're looking for pure red, pure blue or pure green you'll always do better with the straight-up LED,  especially filtering down from white in these cases.  Galef has a VA saber, which is a mix of red and blue, and I've seen where he uses filters to turn it blue or red with good results, but in that case you're only filtering one color out of a two-color mix.  With white you're filtering most of the energy to get one color out of the entire mix.  That always dims your end result, no way around it.

Many of us have white LEDs we've played with.   In my experience, the Tri-Cree works FAR better.  The greater brightness is amplified by the filtering process.  Just be aware that any "deep" colors will look better with the LED.  But lighter colors and mixes look great with filters.  So ultimately, what will determine your best route is whatever color you want.   And if you don't know and are experimenting then definitely go with the tri-cree white LED and get a Lee swatchbook.  :-)

   Wow, ok out of my depth already. Guess I need to look at some videos... I ordered an Adegan Silver blade with the color discs already. Thinking it's my starter saber so cost efficiency trumps ideal lightsaber because I'll likely put it through hell anyway. No idea what Tri-Cee implies at this point. But, 2 questions.

1. Blade color is determined by the blade itself? Like if I buy another blade and swap it out it'll be a different color, or is that determined inside the hilt?

2. Is there somewhere that videos (in color clarity) exist showing side by side comparison of different color LED types and their color disc counterparts? I.E. Consular Green next to a Adegan Silver + Green disk to see visual difference day VS night even VS indoor lighting. Going through the spectrum of disc colors side by side like that.

  I've grown to like the Silver "white lightsaber" look from KOTOR use anyway so I wont be hyper disappointed if colors aren't as vibrant in the end.
  Also the color discs, (I'm not Bill Nye the Science Guy) but light diffuses across the surface as it tries to pass through. Some getting deflected back instead, hence not as bright. So (and I could be wrong) in theory this could be addressed. Assuming the discs are flat, that doesn't help matters. If they have enough space in the housing to install a convex (not concave, I think) disc it would in theory be focusing more of the light, like trying to make it a single point as a magnifying glass would. Lacking the glass level of focus that can cause a "death beam" starting fires it might just allow a bit more light through? I wouldn't be surprised if that's inaccurate to the actual result but my best hypothesis.

  Answered part of my own question with light research. Galef (who posted a reply earlier in this topic) made a great color disc tutorial/ comparison on his youtube. Awesomely helpful, much appreciated videos.

Yeah, Galef is “the guy” lately when it comes to this sort of thing.  His enthusiasm to try all kinds of things and share the findings with the community is inspiring.

Also, you don’t want to focus the light from the LED in a lightsaber blade; you want to diffuse it, which is why there is diffusion film (cellophane) inside the blade.  You’re trying for more even distribution of the light, rather than trying to have it focused on the tip of the blade.

I have been using the yellow disc that I got in my set with my single-emitter Adegan Silver blade, and I’ve been very pleased with that one.  Some colors are richer than others in there, and sometimes the paler ones are actually more attractive to me, but I really like that yellow.

In case you haven’t already learned this by watching Galef’s videos, “tri-Cree” means there are three (Cree brand) LEDs of the same color in the LED module, which means you get more light than the standard setup, which is one (maybe Cree, maybe some other brand, I’m not sure; it might depend on the supply chain or on which brand/model is currently the best fit for the requirements of a lightsaber), and it’s different from the color-changing setups (including those with Flash on Clash), where you have multiple LEDs, but they are different colors.

  Great, hadn't had time to sift through them all yet, more tip of the iceberg. Going through as needed, to avoid information overload. But, you explanation, adding that info did help clarify about the 3 LEDs.