The last three pics don’t show anything.
How about placing the four choices in four adjacent same color inserts?
Easier to see side by side.
—
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
Http://chrishiblerpinball.com/contact
http://www.PinWiki.com/ - The new place for pinball repair info

Frosted warm white. Keeps the original look, just brighter.

I tried those sunlights a year or 2 ago. They were off the game an hour later and tossed on a shelf where they're gathering dust.

I've used colored ones under inserts in a couple games and frosted warm whites behind a couple older backglasses, but out of our 24 games only a few have any LEDS. The games arent on often enough that heat is an issue, and I prefer the color temp and subtle fade in/out of incandescents. I've tried several types from different manufacturers and none have nailed the color temp of a #47 bulb yet.

Did you try the retro smd warm whites from comet? Those would probably be closest. If you want exactly like incandescent, you’ll never find it.

Yes - and you're right, i won't.

Like I said, I do have some in a few backboxes, but nowhere visible like in the g.i.

It really boils down to horses for courses. The choice of color temp depends on the predominant color palette in the game. It also must be taken into consideration that (especially in older games), the artists were likely working (including mixing colors) under incandescent lighting, so you’ll see the greatest fidelity to their “vision” by reproducing those conditions with the playfield lighting. For example if you ever seen a BK or Gorgar retrofitted with cool-white LEDs, you know (unless you lack any sense of aesthetics, lol) that it looks washed-out and just ALL WRONG.

If there are lots of blues, purples, whites, and other “cool” colors, then I think a cooler white LED can work better. I don’t think these games look “right” with incandescent lighting; just for fun I once experimented with replacing the stock LEDs with #44s in a section of my ST playfield, and it made the playfield look like it was stained by 40 years of secondhand smoke - gross.

If the game is more red/orange/yellow/green based, the warmer whites and incandescents will make the colors more vibrant. ACDC and Met look better in incandescent than LED, for example.

Simpsons is a subjective case. Incandescent or warm white led is faithful to the way it was designed, but lighting it up with cool white is more consistent with the way the Springfield universe looked on a CRT TV. (I’d lean cool white personally.)

Cool white doesn’t suit pinball in any capacity imo. Leave cool white for operating rooms only.

First pic with incandescents look best by far.

I use Comet frosted warm white 1SMD. Sitting next to an incandescent game it definitely looks cooler. Sitting next to a newer Stern game it looks like incandescent. Once you have all your games converted, and nothing to compare it to, they look fine.

I like the way the comet sunlights looked in Pinbot's head. Sunlight to me looks better with the darker blues, etc. - looked terrible in anything with warm colors (dragonfist backglass).

I was definitely a member of the better-dead-than-led club.... but the retro 1smd frosted bullet type (warm) I'm fine with. It makes a difference not only with the heat, but with the electric bill as well. A Saturday party with 25-30 machines up and running used to add $40 to the electric bill for the month, and made the basement 90+ degrees. Now I don't even notice the $$ increase and the basement is ambient temp instead. That's just with 80% of the machines having the head lamps changed to LED..... slowly doing (sometimes selected) areas in other machines.

I've now done several full LED upgrades on my machines (using Comet LEDs). While initially I was reluctant as I do like the warm glow of incandescent lamps, I love the brightness and 'pop' that LEDS provide...particularly under inserts. I will continue to migrate all my machines to LED.

I've found that you have to experiment and find what looks best for a given machine and given location. Particularly with warm, sunlight, and cool whites. That's the downside of LED. Where before I stocked like 6 type of incandescent lamps, I now have well over 60 varieties of LED on hand.

Personally I've preferred warm white to the sunlight lamps in most cases. For me the sunlight has a bit of a greenish tint to it. I use 2SMD frosted in the GI, and tend to use 1SMD clear non-ghosting for feature lamps. I feel that cool white looks too cold in most cases for GI. I generally color match for the feature lamps, but in some cases a warm or cool white looks much better...I tend to like a warm white under blue inserts. For flashers, I've found that the 8SMD flashers are ok under the playfield or in the backbox but are too bright where there is direct line of sight to the player. In those cases I find the 5SMD much preferable.

It's really a matter of personal preference. Experiment and enjoy.

Im going to blow your minds! Some Games, I have 2 or 3 of the Whites in the Same Game in the GI!
No one mentions it or notices.

Ill also ALWAYS have a need to mix brightness too!

That’s cool for you, Art. That's what you like. Great.

Fulll disclosure. You started and owned and then sold Comet.

You’re a great guy. But you should disclose that.

The OP is just dialing an overhead light to color temps. Not really useful at all.

I dont doubt dipshits today can't tell cool from warm white; they also like putting purple in everything so, yeah.

Ignored pinsider's can still downvote you? Must be a bug...

It was my personal opinion.

Wish Comet would offer a warmer light. 4000k shouldn't be sold as warm white. If someone offered a 2700k LED I'd pay twice what Comet is charging for their "warm" bulbs.

warm is always in the 1700 - 2000k's

I'm just a knuckle dragging movie guy tho.

I'm sure I'm missing it somehow, but I see no significant difference in the last three pics.
They all look the same. No lamp inserts turned on. No GI turned on.
In the first pic, some lamp inserts are clearly lit.
But the last three pics, nothing is lit.

Could someone please enlighten me as to what I am supposed to be seeing?
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact ... for board repairs
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info

Hey Chris. OP did not have or use bulbs in the game to show lighting difference. (sans the first pic of incandescents) He is using an overhead light with a color temperature dial. Not useful, for the comparison he is trying to make.

Oh. Ya. I agree. Thanks. I thought I was having a stroke or something...
--
Chris Hibler - CARGPB #31
http://ChrisHiblerPinball.com/Contact ... for board repairs
http://www.PinWiki.com - The Place to go for Pinball Repair Info