An example of "group think." One person asserts a belief and others start thinking the same thing until due to a lack of empirical evidence/refusal to acknowledge evidence. The conversation made me look at my recently arrived red saber a second time and compare it with my b.orange. It I didn't have something to compare it to I would have raised the question too. This is 100% a human behavior quirk that everyone experiences (whether they know it or not).

My concern was unfounded. I'm colorblind so it's hard for me to tell anyway lol. Luckily my folks confirmed it was red as soon as I turned it on and later that day as well. I've found that the fact that it's red becomes much more noticeable (to me at least) when it's put near a wall or various objects.

In any case, thanks for the reassurance Knytiri.

McCloud wrote:
Yeah, sorry for including you on the color blindness count, McCloud, I was just using you post as an example of one of the several discussing red LEDs.

I think the problem is that the people who ordered red LEDs wanted the pure white core most red sabers have on screen and in art, but unfortunately with the technology we have today that's just not practical. The glow, on the other hand, is definitely red. Hard to argue against that.

I think the reason folks like wagner and others were confused as to the color of their LEDS is that:

While the LED itself is red, once the blade is put in the blade itself is slightly orange. It still glows red but the blade is sorty of orange, even though the LED is red. In other words, the blade color doesn't exactly match the color of the LED, even though said LED is red.

I believe this is where the confusion set in for most folks.

joshS wrote:
Not trying to add oil to the fire here (no idea how you say that in English), but how exactly would this be possible?

If the LED is red, why and how would it glow slightly orange? I know the human eye can be tricked pretty easily, and I agree that the blade could in some way alter the colour but it doesn't seem like it could be THAT different ...

I mean, look at Knytiri's pictures. The difference isn't exactly a slight one ...

Faethien wrote:
Here's my theory:

While the LEDs are designed to pick up a specific frequency, they actually pick up a range of frequencies that peak at the designed value. Here are the values for the XB-D LED:



As you can see, the red curve has a definite peak at a frequency of just over 630. However, the curve drops fairly gradually towards 580nm and fairly steeply towards 660nm. This means that the red LED may be producing red light, but it will also be producing a fair amount of orange light as well. At low brightness (the glow around the blade), it may be possible that we cannot perceive the relatively small amounts of orange produced. However, as the intensity increases towards its peak at the core of the blade, so does the level of orange light in the blade. At that point the orange light may be strong enough to be perceived through the red.

Unfortunately I majored in EE and not physics or psychology, so this is all pretty much speculation.

Snakeeyz99 wrote:
Well thanks for the explanation anyhow

Now, where are these damn physics professors?

The thing is that while wagner was being a jackhole about it the fact is both camps have science to back them up. The wavelength data is sound as it the fact that some people just can't see the difference just some rare people in the would can't see the color blue, or can see more shades of green or blue than the rest of us. Also there may have been a time when no human on earth may have seen the color blue--which may have made the sky look interesting.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2976405/Could-ancestors-blue-Ancient-civilisations-didn-t-perceive-colour-didn-t-word-say-scientists.html

So while there is plenty to show difference in the Blood-Orange and the Red there is precedent to show that some just may never see it, they may or may not be "color blind," in the traditional sense they may simply have different perceptions. This is one of those rare instances where there could be both an objective and a subjective answer. Both factors could play in for some people. My wife is the Biologist and she says new research is leaning toward the idea that maybe we have taken a lot for granted with our visual perceptions in the past.

There is no real way to capture the color of the blade accurately that expectations sometimes aren't met by individuals. I tried starting a thread to have people post their blades and describe what led combos/names were used and what camera was used. There should be a color gallery of sorts that compiles images of the same color captured by different cameras, different lighting environments, etc so that one can make an educated decision on which color they prefer.

There is also a matter of what's important to the individual. Do you want the color to be more accurate in person or how it is being photographed. Blade color looks different in person and how it is on screen so it's important to know this when deciding on a blade color.

In almost all the photos and videos I have seen of red, it tends to look pink on the surrounding walls. Blood orange tends to look more orange with a hint red in the environment. To me the it looks more like lava with an orange core and reddish orange glow. I wanted something in the middle of these two so when I ordered my custom saber, Justin had suggested using Red with Red-Orange. This put me right in the middle of Red and Blood Orange. Not as pink as the red and not as orange as the blood orange. I call it Neon Red and is pretty accurate to that description on camera. However in person the blade looks more orange than red, which is fine by me as on camera color is more important to me.

I think it all boils down to what is important to you, if it's the in person color you're looking for or how the blade color looks on camera. The one great thing about the Custom shop is that you can get any color you want.

I have my Neon Red attached to add fuel to the fire

^ This.