The Sol Super Blue is now a second color option if you are looking to purchase an AI LED from C2 Development. In a recent blog post, Chris Clough announced that the Sol Super Blue would be available starting immediately for the same price as the original Sol White AI LED, $549. It only took three months but the AI LED is finally getting officially suited up with the holy triumvirate of LED color combinations: white, blue and royal blue. We first raved about this color combination of tricolor LED pucks back in April. After feeling guilty about how good these look but not being widely available to the general public, we’ve kept mum so as not to incite current AI LED users.
Now that the Sol Blue is available for purchase, we no longer have to suppress our enthusiasm for the color rendition of the corals and fish under this light. For those of you who are T5 fans because you like being able to mix and match different blue, blue plus and purple bulbs, the tricolor LED combo of the Sol Blue is 95% of the color but with way more pop. The classic blue LED has a wavelength peak around 465nm, comparable to the blue plus and light blue tubes of power compacts and T5s. The royal blue LED has a wavelength peak near 445nm and it is more comparable to deeper blue lamps like the original Phillips 03 actinic tube. The Philips 03 tube has an emission peak near 420nm but the rich color of the Cree XPE royal blue is really close in color rendition; it brings out very similar fluorescence anyway. Now that the Sol Super Blue version of the AI LED is let loose on the world, we’ll report back soon with some details on how the corals like it. There is not yet an option to upgrade existing AI LED pendants with the new pucks, but this will likely become an option in the future.
