8mm White LED (360 degree): Profile View.
Cool White 8mm through hole LED. Features 11,000 millilumens and a cool white color temperature of 5250K. This unique LED has a diffuser coating which emits Red light in all directions, 360 degrees around, from end and bottom, just like a filament bulb. Component LEDs are sensitive electronic devices and require some knowledge of electronic circuits to operate them. Price listed is per unit, however, bulk discounts are available and are automatically applied to your order.
No hype: Truly a 360 degree LED!
I'm an electrical engineer and I have a lot of experience with LEDs, so I was very skeptical of any LED that boasts of having an omnidirectional beam pattern, especially with any significant brightness. For less than $2, I was certainly willing to try out a couple of them. I was truly amazed! This LED is the closest thing I've found to the light of an incandescent light bulb, except with a cooler white color temperature. I have used this LED in several portable lantern and night light modifications with great results. The light is brighter and the batteries last many times longer. It runs cool without heatsinking at 50mA, but also works well and looks good at lower currents. I would love to see a warm white variety of this LED offered too.
I work in theatre production and have used these in various hand-held props that needed light on battery power (a number of oil lamps, hurricane lanterns, and the like, as well as the occasional "magic" thing around the holidays). Their light is nicely bright and diffuse. And at only 3 volts there's practically nothing too small to fit some sort of battery for power. My go-to rig, when the prop will allow, has been a pair of AA or AAA powering one or more LED (the most recent uses four). The problem with rigs that used parts cannibalized from incandescent flashlights was always battery life; replacing the batteries every time a lantern came off stage was sometimes necessary to assure it stayed bright (or even lit) for the whole time in was on stage. This has not been a concern with these LEDs; they're so efficient that we can plan battery replacements measured in numbers of performances — rather than the number of minutes — that can reliably be expected from a set of batteries.