Layout lighting

[Chris333]

Was just at Home Depot to get T12 shop light bulbs and got real confused.

They have:
Philips Natural Light 40W 2200 lumens 92CRI 5000K
Philips Daylight Deluxe 40W 2325 lumens 84CRI 6500K

Whicha ones do I want?

[Sokramiketes]

Was just at Home Depot to get T12 shop light bulbs and got real confused.

They have:
Philips Natural Light 40W 2200 lumens 92CRI 5000K
Philips Daylight Deluxe 40W 2325 lumens 84CRI 6500K

Whicha ones do I want?

6500K is basically sunlight, but will be bluer.  5000K will look 'warmer'. 

[Mark5]

yeah, I have the "daylight", and it gives me the blues ... I will fix it down the road. At least its nice and bright!

Might be worth it if they'd demo the "natural" light ones for ya.

When I was at the library the other day, I learned that rod Stewart uses fancy LEDs with theatrical gels to get the nice yellowish afternoon effect on his 124' layout  but I'm guessing those lamps cost a few pennies.

Mark (still in the dark about economical layout lighting)

[wcfn100]

I think all the bulbs I use for my photos, work area and paint booth are around 5500k and I like them a lot.

I would probably lean towards the 5000k over the 6500k.  But I don't know how much more yellow that 500k difference from my bulbs would create.

Here's a chart (but I don't know how accurate it is).

http://learningdslr.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/colortemperature-scaled5001.png

Jason

[Chris333]

5000K it is then.

I wonder if there is anything like a shop light, but about 36" long? I'll look tomorrow.

[Ian MacMillan]

I use the T8 ~5000k bulbs. Real nice color, and T8's are nice and bright. I'm replacing all my T12 sets with T8's as the T8 fixtures do not have magnetic ballasts and do not hum, and fire right up in the cold with no flicker.

[Chris333]

I just have cheap $10 shop lights, but I think a few are no good. They light up 35W just fine, but these 40W are dimmer than the same bulbs in other shop lights. The "cloud" photo was taken with the 5000k bulbs.

[DKS]

I just have cheap $10 shop lights, but I think a few are no good. They light up 35W just fine, but these 40W are dimmer than the same bulbs in other shop lights. The "cloud" photo was taken with the 5000k bulbs.

Those $10 shop lights are an example of "you get what you pay for." Rick Spano bought about a dozen of them for the new third leg of his layout a few years ago, and gradually he's replaced every one of them as they crapped out one by one--some within just a few months of installation.

[MichaelWinicki]

I use the T8 ~5000k bulbs. Real nice color, and T8's are nice and bright. I'm replacing all my T12 sets with T8's as the T8 fixtures do not have magnetic ballasts and do not hum, and fire right up in the cold with no flicker.

Love the T8's for the reasons mentioned above.

Use enough of them and they offer a nice even light around the room.  I see some that use track lighting and the light seems much more hit & miss with spots of great intensity and then areas that are less bright.

[Ian MacMillan]

Love the T8's for the reasons mentioned above.

Use enough of them and they offer a nice even light around the room...

Yeah they do a pretty good job. Mine went into the exact same spots the T12 fixtures were in, and I noticed a more even light at that. My fixtures are spaced about 18" apart.

[Mark5]

I like the T8s. I'd like to see how the 5000k light works (I have the "daylight") - much better than the old school flouros (T12?)

[Ian MacMillan]

I like the T8s. I'd like to see how the 5000k light works (I have the "daylight") - much better than the old school flouros (T12?)

Only problem I am having is finding a bulb with a CRI of ~92 like I was using in T12. Right now all I can get at the box stores are CRI 72-75.

However the GE 5000K CRI 72's I am using look pretty good to my eye.

[SebastianLee]

Only problem I am having is finding a bulb with a CRI of ~92 like I was using in T12. Right now all I can get at the box stores are CRI 72-75.

However the GE 5000K CRI 72's I am using look pretty good to my eye.

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I went shopping today to pick up my last case or T12s. Once those die out I'll start converting over to T8s.  I'll probably do the retrofit of the existing fixtures.  Still debating on adding more fixtures/ second circuit for work lights.

Anywho, Atlanta light bulbs has 98 CRI 500k T8 bulbs (a bit pricey, but for high CRI a good deal) They have sister companies in NY and IL.

[GaryHinshaw]

I don't mean to knock high-CRI bulbs, but one thing to note about them is that they tend to be dimmer than a lower-CRI bulb with the same wattage.  The smoother spectrum in a high-CRI bulb is at least partly obtained by filtering.  For the human eye, total brightness is at least as important as the detailed shape of the spectrum for color and detail perception.

IIRC, the 5000K T8s I was using were CRI=85 and ~2900 lumens.  When I was researching bulbs, I found CRI=92 bulbs, but they were only ~2000 lumens.  I'm not sure what the Atlanta bulbs are, but it's worth paying attention to.

Cheers,
Gary

[SebastianLee]

You're right its a 2000 lumen bulb.  CRI isn't the only thing affecting brightness; color temps also does, a 3000K with a CRI=92 is ~2700 lumens.  So a high temp & high CRI are definitely going to be dimmer. Also the fact that florescents can be really spikey over their CRI.