Cold (fluorescent) lights - why so expensive?

I was looking at the price of cold lights using fluorescent tubes and

I was surprised by the cost. Decent tubes (either tungsten of

daylight balanced) run around $20-$25 each for a 4ft tube, which is

pretty reasonable. However fixtures for the tubes run from maybe $500

to $1000, while you can get a fixture from Home Depot for $50!

 

I'm guessing this must be the cost of the electronics involved for

the high frequency (flicker free) operation which seem to run at

about 25kHz.

 

My question is whether there is a cheaper alternative for flicker

free operation, and if not, would a normal 60Hz line supply be OK as

long as shutter speeds were long enough (say 1/30s or longer?). I

assume this would be the case, but I've never seriously shot much

under fluorescent lighting. The few shots I have done all seemed OK

and they weren't using any special "flicker free" power supplies,

just normal line power.

Hi Bob,

 

The cold fluorescent lights for profesional photography are expensive because or their electronics and high frequency operation which is a must for scanning backs.

 

They also are more expensive because of their accurate color temperature and their design which allows them to be mounted easily to light stands, rail systems etc. They also pack and travel well.

 

And they're expensive simply because they're for professional use and therefore they can be expensive.

 

You can use a longer shutter speed and won't have a problem with the flicker of normal fuorescent fixtures but you'll have to test for color and you'll also have to use longer shutter speeds because flourescents are not very bright.

 

If you're shooting digital color balance will not be a problem since you can do a white balance and further corrections in PS. If you're shooting daylight trans. film you might start with a 30 or 40 magenta filter and test from there. A 40 magenta filter will cost you a stop of light so you'll be making friends with those longer shutter speeds. #8^)

 

If you're not shooting a scanning back there's no real reason to use these professional fluorescent lights. Spend your money on strobes and you'll have better control, more choices for light modifyers and get better results. Don't be afraid of the model lights. Model lights are your friend and allow you to easily predict your lighting effects.

Thanks - that's pretty much what I thought but it's good to have it confirmed by an expert!

 

Of course you can buy the very same tubes that are used in the expensive pro cold lights (from B&H or Calumet for example), so I presume that color balance and exposure times wouldn't be any different if you used them on regular 60Hz supplies, or super expensive, non-flicker 25kHz supplies. Of course they are $25 each. If you buy what look like similar (daylight balanced) tubes from a wholesale supply store you get get them for about $3 each!

 

I suppose the pro prices being high because they can be makes sense too!

 

I just thought that you could make a pretty decent large area soft light with 4 to 6 48" tubes at a cost of under $50.

 

Since I do shoot digital and I don't use a scanning back I just wondered if there was anything I was missing!

Bob,

Try out the cheaper bulbs and fixtures. You might want to put a scrim in front of them so you don't get specular reflections of the bulbs themselves. Or buy a fixture which is designed like a box with its own plastic diffuser as part of the light. You see them often for use in a kitchen, surface mounted to the ceiling.

Just a few days ago, I went down to the local hardware store because I needed a setup as you describe. I bought three 4ft. shop lights (dual tube), and the six (supposedly) daylight balanced tubes. Grand total $48 US. I knew that the color temp wouldn't be correct, but I planned on scanning the trannies and color correcting later. When I have the chance to rent a color meter I will measure the color temp of each fixture and get some Rosco gels for the lights.

 

At a distance of about four feet and ISO 100 film, I was getting about 1/30-1/60 sec. at f/4-f/5.6. You can see the results in my latest upload.

i don't suppose anybody really wants to hear all this but here it goes anyway...the thought of cheap hard lighting has had my mind for awhile. your post got me thinking again so i did some calling to my electrical supplier this and last week. when i asked the guy about "photo quality" light his answer was "there ain't no such thing"... i told him don't give me your sales b.s. call your ballast expert, so he did call the midwest advance rep.,,, his answer "ain't no such thing". so i started checking some web sites against B&H's listings on DESISTI and KINO FLO cool/hard lights. they are using stock w/55 and t/12 medium bi-pin base sockets (good commercial harness style) on there systems, the w/55 are called twin tubes by the commercial guys,.

They are using 25kHz. ballast's, this sounds good but all electronic ballast are at least 20kHz and the ADVANCETRANSFORMER.COM web sight spec. theres at 40kHz. maybe the diff. is that the b&h book i was looking at is a couple years old (never could figure out why they sent me a 2 lb. lighting cat. when all i bought was a remote cord for my canon) and the new photo lights are now faster also. or maybe this is some of that picture taking math that i hate and 40k is too fast, don't know. one thing i did find is that standard bulbs are rated at 5000k while the bulbs in b&h tend to be 5500k so there is a little color differance i have no clue if 500 degrees is a lot or not because i am very much a novice at this stuff....so we are back to brooks answer "quality and because they can" there is a substantial differance in a lowes fixture and a top of the line commercial grade fixture.

There is also one more little rub, t/12 not t/8(like lowes) sockets. t-12 is a larger socket and not readily availible on consumer fixtures unless you step up to 8 ' and KINO doesn't sell an 8' bulb. so my big idea of just buying a cheap fixture,putting an electronic ballast and b&h bulbs is a wash, so far the best i could come up with is buying all the components (sockets;ballasts and bulbs,no sheet metal) for about $175 (including the kino bulbs) to build a 4 bulb 4 foot light but building the encloser would be a bother for most. BUT.. i am still convinced you can build a high quality soft light for less than $600 ... I am going to keep looking for a 4 foot fixture and if i find one .....I'll be back..........much to the shagrin of MOST i am sure

ps:......wish i could figure out how to get paragraph breaks like everyone else... ;-[

after putting this t/8...t/12 issue to my lighting person he say's that you can run a t/12 bulb in a t/8 fixture with some success but you should expect reduced life in either the bulb or ballast.

Hi,

 

I'm fairly new to digital photography and lighting equipment. I recently had a

friend build a couple of stands with 4 ft. adjustable fluorescent light fixtures for

my studio. I purchased the fixtures and daylight (cool) bulbs from Lowes Bldg.

Supply. But discovered the flickering problem. I took my digital camera to the

store and checked all their displayed fluorescent lights with my view finder.

Most all (warm and cool) flickered. The least flickering came from the warmer

lights. Why is that? Is the flickering caused by the light bulb or the workings of

the Ballast?

 

Kevin Wassell's last comment (below) was encouraging... does it also mean

that I will be able to use the more expensive non-flicker lights bulbs in my

cheap Lowe's light fixture and solve my flickering problem?

 

I'd also like to say that I'm delight to have run across your website. Your

website has answered a lot of my equipment and digital photography

questions.

 

THANKS!

 

after putting this t/8...t/12 issue to my lighting person he say's that you can run

a t/12 bulb in a t/8 fixture with some success but you should expect reduced

life in either the bulb or ballast.

The warm tubes probably use phosphoures which are of the longer persistence type. This

means that it takes longer for the bulb to "go out". The bulb "goes out" 60 times a

second. This elongation of "turning off" causes alittle more overlap in the on/offness of

the light and thus gives you a visual sensation of less flicker. It is like a car that takes

alittle more time to come to a full stop at a stop light.

I may have the awnser to your prayers.

www.flolight.com

cheap daylight or tungsten balanced comparable if not better than kino flo.

Hope it helps.