Inexpensive 5000K Desk Lamp?

[pgwerner]

A little off topic since I'm not asking about light for photography per se, but the topic is

related -

 

I'm a biology (mycology) grad student and one of the things I routinely make observations

of as part of the the species descriptions that I write are color observations, matched to a

reference book, The Methuen Handbook of Color.

 

My office is in a basement area of my university, an area with no natural light source and

illuminated by cheap fluorescent overheads, the color balance of which I'm unsure of, but

not natural-looking in any event. I'm acutely aware of the role light sources play in

accurate judgment of color and I'm sure that I'm not seeing color accurately under these

lights.

 

Several months ago, I attempted to solve this by getting a 100W GE Reveal bulbs for my

(incandescent) desk lamp. Recently, as I've been learning more about color photography

and color temperature, I've learned that neodymium bulbs have a color balance more or

less like tungsten bulbs, about 3400K - significantly red-shifted.

 

Now I'm looking for something I can set up on my desk that will give me a 5000K color

temperature source. I will probably need to switch to fluorescent desk lamp to do this. I'd

like to get something in the 23W range - bright enough to drown out the background

fluorescents.

 

Are compact fluorescent bulbs a good option? I've heard that as they age, they don't burn

out all at once and their light quality may change gradually, so I'm not sure if that's a good

alternative. What are my other options for fluorescent bulbs that would be small enough to

fit into a desk lamp? I'd prefer a less expensive alternative than overpriced "full spectrum

desk lamps". If I know what kind of bulbs I'm looking for, I can probably buy a compatible

desk lamp that's reasonably-priced.

 

Peter

[joe_r1]

Ott-Lite desk lamps are about $50-60 and work well.

[ma_ho_fong]

There are blue colored tungsten photo lamp available in standard E27 screw base. (I have one of 500 Watts 220 volts). The color temperature is that of daylight (5500K), but your desk lamp have to accept this power. Another alternative is to put a temperature converter filter (bluish) in front of your desk lamp fitted with a normal halogen lamp. These filters are available in sheet from theatre lighting supply, and are not expensive.

[twmeyer]

ott-light is right... t

[g._armour_van_horn]

Ott Lights are certainly going to be the most convenient for you. On the other hand, I'm not at all convinced that compact fluorescents are more prone to end-of-life changes than any other fluorescents and I don't know any physical reason they would. (And Ott Lights are just a brand of compact fluorsecents anyway.) All the fluorscents in my experience seem to remain consistent until they start to fail, and that's fairly obvious. Remember that the light output of a phosphor is pretty much determined by it's chemical makeup and won't change much over the range of plasma activity exciting it once it has enough excitement to turn on at all.

 

I haven't used any color meter or other measuring equipment to reach my conclusions, but I've shot a ton of digital and thousands of slides in front of fluorescent banks. If there was a visual change over time I think I would have noticed something! I might have blamed it on the film or the processor, but I really haven't seen the change.

 

Van

[cyr_.]

Yes.