Bulbs and diffusers

[cichlid]

Hi All,

Sorry to post these questions. When performing a search and getting over 10 pages of postings.... well, it is way to much to filter through.

Anyway. I have an old incandescent lighting system. The bulbs are 250w I believe. Are there compact florescent bulbs that I can use instead?

In addition, I have been trying to search for a generic diffuser that I can use on these lights as well. There is no brand name on the lights.

Thank you

[William W]

On the question of Fluorescent Lights as replacement for your Incandescent bulbs – maybe you can find if there is no dimmer system in the lighting head.
If the lights have dimmers, I think you’ll be hard up to get fluorescents which are compatible to an old dimming system.

On the question of the diffuser – for 250w incandescent, a shoot through brolly will be OK.
Even if you need to work it as close as 2ft (600mm) away from the lights – 250w lights (110~250v) do not get that hot.

Are you sure you want a generic diffuser?

All up, it is probably less fuss to buy Incandescent bulbs . . .probably mush easier to find - what is the issue with doing that?

What is it that you want to use the lights for?
There might be a better solution, about which you are not asking.

WW

[rpcrowe]

Do your lights use standard screw-in light bulbs. If they do, you can get screw-in compact flourescent bulbs (CFL) in most home improvement stores.

ALZO Digital also has a selection of bulbs. The 85 watt CFL bulbs are said to produce light equal to a 300 watt incandescent bulb.

http://www.alzodigital.com/online_st...ment_lamps.htm

If your lamps have enough room, a way to increase the power of your light is to use a Flashpoint 4-socket adapter and use 4-CFL bulbs.

http://www.amazon.com/Flashpoint-Soc...455970&sr=8-22

[Andrew1]

If you want tighter control over your light get the fluorescent compacts that are purpose-built for photography and are light temperature rated.

[cichlid]

Thanks for your input.
I want to move away from the incandescent bulbs as they are rated to last approx. 3hr.
And of course, they are b*tching hot.

When I visit my local camera store, I will check into spun glass as a diffuser to soften my light a bit.

Erik

[rpcrowe]

The problem with incandescent lamps is that as you mention, they are exceptonally hot and have limited life expectancy!

The problem with compact flourescent lamps is that they are not terribly powerful.

Using spun glass as a diffuser is sort of "old school". The more modern way to diffuse lights is to use an umbrella (either shoot through or reflecting) or use a softbox.

I have not used CFL bulbs with either softboxes or umbrellas so I cannot really advise you on that route.

I have ordered a softbox using 4 CFL bulbs to provide some additional light when shooting my new video camera which just arrived. I don't really have any idea of how much light that softbox will produce (I plan to use 85w CFL bulbs).

Although it may be sufficient for video, I am not sure that it would be suficient to achieve a decent f/stop and shutter speed for still photograaphy.

I will do a mini report when the light arrives...