How to optimize life of photoflood bulbs
 

I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

aristotle wrote:

I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

your camera can do a white balance perfectly.
blue daylight photofloods will be
about the most expensive way to do that.
have you looked at the rated life of them?

turning them on will shorten the life even more.

aristotle wrote:

I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

your camera can do a white balance perfectly.
blue daylight photofloods will be
about the most expensive way to do that.
have you looked at the rated life of them?

turning them on will shorten the life even more.

aristotle wrote:
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Using a dimmer instead of turning the lights on and off may give you a
slight (10-15%) increase in lifetime but hardly worth the trouble.
As Crownfield indicated, your camera's White Balance may work with
regular incandescent lights just fine.
However, I use special 26 Watt" Full Spectrum" compact fluorescent
lights that have a color temperature of 5500K and a CRI of 93. They cost
about $15 but they have a lifetime of 15,000 hours. Also they run very Cool.
The color is very close to daylight and doesn't even require a special
WB setting. Check Google (Full Spectrum Fluorescent Bulbs) for vendors.
Bob Williams

aristotle wrote:
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Using a dimmer instead of turning the lights on and off may give you a
slight (10-15%) increase in lifetime but hardly worth the trouble.
As Crownfield indicated, your camera's White Balance may work with
regular incandescent lights just fine.
However, I use special 26 Watt" Full Spectrum" compact fluorescent
lights that have a color temperature of 5500K and a CRI of 93. They cost
about $15 but they have a lifetime of 15,000 hours. Also they run very Cool.
The color is very close to daylight and doesn't even require a special
WB setting. Check Google (Full Spectrum Fluorescent Bulbs) for vendors.
Bob Williams

aristotle wrote:
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Standard 500W or quartz 500W lamps should work fine. You should not
need daylight lamps, unless you are trying to match some existing daylight.
If so, consider filtering the daylight with plastic film made for the use.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

aristotle wrote:
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Standard 500W or quartz 500W lamps should work fine. You should not
need daylight lamps, unless you are trying to match some existing daylight.
If so, consider filtering the daylight with plastic film made for the use.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

In article ,
says...
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Aristotle,

I also have the same bulbs you are intending to use. Do not use a
variable frequency dimmer as you will shorten the life significantly
through filament vibration especially at low output. As all photofloods
are voltage overrun you could use a tapped auto-transformer (multiple
voltage selection but no input/output isolation so NEVER use with low
voltage applications) to drop the voltage say 10-15% which will return
the bulb to a standard bulb lifetime but of course corresponding
dropping of colour temperature.

However if you sum the cost of the bulb plus the kw/hours you will have
this lamp (lamps?) running you could pay for an external camera flash
and a slave flash which will give you 5000K colour temperature

regards,

Beemer

In article ,
says...
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Aristotle,

I also have the same bulbs you are intending to use. Do not use a
variable frequency dimmer as you will shorten the life significantly
through filament vibration especially at low output. As all photofloods
are voltage overrun you could use a tapped auto-transformer (multiple
voltage selection but no input/output isolation so NEVER use with low
voltage applications) to drop the voltage say 10-15% which will return
the bulb to a standard bulb lifetime but of course corresponding
dropping of colour temperature.

However if you sum the cost of the bulb plus the kw/hours you will have
this lamp (lamps?) running you could pay for an external camera flash
and a slave flash which will give you 5000K colour temperature

regards,

Beemer

In article ,
says...
I need to take 2500-3000 digital photographs of antiques using 250
watt blue BCA photoflood lights. Is there anyway to extend the life
of these bulbs beyond the 3 hour life expectancy. Will it help to use
a dimmer to reduce power between changing art objects or turn off the
bulbs between object changes.

Aristotle,

I also have the same bulbs you are intending to use. Do not use a
variable frequency dimmer as you will shorten the life significantly
through filament vibration especially at low output. As all photofloods
are voltage overrun you could use a tapped auto-transformer (multiple
voltage selection but no input/output isolation so NEVER use with low
voltage applications) to drop the voltage say 10-15% which will return
the bulb to a standard bulb lifetime but of course corresponding
dropping of colour temperature.

However if you sum the cost of the bulb plus the kw/hours you will have
this lamp (lamps?) running you could pay for an external camera flash
and a slave flash which will give you 5000K colour temperature

regards,

Beemer