On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 23:52:13 -0800, Bob Williams
wrote:



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

If you want daylight flourescent just go buy plant grow tubes, they'll
have a daylight balance and cost much less.(though on all of my
cameras the balance has a flourescent setting to allow shooting under
regular tubes as well.)
Gotta ask why you don't use a strobe instead?