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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
#4
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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