This 3200K bulb for Home Depot worklights?
 

In looking for 3200K bulbs for my halogen worklights (the yellow Home Depot ones), I found this:

http://www.bulbs.com/products/produc...nventory=10362

"FDF T3/4 Lamp, 500W, 120V with R7s Base"

From what I can tell, it looks like the same type of bulb, with the same length, same T3 shape and base type, but does anyone know if it is possible/safe/etc. to use these in halogen worklights? From the listed specs, I see no reason why not, but it doesn't hurt to ask...

That appears to be correct.
Just check the lenth of the lamp to be sure.
ChecK out this site for better pricing.

http://www.bulbconnection.com/ViewCa...code=ANSI&pg=2

Mr. Bill

Thanks, Bill. This is what I found at bulbconnection:

http://www.bulbconnection.com/ViewIt.../FDF/item.html

It looks to be the same, except that the length differs by .04 inches (very slight, I know) -- and is actually closer to what I'm measuring my bulb at, which is a tiny bit over about 4 and 5/8s.

With shipping, bulbconnection wins out by a few dollars. I'll give this topic a few hours, in case anyone can advise "Heck no, don't use that bulb!" If not, I'll order a couple and let you know how it goes.

My only concern would be whether the operating temperature of the lamp is higher. I have gone through LOTS of these cheap halogen floodlight fixtures. We have used them as stage worklights and portable lighting in our shop and warehouse. My experience is that the sockets are really cheap and they fail to make proper contact after a number of hours of use. The bad connections lead to arcing in the socket, and often the metal prongs are burned completely away.

Careful with these things, they can be dangerous.

Boyd -- interesting, because even John Jackman recommends having worklights on hand, especially for a low-budget lighting kit. I had not heard anyone warn of any danger to using them. I will keep it in mind for future use, though.

And because everyone seems to get at least one of those dual-head worklight stands, I was surprised that I didn't find any posts here about buying 3200K bulbs for them...

Regardless, the bulbs are on their way from bulbconnection (thanks, Bill) and I'll post my opinions when I get a chance to try 'em out.

Thanks for your help!

Hi John,

How did the new bulbs work out?

Greg

Yeah, sorry I didn't follow up (I hate it when people do that). The 3200K FDF bulbs in Home Depot worklights mixed very well with a 3200K photoflood in a reflector at an ad shoot I had about 2 weeks ago. The bulbs fit and worked fine in the worklights and did not cause any problems . They were used off and on for about 2 hours of the shoot.

I'm not particularly talented with lighting, I just need to flood (no pun intended) dim areas with light sometimes. In the front area of the business, there was a mix of fluorescent lighting beaming from the ceiling and sunlight pouring in through the front windows. Two 500W heads on the worklights and one 500W photoflood pretty much took care of this and I was able to use the stock 3200K white balance on my DVC80. A little bit of blue in the right corner and a little bit of green in the background, but overall pretty good.

This has been my sole use of the lights so far, but based on this experience, I would recommend these bulbs. If you are a low-budget, worklight kind of person, these bulbs will probably be a useful addition to your tool box. Again, I am surprised that I have not encountered any other posts here about the subject. It seems like all the poor, worklight-loving folk like myself would be interested in color-balanced bulbs.

I do think it is a good idea to keep an eye on this sort of equipment, as per Boyd's suggestions.

Next stop, building barn doors for these things!

Okay, let's bring this down to the doofus level for a moment.

I, as it happens, just happen to have bought one of those Home Depot worklights today--the 250W halogen clip kind.

I haven't the faintest idea of what the color temperatures are of all the lights I am using simulaneiously. I'm using several GE bulbs, some JTL everlights and of course the Home Depot thing.

Is there some danger in mixing lamps with different color temperatures? -What is it?

What I am really looking for is modeling faces--trying to make faces pop, and look three dimensional, and aesthetically pleasing. I have been assuming mixing color temperatures wouldn't have an effect here.

Color temp has to do with what your camera "sees" as the color of different
light sources. Sunlight and light produced from fire or a light bulb have
different color temperatures. (Like white hot vs. red hot.)
Cameras have much more trouble with light than our eyes which make
amazing adjustments that most people are completely unaware of.

Examples: If you set the 'white balance' on your camera to
daylight (5600 degrees kelvin)
and you shoot indoors under tungsten or halogen lighting (2600-3200K (kelvin))
the overall tint of your image will be heavily weighted towards orange.
A white card held in front of the camera will look orange or amber.

If you set your white balance to 3200K, and if you use lights that provide
real 3200K light, a white card held in front of the camera will look white.
If you use home depot lights that have color temps usually under 3200K
(2600-3000K at best) then your white card will look slightly orange.

Mixing different lights that have different color temperatures can give trouble
to those who seek balanced images.

Example: You are shooting an model demonstrating lipstick.
Your camera white balance is set for indoors (3200K)
Say you have three lights. #1 is an Arri 650 watt fresnel. #2 & #3 are
home depot work lights. #1 has a lamp in it that provides 3200K light when the
light is at full burn (no dimmer). You use that as your front 'key' light and
#2 to 'fill' the other side of the talent's face. Your back light is the
home depot work light. #2& #3 only provide 2600K light when at full burn.
Your camera will 'see' the fill light and back light have an amber hue to them.
One side of her face is kind of amber and so is her blond hair from the back light.
That might work for you, but the director may say, "Hey, half her face and
hair look orange to me. I don't like that."

That is one example of the dangers of having all kinds of different lights that
provide different color temps. You can solve those problem through a variety of
means, but . . .

HID lighting
 

http://www.bulbs.com/

That sites looks interesting on many aspects.

While looking at the fluo options they offered, I found they sell HID lamps and HID ballasts. They are very reasonable priced, if you compare them with regular HMI light heads.

If I am not wrong the HID technology is closer to HMI, so a small fixture will output lots of light. Only this light should be more linear in spectrum than fluos. HID lights seem to be used in diving lights, for instance.

The question would be to find the light fixtures or boxes that can be found and set on a stand of any kind.

Has anyone here tried or got any information on HID technology?

Perhaps this question deserves a thread of its own.


Carlos

Boy is this an old thread - just found it in a google search. Don't forget however that with a simple set of gels, you can change most color temps. You can add a CTB over the work lights and bring them closer to the Arri in the above example or a CTO and drag the Arri down to the worklight colors.

Cheap fix. Not a perfect color match but it'll get you closer than bare bulbs.

Sean

mixing color temps
 

if you mix moonlight and halogen lights, often you get green light.

often i have marveled at the weird, mysterious green light coming from some hallway or room that turns out to have a night window open.

in the daytime, mixing indoor and outdoor light sources, purple light sometimes appears. the difference between these green and purple lights and artificially syled gelled light such as is found in dario argento's suspiria (a style i find abhorrent) is that the colors that result from mixing color temperatures seem to me to have a pleasing, organic quality