How will the 2012 bill to ban inefficient incandescent bulbs going to affect us?

My guess is that it only affects consumer bulbs - I imagine there will always be a need for incandescent lamps in many industries including ours. But thats just a guess, who knows maybe we'll all need licenses...
 
Consumer bulbs would be a shame to go as well though. I use them all the time as practicals.
 
I'm really liking the compact flourescents (spiraly). The different color temps are a broad enough range for different uses and they dont burn out! I've got my home about 90% converted. Just waiting to find some decent replacements for a few "decorative" bulbs. I dont see why you could just use these as practicals really - kinda cool being able to pop a 150W equivalent in a table lamp and still be safe.
 
For me it's the dimming characteristic as I can't dim those compact fluorescents. I think incandescent also has a certain quality where Flo's sometimes don't look right to me on certain things - faces, etc.
 
ahh yes the dimming thing is an issue. Some people seem to be bothered by the CFL's. I dont notice the difference in quality of light when I'm in a room, but my stepmom instantly notices and HATES them. My dad brought me a whole bag of them after he tried to sneak them into his house :)
 
There are dimmable CFL bulbs... the problem right now is that they change color while dimming and the bulb itself is a somewhat low CRI. I wouldn't worry about the changes though... the lighting industry is very very dynamic right now... It's unbelievable actually. What we will have in a few years will be very impressive. LED will replace incandescent... and as this technology evolves I expect it will be better. I predict a time where an LED (or an array) will do the job an HMI currently does... and the same goes for any incandescent.

CFLs are on the cusp of a revolution as well... we are looking at 250kHz ballasts and a power factor that will probably triple what we see now. So take the CFL = incandescent equivalent scale and double or triple the incandescent number.

Plus... I guarantee that we'll still be able to buy our normal tungsten and "specialty" bulbs... even if it's a repackaged 100w edison bulb.

Don't sweat it.

I would be worried if I were selling lighting right now... just because everything is moving so fast... but as a buyer, the world is your oyster and it's only getting more oyster-erier. (TM)

What is just starting to happen is akin to the computer revolution... and while it may not be quite up to Moore's Law... I wouldn't want to be sitting on a giant pile of inventory either. LitePanels was trying to monopolize the industry... and I think it's going to end up quite the opposite.
 
While the language of the law does not specifically provide for photo or video lamps, there are SO MANY other exclusions that it will be pretty simple to get some sort of incandescent lamp for our application. High-wattage lamps aren't affected, plus 40w appliance lamps aren't affected, plus lamps with a different base should still be allowed, so if nothing else, you could get an adapter and use that. If it made sense to stockpile a particular bulb, it would be the 100w since it would appear that's going to be the first to go and probably the most missed by people in our profession.

Hopefully the shift toward more CFLs will improve their quality for everyone, including photographers and videographers.

USA Today article:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2007-12-16-light-bulbs_N.htm?csp=34

Senate press release:
http://energy.senate.gov/public/ind...235366&Month=9&Year=2007&Party=0&IsTextOnly=1

If you dig around on the Senate site, you can find the text of the bill, but I couldn't get a permanent link.
 
Its highly unlikely that the ban will include video production, photographic and film studios and their specialized instruments. Its too big an investment in lighting in all the studios of the world. And video production is a tiny fraction of the lighting use everywhere and thus just a small blip on the radar. I wouldn't be too worried about getting tungsten lamps for fresnels for quite a while yet. That is, until the time when they are in a minority in the new fixtures being sold. Then at some point the supply of bulbs will be less and the price will go up while the price of CFL, metal halide and LED goes down over what it is today. Ballasts will just get more mature and advanced as well while going down.

At some point as the compact ballasts in the base of spiral CFL's advance you should see line voltage dimming capability as a more common item than it is today.
 
I think it is a Lamp Industry conspiracy. ;-)

I hate the cold light the CFLs provide (even the warmtones are not even close to the real bulbs).

When they say a 25 Watt CFL is like a 100 Watt Bulb light a living room with one bulb and see what your camera says.
Ha! After 6 feet the CFL is at least 4 stops dimmer.

Those CFL beasts will never produce a cosy-fireplace-candle-like light, It will always look like in a factory.

They consume more Energy and waste when made.
They consume more energy and waste when dumped.
Radiate more microwave frequency than a cellphone (that may not be a concern for poeple who dont care to live with cordless phones, W-lans and DECT stations in the bed room and whatnot anyhow).

If you brake one you have to vent the room for 24 hours, not using a vacuum cleaner and have gloves to clean up because of mercury and other substances.

Oh, and good luck to find a container that can handle mercury.


They are O.K. for some industries like ours in certain cases but I dont want them in or arround my house.

Frank

Oh, by the way, here in Germany they sell special dimmers to dimm any CFL.
 
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All soft light has a steep drop off. Thus your comments about CFL's apply to any light with diffusion.

Can you provide a link to your dimmers that will dim any CFL? I'd love to see that.
 
Richard-

I will be swapping those mogul base CFL's I ordered out with tungsten as needed.
Are you saying that a tungsten bulb with diffusion has similar dropoff to a CFL?
Seems like CFL's have a really short throw.

Fred
 
Richard... being able to dim CFLs isn't really that new. It's just that the dimming is done via frequency chopping a square wave vs. standard voltage regulation. Like an mp3 that is progressively more compressed from less information getting through (light) until the light falls off (min dimming).

Buy a BlueMax light and disect the "ballast"... or better still hand it over to the Chinese guys you're dealing with... I'm sure they can crack that nut in about 1 day.

I opened one and photographed it... if you think it would be of any value I'll post it here.

My opinion on CFLs? It's just a tool... like anything else... there will always be options within reason... and energy consumption (on a professional level) is within reason. I wouldn't expect a total ban on incandescent at any point in our lifetimes.

What the bill is trying to address is the wall o' bulbs you see in ever Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. etc. etc. and all the houses that are FILLED with such bulbs. I don't think the gub-mint is gonna' pluck the bulbs out of your Arri 650... or affect the supply chain as we know it.

Personally I'm getting away from tungsten anyway. Yeah, you still gotta' have some available... again, as a tool... but overall... I avoid them. I'm sick of 95 degree interview sessions and trying to keep the talent from getting shiny (and delivering a lesser interview as they try their best to conceal discomfort).

I think single-point-source LED will effectively replace tungsten eventually... maybe not ALL tungsten, but certainly fresnels and lights like that... and eventually I expect they will even evolve to replace HMI...

There's a place for all lighting tech as tools... but I think LED is the real future.
 
For production, I have no problem with CFLs and fluoros in general, they are great for certain things.

I agree with Barry, I don't like how my Diva 200s make talent's skin look, but when I am shooting mixed daylight interiors, they are too practical not to use.

At home, I despise CFLs, they have flicker people! Doesn't the flicker bother any of you? Never mind the color temp and output, if a light is flickering, even at high frequencies, I am done with it, it gives me a headache.

Best.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
At home, I despise CFLs, they have flicker people! Doesn't the flicker bother any of you? Never mind the color temp and output, if a light is flickering, even at high frequencies, I am done with it, it gives me a headache.

Best.

Dan
Click to expand...

Thank you. Yes they do flicker......they suck all around. The quality of the light is no where NEAR that of incandescents.

But, what do I know....obviously the morons in Congress know what is best for me, so I should just shut up and be a good sheeple.
 
Are you sure that all CFLs have flicker? I'm trying really really hard to see it and I just can't... I can see it in the cheapy Lowe's CFLs... but I don't see it in BlueMax (previous generation BlueMax... I don't like the new version bulbs they're selling) or the Sunalux bulbs that I have... and also... I think with proper lighting controls... that they are capable of beautiful footage.

I'm trying, but I can't see these problems you're talking about. Are you guys referring to the cheap CFLs?
 
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