Balanced CFL E26 Bulbs.

Erik Naso

Erik Naso

Veteran
I bought a cheap CFL kit from Amazon and it came with two 30W Cool Daylight (5500k) Fluorescent's and fixtures with table top stands. Pretty cool little setup for shooting small table top stuff and only $40.

Anyone test other CFL's like the expensive KinoFlo ones or the Alzo brand to see how color accurate they are? i can see these being useful when shooting in an office and swapping out the lamp bulbs with these for better balance or even using them for fill.

I've been testing them out and having a bare bulb outside of the shade is super annoying! Haha!

All good. Just need to bust out some black wrap. The color is pretty good. I need to roll off some footy still but balancing with a grey card and then going to preset 5600k setting in camera look very close. So close I cant see a shift but thats on the LCD/EVF of the GH4.
 
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OK, I can hear my wife's voice in my head… Oh what cute little stands!

As a side, I have a box of the Alzo CFLs which I use inside of Chinese lanterns. I have not put a meter to them, as they are what they are, but I prefer to use a 1/8 minus green gel with them.

I have been meaning to score some of the Kino Flo CFLs but haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
Most office hi hats I've come across have either a 2 pin or 4 pin socket and can't take typical ballasted E26 CFL's. Usually, that scenario involves cutting dozens of circles of half minus green. I could see the daylight lamps being useful in plenty of other cases involving practicals though.
H&H industries (same company that makes Movietone lamps) makes some nice CFL's too.
 
Erik Naso said:
Anyone test other CFL's like the expensive KinoFlo ones or the Alzo brand to see how color accurate they are? i can see these being useful when shooting in an office and swapping out the lamp bulbs with these for better balance or even using them for fill.
Click to expand...

I've been using the BlueMax bulbs in practicals for years. Excellent quality, very high CRI (I've never felt the need to gel them, and never corrected them in post either). They tend to be somewhat optimistic about rating them at 5900K. They are probably closer to 5400K, which is just about where I want them anyway.
 
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