bulb n socket - wattage

D

DDirector

Veteran
An example:
If I have a light socket that is rated for 75w and I have a bulb that is rated at 200w but it says it only uses 75w, that means I can use that bulb for that socket, right?
 
DDirector said:
An example:
If I have a light socket that is rated for 75w and I have a bulb that is rated at 200w but it says it only uses 75w, that means I can use that bulb for that socket, right?
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What kind of bulb do you have? So is it saying that it has the equivalent of 200w output, but only draws 75w? The socket rated wattage would be for what is actually drawn from the bulb and if it only draws 75w you should be fine. I would take the bulb and socket outside, hook them up and let them cook for a while and see what happens.
 
David G. Smith said:
What kind of bulb do you have? So is it saying that it has the equivalent of 200w output, but only draws 75w? The socket rated wattage would be for what is actually drawn from the bulb and if it only draws 75w you should be fine. I would take the bulb and socket outside, hook them up and let them cook for a while and see what happens.
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yup. I just found some 'energy saving' bulbs that say that. So, i was just wondering if they'd work with the socket.
 
E26 sockets are rated for 660w. Unless you're dealing with something else, the 75w rating you're seeing is for the fixture, (due to the heat from the lamp itself), not the socket.
 
I didn't buy it. I was wondering if it good before I bought any.
It is a CFL, but it has a kelvin temperature on it. 2700K or 4100K.
Would they produce a be green hue?
 
DDirector said:
I didn't buy it. I was wondering if it good before I bought any. It is a CFL, but it has a kelvin temperature on it. 2700K or 4100K.n Would they produce a be green hue?
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Depends. You shouldn't have any problem if all of your lights are the same Kelvin temp, but if you start mixing it up, then you'll run into problems.
 
DDirector said:
I didn't buy it. I was wondering if it good before I bought any.
It is a CFL, but it has a kelvin temperature on it. 2700K or 4100K.
Would they produce a be green hue?
Click to expand...

Temperature is not so much the issue if you will mix it with similar temp lighting, or use gels to get everything to match (tedious and can be pain in ass). The bigger problem is low CRI rating, look on the box if they even advertise it and I bet it is like 80 (out of 100). Higher quality flo's for example like Kino Flo's are 95.

Are you planning to use these for your main lighting 95% of the time, or is this just for one project and using them to light up a few lamps, etc..

If you're going to grade the crap out of final images anyway then low CRI may not matter for you. It depends what your final plans for it are.
 
I have come to avoid using the low color temp low CRI CFLs at almost all cost. I have not been able to get good skin tones with them even with white balancing to them or trying to fix them in post. If I want warmer light, there are just too many better ways to get it with tungsten lights than to use CFLs, IMHO. I have used higher CRI (90+) "Daylight" (5500ish Kelvin) bulbs as they are a pretty low cost way to get daylight balanced light. I picked up some of the 27 watt ones from Alzo:

http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/light_bulbs_compact_fluorescent-daylight.htm

I did find that they did have a noticeable green spike and I use 1/8 minus green gel with them. The 1/8 minus green adds just a touch of noticeable magenta to the image when using the daylight color temp preset on my FS100 and Canon T2i, but custom white balancing to the lights, with the 1/8 minus green helps.

http://www.filmtools.com/31-lee-s279.html

I still have to say though that I am more than a bit disillusioned by CFLs. Besides the green spike and color issues, I have found them to be pretty delicate and have run into reliability issues with them shooting low budget. I have had the bulbs break off in my hand unscrewing them from fixtures and had them just stop working over the course of short shoots. Having to keep buying spare bulbs is a PITA. I still keep some around, but I am not really very fond of them.
 
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I'm using Alzo 2 and 4 bank dimmable flows with reasonable CRI. The "tungsten" lamps have a bit of a pink spike to them, the daylights so far have been great for my purposes. I also have some of the Alzo 85w screw-in bulbs (300w equiv.) and by combining two of them into a E26 socket y-splitter I can put two together in a softbox for 600w (equiv) of soft 5600k light.

I'm planning to move over to Kino's as soon as I spot a good deal on a few banks, but the Alzo's have been great in the meantime. No compliants from me.

Ddirector - where are the bulbs from that you're talking about?
 
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