Egg Born Son
Veteran
I've being playing with some cheap and nasty eBay CFL lighting (I know I know). I got 120W CFL spiral globes with self ballast in the kit and was quite impressed with them on first try, til I turned them off and my vision went total magenta for at least 30 seconds - that's a big green spike with no meter required to tell me so. Thing is when I turned them back on again and the first of three went pop - I got less than half an hour out of this $35 CFL, well would've been if I didn't scam them on an incorrect listing (which is, incidently, the only reason I bought them). I paid just over $135 for 3 lights with stands, including boom and softboxes, globes, a backdrop stand and a 3x6m muslin. The package would normally have been over $280 if they hadn't cut and paste the wrong description into the listing.
Now I can't say I'm surprised, I didn't expect these to last long - but 30 minutes? Which got me thinking. I haven't had much luck with domestic CFL lighting at home either. They cost a heap more than incandescent and are advertised as long lasting and direct replacement. I reckon they are lasting me a fraction as long, I've had quite a few die within a fortnight - maybe even half now I think about it. I'm a late adopter and have bought just over a dozen, maybe a dozen and a half only - so true, it is a small sample size. My first thought was maybe I have faulty wiring in the house. But I've had them die on me in both lamps and light fixtures (different circuits in other words) and these eBay ones were plugged into a surge protected power board.
I assume its the ballast that's blowing since they don't have filaments, not sure about the domestic ones but this big 'un definitely went pop. I've been using them exactly like incandescents, do I need to let them cool down or something before I turn them back on? Is there any other special consideration they need which I might be ignoring? Or do these spiral CFLs just use cheap ballasts and its hit and miss? Am I just unlucky? I'm increasingly reluctant to get any more either for the home or for filming. But for lighting video in cramped confines indoors I think tungsten is going to prove just too much of a fire hazard. I'm obviously going to need one for hard key/shadows but cool lighting elsewhere would make me feel a lot safer. So if anyone has a similar experience to share or can think of a reason I might be going through CFLs so quickly I'd feel a lot happier about giving them another go.
For $135 I consider this to have been a worthwhile experiment. I'm planning on testing the remaining two CFLs to destruction, keeping the softboxes and using the stands as throw-aways or reflector stands. Their muslin/stand deal alone is usually about the same as I paid so I see it as getting the lights for free. I've already tried the worklight option - way too hot (even at 250W), poor light quality and too wide and difficult to control. So next up its time to do what I should have done in the first place and get proper gear. Still, I'm only a few bucks out of pocket for the whole cheap lighting flirtation so no harm done. And I've learnt a lot about what I don't want in the process.
Now I can't say I'm surprised, I didn't expect these to last long - but 30 minutes? Which got me thinking. I haven't had much luck with domestic CFL lighting at home either. They cost a heap more than incandescent and are advertised as long lasting and direct replacement. I reckon they are lasting me a fraction as long, I've had quite a few die within a fortnight - maybe even half now I think about it. I'm a late adopter and have bought just over a dozen, maybe a dozen and a half only - so true, it is a small sample size. My first thought was maybe I have faulty wiring in the house. But I've had them die on me in both lamps and light fixtures (different circuits in other words) and these eBay ones were plugged into a surge protected power board.
I assume its the ballast that's blowing since they don't have filaments, not sure about the domestic ones but this big 'un definitely went pop. I've been using them exactly like incandescents, do I need to let them cool down or something before I turn them back on? Is there any other special consideration they need which I might be ignoring? Or do these spiral CFLs just use cheap ballasts and its hit and miss? Am I just unlucky? I'm increasingly reluctant to get any more either for the home or for filming. But for lighting video in cramped confines indoors I think tungsten is going to prove just too much of a fire hazard. I'm obviously going to need one for hard key/shadows but cool lighting elsewhere would make me feel a lot safer. So if anyone has a similar experience to share or can think of a reason I might be going through CFLs so quickly I'd feel a lot happier about giving them another go.
For $135 I consider this to have been a worthwhile experiment. I'm planning on testing the remaining two CFLs to destruction, keeping the softboxes and using the stands as throw-aways or reflector stands. Their muslin/stand deal alone is usually about the same as I paid so I see it as getting the lights for free. I've already tried the worklight option - way too hot (even at 250W), poor light quality and too wide and difficult to control. So next up its time to do what I should have done in the first place and get proper gear. Still, I'm only a few bucks out of pocket for the whole cheap lighting flirtation so no harm done. And I've learnt a lot about what I don't want in the process.
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