Fluorescent - 3200K or 5500K?

Neopics

Neopics

Well-known member
I don't have any Kinos or other good fluorescents yet, but am considering adding some to my collection. However, money is tight so I need to strategize on the issue of colour temperature. Based on others' experiences, which one of these sounds like the better approach?

  • Stock up on 3200K tubes and gel to daylight when necessary
  • Stock up on 5500K tubes and gel to tungsten when necessary
  • Just bite the bullet and get both 3200K and 5500K tubes

I'm more concerned about colour accuracy than which will get used more frequently. Any advice is appreciated.

Here is an addendum question as well: My dealer says that people are finding 2900K tubes a better match for tungsten than the 3200K ones. What is the consensus here?
 
If you're going to buy a Kino-Flo or equivalent, I think it's ridiculous not to buy a set of both 5500K and 2900K tubes because gelling flo's just isn't practical because of the light loss. However, if you're really intent on avoiding buying two sets, buy the 2900K tubes because they'll (presumably) match the tungsten lights you already have. I usually have a set of 2900K tubes in my Diva 400 and they match my Arri fresnels fairly well.
 
Definitely bite the bullet and get both sets of tubes.

But if you cannot possibly afford both, and you absolutely must use the fluo in both modes, then I'd say buy the daylight tubes and a sheet of CTO.

Reason being -- if you're in a daylight situation, you'll need every ounce of light you can squeeze out of the unit, and having 5500k tubes will give you the most output. As compared to having 3200k tubes and gelling to blue, which will cut your light output to 1/4 (right when you can't afford to have your light output cut!)

But if you're in a tungsten situation, ultimate light output is probably not that necessary, so the 2/3 stop hit you take with the CTO gel probably won't hurt you that bad. On Siren we used my CaseLite 4's extensively, and many many many times they were used with just one lamp, so the blue tubes/CTO solution would have worked out okay.

But I'm with Barry_S on the idea of just getting both sets.
 
Yeah, be CAREFUL when using gels, as they cut a CONSIDERABLE amount of light. What Barry G, said is good advice to go daylight and use CTO IF you must.
Here's an example, by the way, of how a dichroic filter differs from a gel, and how much more light it lets through:
http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/permacolor.asp#Understanding

And what has NOT been discussed is the CRI!
Since you mention color accuracy, a MOST important aspect will be a HIGH CRI.

Anything higher than 91 is okay, but shoot for higher if possible.
 
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