Daylight lamp - worth it?

[FriendCarol]

Isn’t marketing lovely. They won’t sell the screw-on bulb to artists because they want to sell them the complete expensive lamp but they’ll sell the screw-on bulb to indoor gardeners.

Yeah, the best small floral palettes I've bought -- also the cheapest -- were marketed to craft people for beading! The same phenomenon holds with items marketed to disabled people, except the markup is even higher! (Probably because Medicaid or another insurer is expected to pay.) Honestly, check out the cost of something like a simple plastic ring with arms attached that fits over a toilet seat, or a clamp for a short railing by a bathtub... You won't believe the prices. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up on that plant-growing light!

I have an Ott-lite table lamp, purchased at a decent price on Ebay when I first bought my paints (also from Ebay) and started using transparent watercolor. A couple years later I bought some 'natural daylight' swirly fluorescent bulbs (fit in normal socket like incandescent bulb), and put them in a cheap pole light ($4 from a thrift store) to illuminate still life setups. To my eyes, judging by holding the back of my hand under the two lamps, when the swirly fluorescent is new, there's almost no difference. It does get a bit yellower over time. I was lucky and found 3/package on sale for about $12, in a Home Depot or Loews.

Even for all the non-art-related lighting in your home, the swirly fluorescent are well worth the small initial cost... These bulbs save you lots of money every month on the electric bill!!! Not only do you get cheaper lighting (and these bulbs are rated to last about 3 years if you left them on 24 hours a day), but you generate a LOT less heat, too, so you don't need to spend as much on electricity for fan or a/c, either. I haven't yet had a 'maintenance engineer' replace all the bulbs in ceiling fixtures in kitchen & bathroom here (just moved in last February), but I did in my old place, and will here, too, eventually. There's no reason not to use them everywhere you'd otherwise use incandescent, that I can discover.

[WV190]

Lowes sells a 23 watt (100 watt replacement) Sylvania screw in compact florescent with 6500K and 82 CRI for $8.

I'm just learning about Kelvins and CRIs, so I'm not sure if the bulb bjr mentioned with about 5500K and 91 CRI is better for lighting a studio for oil painting or not.

Any thought appreciated!

Rebecca

[bjr001]

FriendCarol and Rebecca

Hello

The table lamp you purchased may be a general purpose lamp therefore it may have a lower Kevin rating the Ott-Lite plant bulb. Also, since it came from eBay, you may want to check the bulb to make certain it came with an Ott-lite bulb.

The light test you conducted may not give you an accurate result. This is because a function of these daylight bulbs is to render accurate colors of an object as if shown in natural daylight. This is measured through the bulb’s CRI rating. The higher the CRI number, the less of a color shift of the object’s true color. A bulb with a CRI of 91 will produce truer colors of objects than a bulb with a CRI rating of 82.

For compact fluorescent bulbs a CRI of 90 to 91 is the highest I’ve seen. Ott-lite makes a 20w Truecolor bulb with a rating of 6000k with a CRI of about 91. It costs near $50.00 for a screw-in type. In fluorescent bulbs the highest CRI ratings I’ve seen is a Phillips fluorescent bulb F32T8TL950 that is rated at 5000k with a CRI of 98. These bulbs are available in 3 ft and 4 ft lengths and have a low UV output.

As far as one bulb costing $8.00 and the other $20.00 you can try one and compare. In the end both these bulbs with still use small amounts of power and last many times longer than conventional bulbs. If you don’t skimp on your artist’s colors then you should invest time and energy and acquire the best lighting you can afford.

[JackMadison]

We carry the Daylight Lamps and Verilux lamps on sale here:
http://www.madisonartshop.com/illumi...-lighting.html

Customers are very happy with them.
We are currently looking into OTT Lites. Has anyone compared them to Daylight or Verilux?

[giancarlo80]

It's not news that natural lite cannot be replaced but you can buy FLUORESCENT kelvin 5000- 6000 screw in bulbs which are not hot to the touch for about 30-40 bucks or one or two two bulb, four foot fixtures and paint your butt away. it ain't the light. it's the artist that makes the painting.
and read what bjr1000 says.

charles santopadre- check me out on google

[Paintinglover]

I've had LOTS of different kinds of bulbs and lighting. ALL of them have disappointed in comparison to natural light. The right light FIXTURE though, DOES make a difference. I found that facing lights upward toward the ceiling makes any light give a much more even glow to the room. Here's one tip I learned from a fellow artist; go to a gallery, ask what light bulbs THEY have. They produce a really nice light and ultimately, that's where we hope a painting will hang. Even collectors put those really nice lights over their paintings, and good galleries try to simulate natural daylight. Since I have been disappointed, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Let's hope this works!

[thevaliantx]

Paintinglover, what did you make of your findings? My wife, son and I went to the Williamstown College Museum of Art today (Williamstown, MA). They had what I thought was some nice "oil on canvas" paintings, some of them from the 1300's. (nothing with pastel or oil pastel, though). I found most of the museum to be gloomy, with bright lights hanging overhead above the paintings. Sometimes the lighting was so bright that it obscured the view of the painting, which I found annoying.

[Paintinglover]

Hi there, actually, we are still busy getting settled, so every time I try to go it's not happenin'. Hopefully soon, and then I'll post my findings.

Interesting what you say about the gallery....all the ones I have been in have always had tons of flowing, beautiful light. Some galleries were darker, with the lights being a little yellow-y, but generally speaking I've only been in galleries with nice lights. I haven't been to any here in our new city though, so let's see how that turns out. I WILL keep you posted!

[jezurus]

I went to Lowes and bought the Sylvania 6500 K 23 w Flor bulb WV190 mentioned above and what a difference! I can see every little detail, very well lit! thanks for the tip!!

[pugwash]

Isn't the ultimate aim that your works will hang in someones home?
What kind of light will it be hung in there?
My house isn't lit by daylight bulbs but by ordinary flourescents, some warm, some cold.

[wgan]

hi all, I wonder is there any cheap alternative to the freaking expensive daylight artist lamp? I wanted to get one then got held back by some negative reviews mainly regarding the flickers and very limited lit area, I dont do super size work mostly are about a2 size paper or similar size canvas, do you really think its worth the money, how about the life span of those daylight tubes?

[Coloboque]

I bought a daylight lamp from Office Depot but had to return it - it was so weak and also small. Then I gave it a try to the Daylight Triple Bright Table Lamp and loved it. I was at first reluctant because of the cost, but after using it for just the first time, I'm very happy with it. I love the flexibility, the size and height. My husband had to mount it on my desk with a piece of wood, and it worked perfectly, as the lamp doesn't come with a base. I haven't used the lamp for too long yet, so I don't know how long the bulbs last. I paint during the day time most of the time, and use the lamp only briefly in the evening. And I have two large windows next to my painting desk.

[wgan]

Originally Posted by Coloboque

I bought a daylight lamp from Office Depot but had to return it - it was so weak and also small. Then I gave it a try to the Daylight Triple Bright Table Lamp and loved it. I was at first reluctant because of the cost, but after using it for just the first time, I'm very happy with it. I love the flexibility, the size and height. My husband had to mount it on my desk with a piece of wood, and it worked perfectly, as the lamp doesn't come with a base. I haven't used the lamp for too long yet, so I don't know how long the bulbs last. I paint during the day time most of the time, and use the lamp only briefly in the evening. And I have two large windows next to my painting desk.

thanks for sharing, but thats a whooping price for a bloody lamp
instead I grabbed some 6500k tubes from local super market, they are not as bright as I thought them to be, but still do a OK job for my need, after all they are just bulbs for the night use, I still can't accept the fact that you have to spend >$100 for that