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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Okay, which company's 5500K fluorescent bulb is really the right color?

Stephen Pruitt

Stephen Pruitt

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This is ridiculous.

I'm outside playing in my grip truck in preparation for a shoot in a couple of weeks, and I just happen to put in mis-matched 5500K bulbs into my Mole Biax. Talk about NOT EVEN CLOSE to the same color!

And these were not "Jimmie Bob's" bulbs I'm talking about. One was a Kino 5500 and the other was an Osram 5500. Then, to make matters worse, I plugged in a Farm-Tek 5500 mogul base 250 watt bulb. And it is different still. Again, not even close!

Remarkably, my eyes clearly preferred the look of the Farm-Tek. My hand actually looked like normal skin tone when using that one. The other two just looked pretty awful.

I need to be able to use our fluorescents with both 3200K tungsten and HMI sources, but I'm telling you, my experiments with the 5500s are NOT happy.

Amazing.

Stephen
 
No. . . the Farm-Teks came from, well, Farm-Tek. They were our go-to lights for our last film. Really blended well for indoor use for light balance.

Here is the link to that very bulb:

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;;pg104995_104998.html

As for my question, I just went ahead and bought Kinos.

Thanks.

Stephen
 
Stephen,
I went through this some time ago when I decided to put together a swappable color temp fluorescent kit to supplement my HMI & Tungsten kits.
I ended up using my Minolta color temp meter to spec each lamp.
Some brands were right on the money, and others were not only off, but way off in color temp as listed. Each lamp was then labeled with the correct color temp for sorting.
I also put together a set of 1/8 minus green gel / grid combos for each of the fixtures which helps out with skin tones.

All the Best!
 
What David said. BTW if you don't own a color meter you can use your Red or a DSLR to test by doing custom white balances on the bulbs. I've done that often on location scouts when I've not brought the meter.
 
Hey there, David. . . sounds like you're the expert on this subject. What did you find? Which brands seemed to be most accurate?

Thanks!

Stephen
 
I was going to post that for you Stephen but didn't have the figures in front of me,
and my memory is adrift at the moment.
 
Me suspects that Jarred is being facetious.

:-(

Sorry for the noise.

Stephen
 
Oh. . . well. . . I still feel chastened.

:-)

Sometimes I do ask some pretty simple questions. In this case, there were over a 100 views before the first response. That, combined with my interpretation of Jarred's comment, led me to believe that it was a pretty lame thread.

In this case, I just know that there is NO WAY all of those bulbs could have the same temperature. I mean, they weren't even close. I need to find my digital camera and take a picture of what I saw. Now, part of it could be differences in the spectral distribution of the lamps, but I would have honestly expected things to be a lot closer than they appeared in my garage last week.

If I hadn't have already destroyed several of the bulbs making my remote-Kino "light sabre" I could do the gray card temperature balance test mentioned by Mr. Fuller. (I do not have a color temperature meter.)

Thanks to all.

Stephen
 
Here is a shot of my fluorescent light kit which I use along with my HMI & Tungsten lights.
2245watts
 

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I think this IS a great thread.

I wish I'd seen something similar before and feel bad about not putting my experience out there earlier.

Ultimately I'm not worried about color temperature, I'm worried about what it looks like.

Even identical HMI fixtures with identical bulbs where one is new and one has a lot of hours will show a significant difference.

I'll have to try a farmtek, but I've tested the kino 29, the kino 32 and the coollights tungsten and the daylight balanced series as well.

In general I like the look of the kino's better. Richards lights seem a little pink to me.

That said, a quarter minus green, a quarter straw, a quarter CTO, and a some CTB and you can fine tune things pretty easily.

I'm sticking with the Kino's for now, and prefer the 4 foot standard tubes to the diva size. But if you want everything to play nice, gel is your friend.

My $.02

Steve
 
hey fellas good morning to you all.here goes day two of my attempt at this blogging thing. gotta say like most other stuff RED does this site is first class,although it'll take me a minute to figure out whats what and whos who. but i agree with Jarred whom seems to be the most helpful and responsive fire chief ive ever come across,this is a interesting thread.(shhh whats a thread) as you fellas can read in my initial post which was mostly sarcastic, but certainly honest, im way more about the light than i am the camera geeky stuff.not trying to get any RED Ninjas after me or anything, and ive certainly done a far share of my jobs on the RED ONE so im definatly a fan. the growth of the cameras and the glass are just moving so fast that with an amazing camera department that lives for this kinda stuff,i tell them the job peramiters and what i want done and me boys give me the most accurate up to date info for me to make a decision from.god bless 'em. i imagine thread be alot more lighting designers out there without dudes like them and jarred. cause guys like me that cherish the ability to paint with light take it pretty seriously and probably would be doing who knows what if somebody dident pay us for our talent.(forsure not a AC though) lol.
to the point cause im rambling again. Mr Pruitt HAVE I GOT A SUPRISE FOR YOU,and anyone else really that is interested in the advancement of modern lighting in conjunction with modern camera technology. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A 6K EQUIVALENT? BUT PLUGGED INTO A EDISON? THAT HAD MODIFIERS? THAT HAD LESS HEAT THAN A 60WATT BULB? THAT YOU COULD PUT VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE?
1TRUCK, 2OR3 DUDES, ONE'A THEM NEW FANCY RED CAMERAS,AND YOUR THE MAN!
OH DID I MENTION THE EVER LONGING GREATEST OF GREAT THE ALMIGHTY,
HARD BUT SOFT SNAPPY BUT NOT LIGHT,,, IS NOW A REALLITY? WHATS A 6K BULB GO FOR THESE DAYS HUH? 1200 TO 2000ISH BUCKS EACH YEAH? MY KITS GOT BOUT 20 GLOBES IN IT,MAYBE, I PAID THAT FOR ALL OF THEM.AND THE MODIFIERS WE'RE FABRICATING WILL MAKE KINO RETHINK SOME THINGS.AND MY MAN I COME FROM THE SCHOOL OF Jean Yves Escoffier whom i miss dearly but could do wonders with florescence and kinos. MY MAN WOULD BE PROUD OF WHAT HIS BOYS ARE DOING NOW WITH HIS TEACHINGS AND MODERN DAY TECHNOLOGY.hmmm whatelse do i got for yall......? if anyones interested please reach out to me privately, we're happy to share with those we are happy to share with. we're not quite there yet with dropping this bomb, but i can tell you with our alfa and betta versions in multiple kinds of modifiers
this stuff one five or six paid jobs has paid for itself in gold and made my gaffer mikie p and myself look like rockstars everytime. let me know brotha....
oh to the original question, Mr lovette is spot on, consistently consistent in temp&output over time and the word florescence just dont go hand and hand.till now,maybe. ours burn at 5000k and all are within 200 degrees of eachother. and forsure theres something to be said for our color meter reversal film days, but its a new day,very new day. infact thats probably my greatest thrill bout the RED, im basically telecine'in and being my own colorist right there on the spot. explaning to the client these moniters are just taps and the color and the density and sat and contrast and blahh blah we all know that song and dance,thank god its over,and thank you RED for giving me more control! im out boys!
 
I've only measured Arri Studio cools with the Red One.
They use Philips daylight tubes and measure between 5800 and 6400. Also measured Arri 575W, 1.2KW and 2.5KW HMI's, and got readings between 5400 and 6000 on flicker-free setting [no dimming and waiting at least 90 seconds to warm up].
FWIW ;)
 
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