Fluorescent lights and you!

**steve kim** · June 19th, 2009, 10:57 AM

Another thread on this forum reminded me of some research I did a while back on fluorescent lighting. The data's been sitting on my hard drive so I figured it was about time to compile it and post it online.

It's too long to re-post here but you can check it out on my blog: http://www.stevekim.com/2009/06/lights.html

Also potentially useful: http://www.stevekim.com/2009/06/paint.html

Cheers,
Steve

The bulbs I tested:

Sylvania Soft White - These are the usual cheap, beige-y lights common in offices. They are the lights that came installed with my studio.
Paralite - So called full spectrum lights that I got from fullspectrumsolutions.com a while back. I don't think they are sold under that name anymore. I got them thinking they would be great for painting but even though they were technically 'white' I couldn't help feel like shit whenever I worked under them. They were advertised with a nice CRI rating and (fake) spectral distribution graph.
Sylvania Design50 - Heard about these somewhere on the internets. Couldn't find this one in stores.
Philips TL90/TL950 - Popular among aquarium owners I think. The only T8 Bulbs I tested. BTW, T8 bulbs are thinner and brighter than the more common and older T12.
Philips Natural Sunshine - Easily found in hardware stores. Basically the same as GE's Sunshine but more expensive.
GE Sunshine - Easily found in hardware stores. Basically the same as Philips Natural Sunshine but cheaper. A little closer to 5000k but it's negligible. I found the GE's somehow a little more 'pleasing' but it could have just been my wallet talking.

The names I listed are not standardized at all. They are a mix of what I remember. In other words, GE Sunshine is what you'll find on the box, but on the tube it'll say something like GE Chroma50 (if I recall correctly). Basically light manufacturers like to mess around with our heads and I'm sorry I can't help out too much on that front. I got rid of the actual bulbs a while ago.