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Practical LED bulbs


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Hi all,

 

Im wondering if any of you have started using any high cri dimmable LED bulbs in practicals yet.

 

It's an age old problem I have been wanting to solve for for a long time - in an ideal world I'm looking for a 4000k ish dimmable led bulb for practical lamps (Edison sockets). Colour adjustable between tungsten / daylight would be a bonus.

 

I'm shooting a Christmas movie and want to mix daylight through windows at a practical bookstore location with warmer tungsten practicals, but I want to bring the two colours a little closer together, and generally key with 4000k inside to let the exterior play somewhat cooler. I've used bca's in the past (too green and hot and they never seem to match each other) but haven't really found an led that fits the bill.

 

In this case the windows are too big to gel and there are actors entering through the door etc, so cooling down the practicals seems the simplest way to go.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

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I don't think there are any LEDs that I know of in edison which fit the bill. Most are 5600K or 6000K and I don't know of any that are bi-color. Maybe a Phillips Hue? But I haven't used them and I hear they can flicker. The Cree LED 5600Ks, if you can find them still, go a bit green, and the stuff from Quasar is i think 6000K-- but both are single emitter.
You could try to build up some stuff with lite-gear ribbon; but that would be a hell of a to do to build it for each practical.
BCAs are tricky; but they are the closest to what you want color temp wise; though you can't dim them, and yes, matching them is also a pain in the rear.

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I've used the GE Reveal Relax bulbs in the past. Nice color, but a little more pink than real tungsten. They are 3200k, but at least they don't get warmer when you dim them. I haven't seen anything in the 4000k range. The Quasar A LEDs are available in 2000k, 3000k and 6000k.

 

Maybe if your fixtures and lampshades are big enough you could use a dual socket adapter and then salt and pepper the globes.

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Even if you find the LED's you're looking for, I'd recommend some standard soft white incandescent bulbs in various wattages on hand just to throw in there if you get frustrated with how stuff is reading. I usually have a crate of those on set for practicals. They tend to have more flattering light. I've never been a fan of cool temp bulbs in practical lamps. They still look odd to me. I like the color contrast of incandescent with daylight or moonlight. But that's mostly residential. In a commercial location, it would depend on the overall set design whether cooler temped practicals might work.

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  • 1 year later...
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Remember, though, just because it has a good CRI doesn't mean it's going to look good in terms of an LED light. It's easy to get a great CRI with LED but have awful awful color on camera due to the nature of an LED spectrum. You really need to look for a TLCS (i think that's the proper acronym) which tests a wider range of the lights output to make sure the spikes in color don't kill you.

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Thanks Adrian, yes I would love to have some bulbs with high TLCI but it's impossible to find manufacturers that test for it, short of TV/film manufacturers like Quasar.

 

That said, I have noticed that most lights with high TLCI also tend to have a high CRI. So I might take my chances with those bulbs and see what happens.

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