I might have found the perfect LED bulb
- Thread starter signal15
- Start date
Ok, so one of the things I noticed is that the images where I put two of them together is that you don't really see the color difference as much as you see it in the first photo where I have both bulbs shining down on the counter. I should have hard set the white balance in the camera to do the other photos and not allowed it to set the color temp automatically.
The LED lights are much whiter than the halogens, and it's definitely more noticeable when the whole room is lit by them rather than just the pendants over the counter. I have some part numbers for some Rosco gels which will bring the color temp down to around 2700-2900 depending on which combination I choose to use. All said, the gels will cost me about $20 for enough to do 6 bulbs. If I get time after work tonight, I'll stop and pick some up at the local Theatre/Magic store. I just need to figure out how to attach them without having some scotch tape holding them on.
The LED lights are much whiter than the halogens, and it's definitely more noticeable when the whole room is lit by them rather than just the pendants over the counter. I have some part numbers for some Rosco gels which will bring the color temp down to around 2700-2900 depending on which combination I choose to use. All said, the gels will cost me about $20 for enough to do 6 bulbs. If I get time after work tonight, I'll stop and pick some up at the local Theatre/Magic store. I just need to figure out how to attach them without having some scotch tape holding them on.
Yep, I'll have to do this when I get home. The PAR38's stick down farther than the PAR30's that I had in there. The PAR30's were up above the trim of the can by 2.5" or so, these are up 1.5" from the trim. My cans have adjustable depth, so I could move them up farther if I needed to.
Another thing I noticed is that when you turn on the switch, there is about 1/4 second delay before the light turns on, and sometimes they flicker on. But they are full brightness right away when they turn on, they don't need to warm up like CFL's do.
I have some photos of the lights in the cans, I will try to get them up tonight. Last night, I did some "surgery" on the lights. I bought several different Rosco lighting gels, and tested them out to find one that warmed up the light a bit, and removed a bit of the greenish hue. The combination of the 3310 amber and the 3418 to remove some of the green worked best for color, but reduced the light output by around 20%. I settled with a single layer of Roscolux 302. It warmed it up to about 2950K, and has some pink in it to counteract the green. The light color is WAY better than it was before, and it only reduced the light output by 12%.
Originally, I was going to cut a circle of it and put it behind the optics, but the optics have these plastic cones that extend around each LED and that wasn't possible. So I cut a circle of it with tabs sticking out, placed it on the front of the optics, and then wrapped the tabs around to the back and taped them on with some clear tape. After popping the optics back in, you can't even really tell it's there, and it's not visible at all once it's in the can.
If you buy these lights, go to a photography store and buy some Roscolux #302. It's about $7 a sheet, and one sheet is enough to do about 20 PAR38 bulbs. It sounds like a lot of extra work. But, no one is going to come out with a bulb that has a color pleasing to everyone. The nice thing about LEDs is that you don't have to worry so much about heat melting the gels, they are stable to over 300F. Dichroic glass filters would be better in the long term, but they are $20-30 each, and there is typically less color selection. Maybe LED bulb manufacturers will start building gel or filter mounts into their bulbs to make it easier to mount this stuff in the future. A single SSC P7 LED puts out over 700 lumens, but the color is around 6000K. If you put 3 of these into a PAR30 or PAR38, you'd have plenty of light even after filtering it with an aggressive gel or dichroic.
I guess maybe I'm more picky about my light than other people. My wife thought they were fine the way they came, and so did some other people that were over. Anything too amber/yellow puts me in a bad mood, and if it's too white or green, it makes me feel like I'm at work or in a garage.
Originally, I was going to cut a circle of it and put it behind the optics, but the optics have these plastic cones that extend around each LED and that wasn't possible. So I cut a circle of it with tabs sticking out, placed it on the front of the optics, and then wrapped the tabs around to the back and taped them on with some clear tape. After popping the optics back in, you can't even really tell it's there, and it's not visible at all once it's in the can.
If you buy these lights, go to a photography store and buy some Roscolux #302. It's about $7 a sheet, and one sheet is enough to do about 20 PAR38 bulbs. It sounds like a lot of extra work. But, no one is going to come out with a bulb that has a color pleasing to everyone. The nice thing about LEDs is that you don't have to worry so much about heat melting the gels, they are stable to over 300F. Dichroic glass filters would be better in the long term, but they are $20-30 each, and there is typically less color selection. Maybe LED bulb manufacturers will start building gel or filter mounts into their bulbs to make it easier to mount this stuff in the future. A single SSC P7 LED puts out over 700 lumens, but the color is around 6000K. If you put 3 of these into a PAR30 or PAR38, you'd have plenty of light even after filtering it with an aggressive gel or dichroic.
I guess maybe I'm more picky about my light than other people. My wife thought they were fine the way they came, and so did some other people that were over. Anything too amber/yellow puts me in a bad mood, and if it's too white or green, it makes me feel like I'm at work or in a garage.
