If you want to use lighting fixtures sold specifically for video making, you have lots of choices with styles, shapes, and uses.
When it comes to what type of BULB the fixture uses, you have these four choices.
- Tungsten halogen (old standard)
- LED (Light Emitting Diode)
- Compact Fluorescent
- HMI: (hydrargyrum medium-arc-length plus iodide)
Each type of bulb (a bulb is often called a lamp in TV production) has pros and cons. Here is an article describing compact fluorescent lights.
Compact Fluorescent lights (compact flo as they are nicknamed) became popular as the new “green” way to light your home beginning in the 90s. They were meant to replace incandescent bulbs. As they became popular in homes, the style was adapted for use in TV and video production. Tungsten halogen had been the TV and video production standard for years, but that was quickly changing. You’ll find compact fluorescent bulbs almost everywhere now. Their actual “greenness” has been debated, but they have many features beyond supposedly being environmentally friendly.
Easy to recognize by their unique swirled design, compact flo bulbs have several distinct advantages over traditional tungsten halogen video lights. Tungsten get HOTTER than a firecracker. You can easily burn your fingers on them. I even burned a hole in the wall once when I bounced the light just a little too close. Oops.
Compact Fluorescent lights, on the other hand, do not get so hot. Sitting under tungsten halogen lights can be dreadfully uncomfortable. They heat up the entire room FAST. That leads to having to crank up the air conditioner, which you really can’t do while shooting video for audio reasons. (Most are noisy, professional crews often turn them off to get better sound, and everyone just roasts. No fun!)
Because compact flo stay so cool, I have even used plain old printer paper as diffusion paper. You can not do that with a tungsten halogen light since you would probably start a fire. HMI lights are also very hot. LED are cool.
Compact flo lights use significantly less electricity than tungsten, but more than LED. Compact fluorescent light bulbs crank out an amazing amount of light for the wattage used compared to most other kinds of light bulbs, except for LED, which barely use a trickle of electricity.
The light given off by compact fluorescent is nice, soft and diffused because the glass of the bulbs is painted white. Every compact flo light bulb I have ever seen is already diffused for you by the addition of white paint to the inside of the glass, like the ones in the pictures on this page.
That does not mean you never need to add supplemental diffusion, but right out of the box you have some nice diffusion. The picture of the high school green screen studio above is one I took where I taught. The large lights you see were compact flo. The soft box was designed to fit the fixture, and it had white cloth diffusion, as all soft boxes do.
I found the multiple bulbs these lights held to be top-heavy, so the stands tended to tip over easily, so were a bit of a hazard around students. . If they hit our concrete floor, the bulbs would shatter, which of course was a huge mess. The bulbs sold for use in TV fixtures were always more expensive than similar bulbs sold for home use.
Larger fixtures will hold up to four bulbs.
All-in-all, I think compact fluorescent lights are a nice addition to the world of video production equipment. I bet that guy whose wall I burned a hole in would agree. But to be totally honest, I have grown to prefer LED lights, which are generally much smaller and stay even cooler to the touch.
Thanks for reading Video Production Tips
Lorraine Grula
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- True or False? Compact flo uses less electricity than tungsten halogen or incandescent bulbs.
- True or False? Compact fluorescent bulbs don’t get as hot as either tungsten halogen or incandescent bulbs.
- True or False? Large compact flo fixtures for TV will have multiple bulbs for one fixture
ALL 3 ARE TRUE.
As soon as our kitchen and dining room lights went busted, we went ahead and bought a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb to replace them.
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs last blog post..Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb
HI.
Glad to hear it. Compact florescent bulbs are great in the home. I have them all over my house.
The bulbs last longer, they stay cool and they use less electricity. Compact florescent bulbs have so many advantages over incandescent or tungsten hallogen. I’ve heard of the tungsten light bulbs getting so hot they catch people curtains on fire.
Thanks!
Lorraine
I’m looking forward to the day where these bulbs are the standard!
Hi Michelle.
I agree with you. I love compact florescent bulb. I have them all over my house. They have a lot of advantages.
Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.
Lorraine
The CFL bulbs are becoming more common/standard Michelle. I work for Home Depot and the sales reports I see show these bulbs moving out of the store more every month!
Hi Ginny.
That is really good to know. I LOVE CFL bulbs for the home. I have them all over my house. Thanks for the info.
Lorraine
Hi,
I have always wanted to explore the possibility to use compact florescent bulb for my video production by DIY some video lighting. But I am not sure what are the color temperature and power rating for these bulbs if you can advise?
thanks
Jensen
Hi Jensen.
Good to hear from you. Standard florescent bulbs are greenish on the color/white balance scale. They give a distinct green tint if your camera is not white balanced right. Compact florescent on the other hand is color balanced the same as daylight, so it is blue. Around 5400 degrees kelvin. At least every compact florescent bulb I have ever seen is blue which surprised the holy heck out of me at first. Most compact florescent bulbs give out more power per watt than other sources of light, significantly more than standard incandescent.
I hope this helps you.
Lorraine
Heres my take on these ‘green’ bulbs. They cost 5 to 10 times incandescent. Of initial 9 bought, 3 failed in less than 3 months. One 8Watt CFL was measured taking 85watts! 2 ran so hot they scorched the holder. They do not fit the table lamps. They cannot be used with my 5 dimmer switches. I have incandescents bought with the house 29 years ago, and still working. The mercury in the CFL’s are a serious pollution, and an expensive cleanup on breakage. THERE IS NO WAY THESE ARE GREEN ALTERNATIVES.
Hi Andy
I appreciate your comment. Here is my “take” on it. First, this post is not about the “greenness” of Compact Fluorescent, although that is briefly mentioned. It’s about how they work with video production. They do have many advantages. Incandescent bulbs have never been common in video making, so the true comparison is with tungsten halogen which was the standard for years.
I also simply do not believe some of your assertions. Or if they are true, they are the exception and not the rule. I have had lots of experience with these bulbs and never seen one fail as you describe. Never seen one overheat as you describe. When I switched my household over to CF instead of incandescent, my electric bill went down substantially. It is true that they can not be used with dimmers and I learned that the hard way, but that is such a minor flaw as to be basically no big deal. Regular fluorescent can not be used with dimmers either. Does that make them worthless? I have several CF bulbs in standard table lamps, they fit just fine. As for incandescent bulbs lasting 29 years? Now THAT is impossible for me to believe.
If I had to take a wild guess, I would say you are not a person interested in learning about video production, but you are someone who has an agenda who is using my blog to perpetuate falsehoods in order to satisfy your agenda. If I am wrong, I apologize, but I would bet the farm that I am right. Perhaps you work for a company that has a vested interest in keeping their market share of incandescent bulbs.
The most GREEN alternative is good old fashioned sunlight. Open up the window shade and let the sun shine in. LEDs are also quite energy conserving. IMHO, a lot of things are touted as “green” and it is more of a marketing ploy than a scientifically based assertion. BUT, CFs DO take less electricity. MUCH less. That is a scientific fact whether you believe it or not. Incandescent bulbs have rightly been called heat-producing gadgets that throw off a little bit of light. Incandescent bulbs waste tons of energy in the form of excess heat. But as I already stated, incandescents were never common in video production. Tungsten halogen was the standard and they too give off enormous amounts of heat. The bulbs do not last long at all. They break easily. They are DREADFULLY expensive. As much as $80-$100 for a run-of-the-mill bulb.
So although I always appreciate and welcome all ideas on the subject of video making, I will not allow my blog to be used to further falsehoods that do not even really relate to the subject matter at hand. Good day sir.
Lorraine