Bulb color comparison chart

Cearbhaill

Cearbhaill

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Mar 22, 2003
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I put this page together for 125gJoe, and thought I should share.
It is an amateur comparison chart of power compact bulbs in 5500ºK, 6700ºK, 7100ºK, 9325ºK, and actinic colors. I have photos of both a planted aquarium and a Goldfish tank with artificial plants- tried to take similar shots in each color, but my picture taking is as bad as my webpage formatting.

http://www.cearbhaill.com/bulbs.htm

Have a look- I threw this together fairly quickly and am very open to changing it should someone come up with a better format. I didn't want to use thumbnails because I wanted the photos next to each other for comparison, but needed them small enough to fit on a screen at the same time. It isn't easy to decide how to do it.

At any rate- enjoy and let me know what suggestions you have to make it more useful to folks choosing bulb colors.
 
Thanks!

That's an excellent comparison!

_________________
 
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Comparison Chart

I'm not picky about the format. A cleaner, minimal format places the focus where it should be...on the fish and plants. Your post gave me the answer to a question I've had lately... what's the difference between the bulbs, particularly between the 5500K and 6700K range. Thanks a bunch!! :D
 
Toni, I see you had a pet shop in Ashland, KY..
Did you know of a Mark and Daveena Gussler ?
Click to expand...
Lived right around the corner from Mark- went to school with brother Rodger, and later hung out with sister (cousin?) Robin. Also groomed their dog later on.

That's my home town!
 
Hi Cearbhaill,

Did you use manual or automatic exposure? In order to get realistic comparisons you need to use manual with the same shutter speed and aparture for every shot otherwise the camera will adjust itself to compensate for the differences in light in order to make the shot look as well exposed as possible. In a normal photo taking situation that's a good thing, but in this case will ruin the test.
It's also good to put the camera on a tripod and not move it during shots. This way you eliminate the variations in reflections you can get from standing in different places.
And just to state the obvious. you need to make sure no other lights are on in the room and use no flash, and use the same film throughout unless you're using a digital camera.
 
cloud- If I'm ever motivated to do this again I will look into your photo taking suggestions. I didn't do anything except turn out the room lights and used a Sony DSC-S85 without the flash.
It was way too much trouble moving bulbs around to attempt again. I wasn't attempting to be scientific about it- just did it out of curiosity.
 
I just wanted to say thanks for taking all the time and effort to do this test.

I recently purchased a CF fixture that came with 9325K bulbs. I was told (at the LFS) I might want to replace the bulbs with something like 5500K because 9325 is too 'blue' and would 'wash out' the colours in my tank. I don't think my fish look washed out, but I was still considering changing bulbs based on the 'advice' I got until I read this post. Having seen your pictures, I KNOW I've got the right bulbs and I'm going to stick with what I think looks best.

I think they should store this post somewhere for future use by anyone who wonders about bulbs with different Kelvin ratings and what they actually look like on a tank - all the research I did online about CF lighting didn't tell me what your post managed to convey in one easy step.
 
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