A good bulb that lasts longer than 6 hours?

[cosworth]

My locally cheap GE Photoflood lights last maybe 6 hours at best. Anyone have good results from another brand that was reasonably priced? Seems the slightest bump and these bulbs are toast.

[FlashZebra]

If it is an actual Photoflood, you are lucky to get 6 hours. So, there was likely nothing wrong with the quality of the bulbs you are using (compared to other brands of Photofloods).

No true Photoflood will get you better service.

If you want longer life you will need to move to some other bulb design (not a true Photoflood).

A bit of web research may nail down the expected life a bit more, but 6 hours seems reasonable for a true "Photoflood".

Enjoy! Lon

[Lightstream]

http://photonotes.org/cgi-bin/entry.pl?id=Photoflood

Quite enlightening.. I do happen to know (from much practical experience and many MANY popped bulbs including some that went quite explosively) that overdriving dramatically shortens operating life. There isn't much you can do since turning them on and off increases 'instaflash' risk (we even had a term for it!).

Other solutions are available but they have a lower color temperature (CCT), tending more towards the yellow side. You can work around it with CWB.

[Curtis N]

I'm just watching this thread and wondering what the value of photoflood bulbs are in the digital world.

Are you trying to match the color temp of another light source? If so, would it perhaps be easier to use more durable lower temp tungsten bulbs and gel the other light source to match?

[chtgrubbs]

I'm just watching this thread and wondering what the value of photoflood bulbs are in the digital world.

Are you trying to match the color temp of another light source? If so, would it perhaps be easier to use more durable lower temp tungsten bulbs and gel the other light source to match?

A very reasonable assumption. In the days when tungsten slide film was matched to 3200deg K, it was necessary to use the correct lights, which meant photofloods or very expensive professional tungsten-halogen lights. But with adjustable color balance and inexpensive but stable halogen bulbs available for standard socket fixtures I don't think photofloods are necessary anymore.

I would recommend using the halogen bulbs available for replacements of standard light bulbs.