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Full spectrum/Natural Lighting

Lyle

Lyle

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 11, 2003
1,874
1
Madison, Alabama
So I need a new desk lamp, and one of my co-workers has raved about these full-spectrum or natural lighting-type lamps. I've shopped around a little for these and have quickly discovered that, hey, they're a bit pricey. But they do seem to put out a good deal of light. My question for the MacRumors community is, is this just a lot of hype or are these really better lamps?
 
Why not get a standard lamp and put a blue daylight bulb in it, such as the kind that artists use? Or are you wanting to do real colour-critical work? Or are these lamps that you're talking about completely different?

Any chance of some links to the kind of lamp you're considering?
 
Do you do a lot of comparing colors in your workspace?

I put full-spectrum lights in my garage so that I can get a better idea of color than I would under those ultra-blue shifted lights. The color temperature is important in these situation, although I would have to go home to get the information I had on what color temperatures to use...
 
I don't do any color-critical work, which is good since I'm color blind. ;)

Let me back up a teensy bit. I have standard fluorescent overhead lighting in my office, and no windows to let in natural light. The fluorescent lights give me a headache and so I leave them turned off.

I do have a floor lamp that sits on the floor behind my desk, but it doesn't provide quite as much light as I'd like. The office is still a little darker than I'd like. I'm trying to avoid eyestrain and such for my already weak eyes, so I've decided to get a desk lamp of some kind for reading. I do software R&D, so my work consists mostly of staring at my MacBook's screen for long periods of time, or reading printed documents for long periods of time.

So that's where I am. I know basically zero about these "full spectrum" lights (like the kinds sold by Ott-Lite), but one of my co-workers mentioned how great she thinks they are. Of course, she drinks. No, just kidding, I made that last part up.
 
I've been using Ott-Lite lamps for quite a while--maybe 10 years--and find them to be extremely helpful. A 13 watt bulb creates bright light compared to a typical 13 watt fluorescent bulb.

The bad part is that the lamps and bulbs are expensive but if you buy from Jo-Ann, Etc. you can often get a 40 % discount coupon on one item.

There was recently a thread on this, if you're looking for other opinions and help.
 
In that case, I'd suggest replacing some of your existing lights with some natural spectrum bulbs and see how you like that before spending on a new lamp. I know there are full-spectrum flourescents out there that can be used in regular flourescent ballasts. IIRC, 4,100K is typical in offices, but that is a little on the "cool" side. Lights around 3,000K or less will be more of the "warm" spectrum.

If it's your own office, I'd also suggest getting the crappy flourescent fixtures replaced with T8s. Get ones with electronic ballasts as opposed to magnetic ballasts. Those don't have the characteristic flicker and/or hum that older flourescents have.
 
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