Well this thread has convinced me to take the LED plunge. I'm using Kodak beehives as well.
The shipping costs to Canada were very high from the Super Bright LED site so I ordered what appear to be the same bulbs from dx.com. They cost more but free shipping made it come out a better deal. Coming from China I'm sure they'll take a long time to arrive but when they do I'll safelight test them and report results.
http://www.dx.com/p/e27-0-7w-7-led-2...0#.WLWzbNLythE
I will look for your results with anticipation.Originally Posted by adelorenzo
Me too!
They also ship to The Netherlands, I am not very familiar with electricity things, but the link says-
- Rated voltage: 85~265V 0.7W
- Light color: Red
- Luminous flux: 25-Lumen
- E27 connector
How can such a bulb run on such a wide voltage range (and will the brightness be affected by a different voltage). At least it has the right socket/connector.
best,
Ps One of the reviewers mention use in the darkroom, and also being fairly weak
Cor
Multi-voltage support is pretty much standard and relatively easy to accomplish with contemporary SMPS technology. The LED power supply is likely a small and simple SMPS. Compare it to a modern laptop adapter or mobile phone charger; these usually accept the same range of input voltages with the secondary, low-voltage side being stable and independent from the supply voltage.
25 lumens is quite low indeed. I'm not sure what the wattage or lumen output is, but I use a couple of these in my darkroom: https://www.bax-shop.nl/led-lampen/s...7-fitting-rood One in a Kodak beehive, one in a regular desk lamp and one in a bare fitting with a carboard box as a housing with the bottom, open side fitted with a piece of rubylith to filter out anything but deep red. The unfiltered bulbs are fine for regular darkroom work and the one with the rubylith filter I use for cutting and developing green-sensitive x-ray film, which is fogged severely by the unfiltered bulbs. Paper and blue-sensitive x-ray film does just fine under the unfiltered bulbs though.
Was this the HD bulb you are referring to? If so, too bright or wrong wavelength?
Both. It is too bright. While I have no way of measuring wavelength, it is a different color than the small bulbs I like. Very noticeable color difference in my Darkroom.
I see it is now much cheaper than when I bought it.
I limit sensitive photo material exposure to any safelight.
Time is a 3rd factor.
My application for this is somewhat unique. I would be used for hallways leading to a temporary darkroom, rather than the darkroom itself. Light from those hallways do not directly shine into the darkroom area but can spill into it a bit.
Since my entire loft is a Darkroom and light tight I have the little bulbs everywhere, including my bathroom.
All are on remote controls to switch them on and off.
This is also handy when shooting paper negs and X-Ray in camera without shutters.
So it took ages for them to arrive but I did finally get these red LED bulbs. I installed them in my Kodak beehives (after removing the filters) and tested them tonight. With Ilford Multigrade and Foma Fomatone papers I did not see any post-exposure highlight fogging up to 6 minutes, which is as far as I tested. My darkroom is also way brighter compared to my old setup.
I think about replacing the incandescent 15W or 25W in my regular safelights by LED equivalent 2 to 5W to reduce the heat and for the energy efficiency. Is the 0C filters will still be safe or if the safelight filter design was studied specifically with incandescent bulbs and fogging tests needed?
My Lumen project http://ginetteclement.com
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