OptiLED lights as a safelight

[Matthew Cordery]

Recently, at someone's suggestion, I purchased a small Edison type bulb from OptiLED.com Th e light is a colored LED bulb with a tightly spiked emission spectrum. In my case, I purchased the amber bulb which has a wavelength of 590 nm +/- 14 nm (you can get longer wavelengths though they are red and could be dimmer). This seemed a good balance between brightness and a choice of a wavelength that was at the tail end of most photographic papers. I haven't done the darkroom test yet (I just got it yesterday) but, WOW, is this thing bright for a 2.5 watt light. Maybe it has something to do with white bathroom walls but if it passes a safelight test then gone are the days of having to work in a dim darkroom. Will report results soon.

[Henry Ambrose]

It will pass. I might be the one you read about the Optiled as I've posted about it here and over at photo.net. The red is equally bright and both are safe for 7 minutes in my 6X8 foot darkroom. I recommend them to anyone who wants a very safe and bright safelight. It is wonderful to have a darkroom that is so bright. They sell them for use in signs, not for darkrooms. www.optiled.biz

[Gem Singer]

Hi Matthew,

I'm glad that you didn't purchase the Paterson plastic domed safelight. You probably would not have been happy with it. I'll be looking forward to your safety test results with the OptiLED amber bulb.

Henry,

See Matthew's inquiry on 9/9/04. It was John Cook who suggested the OptiLED bulb to him on that thread. John could have picked up on the idea from you. Does the 7 minute safety factor (with the amber bulb), that you mention, also hold true for Ilford Multigrade FB paper? Will exposure to the OptiLED for longer than a 7 min. fog the paper?

[Henry Ambrose]

I tested mine with Ilford MG RC, Agfa RC, Ilford MG FIber and Bergger VCCB. Nothing showed on any of them at seven minutes after a threshold exposure.

[Matthew Cordery]

I'll probably be testing mine with some fiber Forte Polygrade.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

LEDs have a "brilliant" future not only for darkroom safeligths but everywhere. My understanding
is that the light emission efficiency is one order of magnitude above conventional tungsten bulbs. Lifetime by comparison with tungsten appears almost unlimited. Too good to be true ?? With respect to sodium darkroom safelights
lights, the gap in efficiency is probably not so great and totally irrelevant at home, but in terms of cost and expected lifetime
I do not forecast a brilliant future for sodium darkroom lights. LEDs have been mass-produced for a long time but they are now available as blue or "white" ( a RGB combination in fact).

To get an idea : most of my moutaineer friends have abandoned their traditional 'minors light' to be weared on the head for a similar and much smaller device with "white" LEDs. Instead of ~5 hours of power reserve, LEDs offer 50 hours for the same brilliance and same AA cells.

[Bob._3483]

For more LED fun in the dark, see this site (http://www.huws.homelinux.org/)...

Cheers,

[Matthew Cordery]

The LED headlaps are somewhat ok for mountaineering. Right now, they don't quite have the range that a good halogen bulb has and that can be important when trying to navigate through an icefall or crevasse field. Thus they make them with both lamps.

[Don Wilkes]

Matthew: Is this lamp one of their "Festoon" series? I've been browsing at Optiled, and I'm not sure if I'm looking at the same one as you purchased. Is this the lamp in question:

http://www.optiled.biz/opti/ItemMatrix.asp?cartid={501DE61C-BEVERESTABF-48CE-ABDD-245F483B7029}&GroupCode=FESTOON&MatrixType=2

[Matthew Cordery]

Don, That link didn't work but what you want is the Festival/Festoon lamp. There's a guy on eBay selling them for $25. Just do a search for Optiled and you'll get him. I used PayPal and got the thing almost immediately. Matthew