On Wed, 29 May 2002, Scott Nelson wrote: > I'm thinking of buying some colour corrected light bulbs and making my own > light box out of wood ~11"x14". Has anyone done this. I'd appreciate any > tips. Please share your experiences / triumphs / disasters with me. I > would guess that the critcal issues are:
My friend did this, actually. Then he gave it to me. He took a pair of 18" floursecent tubes and mounted them inside a ply wood box, painted white on the inside. He then used a lens from an overhead light for the surface. He used the generic cool white bulbs, I would've used a pair of Chroma 50 bulbs, myself. I haven't replaced them cause he took the lens with him, and I haven't bought a ne wone yet. :) I should preface the rest of these comments by saying I've never owned or used a real light box. > achieving uniform light diffusion Not too good in his. I think he made it TOO big, and thus there's too much space between the bulbs. Larger bulbs wouldn't have helped, because it would still be too wide. A third tube inside mine would help, I think. So, again, don't make it TOO big. > maintaining colour balance I would think a pair of Chroma 50, or any daylight balanced, tubes would work. Chroma 50 is GE's daylight bulb, its the same ething you would get if you bought a VitaLight at a petstore. These bulbs are balanced to represent the same colour spectrum as natural sunlight, and are used in the reptile trade to simulate sunlight so our captive herps can synthesize vitamins. > ventilation / cooling The two 18" tubes barely heat up, at all. Floursecent tubes are surprisingly low heat, but it wouldn't be too tough to cut a hole in the side for a fan, if you felt the need. Compact flourescents provide even more light, at less heat. HO and VHO lights provide more light but with more heat. You wouldn't want these. -- http://www.infotainment.org "The destructive character is cheerful." - Walter Benjamin - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
