T5HO 54W (48") K comparisons

[AndrewH]

These are 12" away from my white textured wall. I will add photos of each light on my 12" tall tank when the sun goes down tonight .

List of bulbs (in order as they appear in the first picture):
Sylvania 3500 K - FP54/835/HO
Sylvania 4100 K - FP54/841/HO/ECO
Sylvania 6000 K - FP54/860/HO/ECO
Katana 10000 K (white) - T5'54W/W10000K
Katana 10000 K (blue/actinic) - T5'54W/B10000K



3500 K


4100 K


6000 K


10000 K (white)


10000 K (blue) - Actinic

[AndrewH]

I plan to show each one on the tank individually and have the capability to show a combination of 3 together at one time.

Is there a particular combination you would like to see?

I have 1 of each tube except the 4100 K which I have two.

[t0p_sh0tta]

Cool comparison. In for the update, and thanks for the info.

[Wasserpest]

Good idea... Interestingly the 4100 and 10000 white look pretty much identical on my monitor. 6000 lucks yuck green, reminds me of the GE Starcoat one. Did you lock the white balance on your camera? If not, the camera will adjust somewhat and the results become difficult to interpret.

I would like to see a shot of all lit bulbs, side by side.

I know this is hard to do with only one fixture.

[AndrewH]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Good idea... Interestingly the 4100 and 10000 white look pretty much identical on my monitor. 6000 lucks yuck green, reminds me of the GE Starcoat one.

Well one other problem with comparing tubes is the fact that different manufactures label colors differently. What one calls 5000 K another might call 6500 K ect.

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Did you lock the white balance on your camera? If not, the camera will adjust somewhat and the results become difficult to interpret.

I know there are like 10,000 settings on my camera, so if there is an "auto correction" it's probably applied.

If anyone can give me some insight on how to adjust my camera to get the best "true" colors it would be greatly appreciated.

Reference: Canon PowerShot Pro1

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

I would like to see a shot of all lit bulbs, side by side.

I know this is hard to do with only one fixture.

How's this?


_____3500 K__________4100 K___________6000 K__________10000 K__________Actinic_____

[AndrewH]

Ok after a little more reading up I have these WB options:

AWB (auto white balance), Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten (incandescents/halogen), Fluorescent, Fluorescent H (H = ???), Flash, Custom 1 and Custom 2.

Which would be the best to use? Fluorescent or Fluorescent H would be my guess.

[evercl92]

Originally Posted by AndrewH

Which would be the best to use? Fluorescent or Fluorescent H would be my guess.

I get the trueest color from my camera with a similar setting when viewing my T5's.

[t0p_sh0tta]

Ideally you'd want to use the custom setting. Take a picture of a pure white object under the desired lighting to get the most accurate color. The procedure for setting custom white balance is different depending on the manufacturer.

BTW, here is a good read on setting WB.

[AndrewH]

Originally Posted by evercl92

I get the trueest color from my camera with a similar setting when viewing my T5's.

Thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by t0p_sh0tta

Ideally you'd want to use the custom setting. Take a picture of a pure white object under the desired lighting to get the most accurate color. The procedure for setting custom white balance is different depending on the manufacturer.

BTW, here is a good read on setting WB.

Dang, thank you for that link . I'll read up some more, but I just used the "Fluorescent" setting for the following pictures . I think after I read that link you provided (which is exactly what I needed, thanks again) I might retake some of the pictures in this thread...

3500 K

4100 K

6000 K

10000 K

Actinic

6000 K & 10000 K

3500 K & Actinic

10000 K & Actinic

[Wasserpest]

Any setting apart from the AWB would work. Some will look weird though.

What you could do is to use the custom setting, use the light that you think is the whitest, and lock in the setting. Now take all other shots using that same setting.

If you could repeat your original shots using this method that would be great.

[AndrewH]

Ok, I have 2 custom settings so I'll set custom one at the whitest one (10000 K) and the custom two with the next whitest (6000 K) and then redo the picture from post #5 .

Give me a couple of hours (I have to wait til the rugrats go to bed or they'll be right in the middle of every picture )

[imeridian]

FWIW, when I do comparisons I lock the white balance onto the "sunlight" setting. Ideally our lighting would be replicating that 'feel' over any other.

[AndrewH]

I'll definitely try that one too , thanks for the tip.

[CmLaracy]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Good idea... Interestingly the 4100 and 10000 white look pretty much identical on my monitor. 6000 lucks yuck green, reminds me of the GE Starcoat one. Did you lock the white balance on your camera? If not, the camera will adjust somewhat and the results become difficult to interpret.

I would like to see a shot of all lit bulbs, side by side.

I know this is hard to do with only one fixture.

I found this very interesting as well, such a different color temp but they look exactly the same.

[AndrewH]

One thing I was reading on the link t0p_sh0tta provided stated that the "Fluorescent" WB setting on my camer actually takes out the "green" from the fluorescents sources so all of the pictures (excluding the actinic of course) of the lights on my tank look almost the same.

Very interesting concept since the plants can't see green/yellow anyway.

Another thing that catches my attention, the 10,000 K and the Actinic are both labeled as 10,000 K. One is W(hite) and the other is B(lue). Now that does not jive since 10,000 K is 10,000 K not white or blue (though it should appear quite blue); so I'm not exactly sure what this manufacturer is comparing their lights to, to give it a K rating. If they're calling a white looking light and a very blue looking light both 10,000 K then something's not right with their K scale.

Reference: