Photoflood lamps are a type of incandescent light bulb designed for use as a continuous light source for photographic lighting.Photoflood lighting The filaments of such lamps are operated at much higher temperatures than is the case for standard, general lighting service lamps. The result is a brilliance of light much higher than the lamp's wattage rating would suggest. The trade-off is that the lamp has a very short service life of seldom more than ten hours.

Applications

Past

Photoflood lamps were used by photographers and film makers as a continuous lighting source. However for photographers, such use has been overtaken by the use of high power studio flash units many of which also provide a lower power light for modelling purposes.Studio flash Film makers have turned to longer lasting tungsten halogen lamps which, in their turn, are being overtaken by light-emitting diode (LED) lamps.Later products

Present

Photoflood lamps are still used in special cases by the motion picture industry. Where an illuminated lamp is required on set as part of the dressing, the light fall from a normal light bulb would not be visible on film as it would be swamped by the bright studio lighting. The ordinary lamp is replaced by a photoflood bulb whose intense light is easily visible on film (and if so required, is bright enough that it can form the sole illumination for the shot).Hollywood photoflood

Lamp characteristics

Photoflood bulbs are available in a number of sizes. The two most common sizes have these characteristics.Specifications

+ 120 volt lamps Type Watts Lumens Lumens per watt Colourtemperature (K) Avg. Life(hours) ANSI code 100 watt lamp 100 1630 16.3 750 No. 1 photoflood 250 6500 26 3200 20 ECA No. 2 photoflood 500 17,800 35.6 3400 6 EBV

+ 240 volt lamps Type Watts Lumens Lumens per watt Colourtemperature (K) Avg. Life(hours) 100 watt lamp 100 1200 12 2900 1000 No. 1 photoflood 275 8500 30 3400275W colour temp 3 No. 2 photoflood 500 14,400 28.8 3400 6

Note that in each case an ordinary 100 watt lamp is provided for comparison purposes.

References