Any comments or experiences with the LED tying lights that are now on the market?
Worth the prices?
Accurate color?
Brightness?
ETC,
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Any comments or experiences with the LED tying lights that are now on the market?
Worth the prices?
Accurate color?
Brightness?
ETC,
I've been tying for a good many years and finally settled on an LED setup that is worth it's weight in gold or anything else and definitely worth the price paid.
The lights give fairly accurate color renditions and I use them for most of my fly photography that goes in the magazines. I'm sold.
I own this one: https://www.intheriffle.com/store/Dual-LED-Pro-Fly-Tying-Light.html
My wife used to borrow my Ott light all the time for sewing and leave me with just my clamp-on incandescents, then she purchased an LED lamp and my Ott no longer gets "feet". Glad to have it back but I may have to reciprocate and take hers for a test tie.
Regards,
Scott
aww man...I was hoping to hear about miniaturized lights I could tie on for low light dry fly fishing or for streamers....
I had a fluorescent lamp that also got borrowed...and then broken.
This thread got me to start thinking about an LED lamp. I did some searching around. It seems that the lights built specifically for fly tying are pretty expensive.
I saw some cheaper table LED lamps but either there are no specs for light output or the output seems low.
Many of the more inexpensive LED lamps I saw use a 3W LED. It seems that roughs out to a few hundred lumens. I use reading glasses when working close and I like more than enough light.
I may consider building my own LED lamp. LED's and DC power supplies are cheap nowadays. It should be easy enough and cheap enough to build a lamp that is much brighter than what's normally commercially available.
You might look on Ebay. I did a search under LED table lamps and found several thousand listed for sale, many of which were quite inexpensive. I just looked at a few of them and saw some that showed the number of lumens. I would think you'd want a warm versus a bright white light for fly tying, but I'm not sure of that.
I recently bought a 4' long LED light bar, with a remote control on off switch with a dimmer from an Ebay seller, to backlight a stained glass window, and I couldn't be more pleased with it.
Good Morning,
I have two lamps on my tying desk. One is a clamp on incandescent light which shines directly on the vise area and I also bought an LED desklamp which supplements the light on my desk. It was not terribly expensive and adds enough light to help my aging eyes and enables me to tie flies which I love to do. It is not placed directly in the tying area but off to the side and does a good job of just adding some additional light to the area. I have no idea how many lumens it provides but it does not seem to be skewing color selection or choices affecting the flies. I know this is not providing the answers you are looking for,but I have had the lamp for over a year,have had no problem with it and I don't have to worry about having extra bulbs in case it burns out. Best of all, it was cheap enough that I don't care about throwing it out if it doesn't work.
I have been using ott lites for years, but now i am redoing my workspace. I acquired 2 old architect lamps ( the flexible spring arm type). My solution to go led is to buy a 90watt equivalent or larger flood bulb. These are dimmable and gave life ratings of 20000-50000 hours. Stay away from the cree or lower end types. Get the daylight version and you are in business for the rest of your life. Plenty of light and if its too bright you can get a plug in dimmer.
Wasatch Custom Angling sells a really nice LED lamp, I was thinking of buying two of them as I like lots of light from several directions.
http://flytyingtools.com/vises/vises...ying-lamp.html
In fact, right now their website shows a sale price of $10 off.
http://flytyingtools.com/vises.html?p=2
Larry ---sagefisher---
Those lights are basically identical to the ones ikea sells. I had considered one but they really dont give off enough
quality light.
For 15 years I suffered with a lighted florescent magnifier lamp. Last month I finally retired it and bought an LED magnifier lamp and OMG why have I not done this earlier. Mine is an Office Depot house brand that has a long folding arm, a clamp base and is very bright. Best tying tool I've bought I a decade.
Coach Bob, which one did you buy?
Thanks for the responses.
I have done a little reading and conclude that the ideal would be...100CRI [color rendering index and 5000K [Kelvin/Temperature].
5000K is closest to "Daylight"
CRI 100 closest to accurate color spectrum
Kelvin="Colour temperature is important in the fields of image projection and photography where a colour temperature of approximately 5600 K is required to match "daylight" film emulsions."
Some of the lights mentioned above don't approach these.
I emailed Al Ritt of Peak and their lamp is CRI 75 and Kelvin 5000....their price is up there...$139.99....wonder if it is worth it???
How compact do you need it to be? I paid 5$ for my lamp and will probably be around 40$ for the bulb. I will check the hd website for the bulb specs. You dont need to spend huge money on the setup to get good results.
Led flood bulb at home depot. 5000k watt range 75 -120 equivalent 10-15 actual usage
Cri rating 80. 25000 hour work life. Price range 25-45 $ depending on which you get.
Model LTS-360-01
Magnifier Clamp Lap
$70http://s7d1.scene7.com/is/image/offi...6_p?$OD-Large$
Before I saw crashfromboston,s [now known as cfb] later posts ...I made the rounds this AM ...JoAnn's, Home Depot, Lowes,Walmart, Ace....ended up with an architect lamp from Walmart...more compact than one I saw at Home Depot...$15....saw a bulb similar to what cfb describes above...1000+ lumens...5000K ...?CRI...it was a large flood type $37...I ended up with a smaller 500 lumen...5000K...?CRT from Lowes...$22.
They are in place now and compared to the 18W Daylight type I was using the brightness is significantly better and my hands no longer look anemic and have a nice flesh tone.
Aside from the cost I don't think I would have been happy with the Peak @ 300 lumens. It does have a nice mounting system but so do I so it is not an issue.
Thanks for all the input. FAOL once again shines.
Duck,
If you get the chance, post a picture of your new lamp.
Thanks!
Mine is very compact, completely portable and CHEAP :mrgreen:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/40/9l2r.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/31/1v0v.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/150x100q90/41/x3c7.jpg
Fits nicely in my travel kit.
The lamp is $3.95 at Harbor Freight. It's held in place by a magnet.
Not the greatest picture but I think you can get the idea ...if not let me know and I'll do another using flash....seems the LED was bright enough so the flash didn't come on.Quote:
Originally Posted by alra195
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps50d8abb0.jpg
Here is a picture of my tying area some time ago. It was handy on photobucket just next to the one above so I thought I would post it. You can see a flood light I have mounted at the top inside of the door frame .It pretty much illuminates the whole tying area. The daylight lamp here is what I know some of you have and I am very sure the LED is going to be much better. BTW the tying area is a closet I converted...don't have much space elsewhere.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...psc126a651.jpg
Do you notice much in the way of heat given off by the circuitry?
Nice lamp. Thanks for sharing.
Another source for consideration are electronic distributors; ie Arrow Electronics, Newark, Mouser, Digi-Key (to name the top 4). They certainly have the components to make your own.
Though they all offer lamps with or without a magnifying glass lens (I have with). Today's electronic components make a size 24 look like a size 6.
Duck,
You couldn't be that into tying......your desk I way toooo organized. Though looking at your space I might be contacting you for a detailed schematics.
I've ordered some large LED's and I'm going to make my own. Doing the math, I've decided to use 21 LED's with a 24 volt power supply.
The forward voltage of each LED is 3.4 volts. Seven of them in a series would be 23.8 volts. I'll put a small resistor in there to limit current.
I'll wire up three sets like this for 21 LED's. Each LED is 100,000mcd with 140 degree viewing angle. This should be brighter than most commercial lights.
It will draw much less than an amp from the power supply.
I got the power supply for free from work, from some junk equipment. I'll make the light hood from a PVC reducer and make an adjustable gooseneck from some flexible conduit. If it works well, I am going to make two of them. I bought pack of 50 LED's. I'll use one for tying and one for rod making.
I like the idea of the lighted magnifiers, but I can't use them. I've tried them at work while working on small electronics. I just cant get used to them.
I wear magnifier glasses. Even my shop safety glasses has magnifier bifocals in them. lol
There are a ton in instructions, tutorials and easy to follow "How To's" dealing with LEDs on the Instructibles website:Quote:
Originally Posted by bgreer
http://www.instructables.com/
Here's an LED lamp that's might be the ticket for someone. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/NGLL50CW/
Adds focused, energy-efficient pure cool white light for a brighter workspace.
From the website:
Take a closer look at NewerTech's NuGreen Energy Efficient Flexible Neck LED Desk Lamp. The NewerTech NuGreen Flexible Neck LED Desk Lamp is the modern answer to desktop lighting needs. Featuring 50 Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), NuGreen produces light similar to natural daylight, makes it perfect for dorm rooms, apartments, and bedrooms. Further preventing disturbing roommates or a spouse with light glare is the flexible "gooseneck" that lets you position the light beam precisely where you need it.
Using only 3.6 watts total power, the NuGreen saves both money and the environment. The LEDs last up to 45,000 use hours...up to 22 times longer than tradition bulbs...and can be recycled because they contain no mercury. Besides its cool looking stylish aluminum design, NuGreen is cool to touch too. The LED lights don't emit any heat and the lamp turns on with a gentle finger tip touch to the red ring power indicator.
TyroneFly,
Am I reading the specs right that the arm on that one is only a foot long?
Joe
Yes I see that too. Might not be useful for the tying bench without a pedestal or modification
Duck,
Very interesting. Hadn't noticed in your photo before, but I use the same vise and the light in the photo.
Do you all prefer one with a magnifier? Or do you rarely find it usefull?
I never liked the magnifier...I use a head strap magnifier that happens to be pictured in my tying area above.
The magnifier always got in my way when I wrapped materials on the hook. I did like the light, though.
Joe
Jack,
Found the LED light on harborfreight.com easy enough. What did you use for the stand/arm?
I would never buy from a company that sells products way over priced like that. That is the same one that I got at Ikea for $10.00 and it sucks for a fly tying light. If you don't have any light source and you just need something, it works ok, but it sucks if your doing some serious business.Quote:
Originally Posted by sagefisher
Can't use it for fly tying pictures either. Something with the spectrum of the light just doesn't works and can't even be corrected in photo editing. Also, makes hard shadows that are just impossible to get rid of. I did notice it works better if the light is 2 feet or so away from your vise, but it still sucks. I just wish the good fly tying lights didn't cost so much.. :?
Attachment 12751Attachment 12752
In case anyone is interested...Harbor Freight currently has the light Jack uses on a Free...no purchase required coupon...retail is now up to $5.99.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Hise
Not to discount the little LED lights but if you want a real professional lamp used in situations where you want to light a large area consider this. I bought one and really appreciate the GREAT ILLUMINATION.
http://www.rakuten.com/prod/alvin-fl...FUVp7Aod3QgAGQ