Ott Light Opinion

In brief, not worth the money unless you currently don't have adequate lighting or a magnifier.

I got my new Ott lamp today. The 18 watt Flex Arm Plus model with the 3x magnifier attachment. It was half priced at JoAnn's Fabrics, but still $165 with shipping. I had to buy it from their Net site as the local store doesn't stock them. Thus, I couldn't check it out in advance.

Previously I had been using a generic brand magnifying fluorescent lamp that cost about $60. The kind with a round head and a round magnifier in the middle surrounded by a circular fluorescent lamp. It was clamped onto a window sill with the spring loaded reticulating arm coming out over my computer monitor. When I needed the lamp out of the way for something, it was simple to just raise it up out of the way.

I tie at my home office desk, directly in front of my computer monitor. There's a long fluorescent lamp on the ceiling overhead and about a 20" high table lamp at about 2:00 to my right with a compact fluorescent bulb.

After a bit of experimenting I found that the best way to use the Ott was to set it up on my left at about 10:00. The base takes up a lot of desk space, being roughly 10" x 7".

You need about 2'8" of desk width to your left to get the lamp at the level you would really like, but I don't have that available on my corner desk. At the height that I can get with this limitation, I can still get enough light from the Ott to tie a fly. It is not as much light as I got with the generic magnifying lamp, but it is enough.

The Ott is supposed to let you see things in true color. I've experimented with a number of tying materials and colors. Using the Ott alone, and using it in all of the various permutations of the other two lights I have here. My eyes could see very little difference. Not enough to justify the cost of the lamp. This surprised me greatly at first, but it may be because I chose natural colored bulbs for both the fluorescent overhead and desk lamps --at no extra cost versus regular ones.

The optical quality of the Ott magnifier is noticeably better than the one in the generic magnifying lamp I was using. The downside is that the Ott's flexible arm is much more difficult to get in and out of position.

In net, even at half price I probably wasted my money on this lamp. I'm not saying it is a bad product. It appears to be well made. It just hasn't made a positive contribution to my tying situation. Your mileage may vary.

Oldfrat,

I started out a little lower on the scale then you did, using a $20 fluorescent desk lamp from Office Depot. I purchased my Ott 18 watt flex arm three years ago after reading all of the recomendations on this board. Best thing I ever did. I can diffently see a difference in colors, and I experience a lot less eye strain using this lamp. Glad to hear you like the magnifier, I am thinking about getting that next.

The late Al Campbell had two, one at home and another portable one for traveling. We have one too, and yes there is a absolute color difference.

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LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL

To some extent, the human vision system compensates to maintain white balance, that is, it will alter your perception of colours such that things appear almost as if in daylight. This may be one reason why "natural light" bulbs appear to do almost as well as Ott lights.

Some digital cameras have similar auto compensation features, or you can use Adobe Photoshop to do the adjustment. If you don't use these features then you can truly "see" the effect that tungsten, halogen and flourescent lighting has.

In any event, if you tye fishing flys, it's all for nothing unless you consider the effect clear to stained water has on colours... Now there is a marketing idea... filters you can put on your lamp to simulate depth of water and/or stain. Or just a Photoshop plugin to do the same.

As I said, it is only my opinion.

It may be my eyes, or it may be the fact that I was already using fluorescent bulbs with a natural tint. And I didn't compare it to the light from my former standard fluorescent magnifying lamp bulb --just to what I get from the other two lamps.

I tried a number of different tying materials and colors in the different lighting options. The only one where I could detect a difference was in some fluorescent pink chenille, where the pink seemed different.

Again, I am not saying this is a bad product. I'm simply reporting my experience with it, with enough facts to help people interpret that, so that my experience can help them if they want that help.

I expected a lot more improvement than I got for the money.

I am also unimpressed with the cost/value of the Ott lamps. Yes they do provide a color balance which is better than an incandecant lamp alone, but I find them a little too strong in the blue spectrum and a far too weak for my aging eyes.

If you check the total lumens (a measure of light intensity) you will find that an 18 watt Ott light has about the same output as a 60 watt incandecant bulb. The 13 watt Ott is about the same as a 45 watt bulb. At $60 to $100 a lamp that isn't very impressive.

In drafting and design offices we are always looking for good strong light soutrce with natural color balance. For about the same price as the 18 watt Ott you can purchase a drafting lamp the combines an 18 watt circular fluorecent with a 100 watt incandecant. The combined bulbs produce a color balanced light source with about 3X the output.

Another solutuion is to mount a 48" 2 bulb fluorecent fixture over your desk and use a 60 watt incandecant swing arm lamp. 5x the light output of the 18 watt Ott lamp for less than $50. Several different color spectrum flourecent bulbs are readily available for around $3 a bulb. I like 1 'cool' bulb and 1 'warm' bulb combined with a 60 or 100 watt swing arm incandecant.

My 2 cents,
If you ty for several hours at a time, your eyes will tell the difference. The Ott is definitely the best tying upgrade I have made. PLus, at the 50% off I feel that it cannnot be beat. The base is bulky but that is why I have mine clipped on. I love it, my opinion.

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<*(((((><
Jim in CO

There are some options for getting better glass magnifiers. Swingarm magnifiers, etc... You might be able to replace the glass in your generic lamp with a replacement lens from Daylight or Ott-lite. Click on the Daylight or Ott-Lite accessories on this page:

[url=http://www.save-on-crafts.com/ottrucolbrsa.html:e6118]http://www.save-on-crafts.com/ottrucolbrsa.html[/url:e6118]

McGuckins Hardware has some options for magnifiers in the tying section, lighting section, and another place near tools. They carry lots of spare parts, so they might have a lens upgrade for your older lamp. 20 years ago, I was checking them out for my Mom, now I need them.