I am looking for a new fly tying light/lamp. For years I’ve used a 100-watt drafting style lamp that worked well enough. However, it generated lots of heat and was too glaring for long sessions at the vise.
I see both DayLight and Ott-Lite products used by many tiers. I am interested in the larger table lamp for my fly tying desk at home and the smaller “task” lamp that can be folded-up and taken on trips. While I’m always looking to save money, I am more interested in what’s best for my eyes.
I did a search on this site and most of the comments/reviews are close to a year old. Wondering if anyone has changed their opinions lately? What’s your experience with either of these two products? They look nearly identical to me. Is the Ott-Lite worth the extra buck$, or does the DayLight provide the same function at a better price? How about the quality of construction/assembly? Thanks.
I have used the Ott-Lite for a couple of years now and would not tye without it now. I have the 18 Watt light and it is great. I do not know about the other lites like it. I do believe you only get what you pay for.
I like a lotta light.
my fly tying den is lit up like a nuclear reactor w/ overhead halogen/ceiling fan lamp, formerly a halogen drafting lamp w/ a fold open ott ight (13w) directly above the lamp. the halogen drafting lamp burnt out the swith and I switched to the daylight table lamp (18w) and it is very nice.
I did manage to get buy tying w/ just the fold open and overhead lighting, but as I said earlier I like it lit up. the ott is nice to have as a travel lamp for your portable tying kit as hotel rooms/cabins/campsites are generally very poorly lit.
I got the ott at costco a while back. it was very reasonably priced, I wish I had bought two as I haven’t seen them there since. the daylight lamp is available for a reasonable price from sportsman’s warehouse, where it’s priced considerably less than it is in flytying catalogs.
joann’s carries them both w/ an internet discount (I think) and also frequently runs 50% off coupons in the sunday paper.
either one of the lamps are very worthwhile additions to your bench. I think proper illumination is frequently overlooked by flytiers.
mikeytwoshoes - Just checked the Joanne’s website. They have a 40% internet coupon and I discovered that the local Joanne’s store is having a 50% off sale this coming weekend (President’s Day). Thanks much for the suggestion on Joanne’s.
I was very interested in this and started a couple of threads in the last couple of months and made a decision…right or wrong … we’ll get to that in awhile after I find the links to the lamps…
What I haven’t seen is a scientific comparison between the Daylight lamps and the Ott lamps to justify JC’s assumption that the Ott is better.
Nor have I seen anything but personal preference to help decide which is better 13-18-27 watts.
Here’s a link re: the clip on light but this co. offers others so check out the other models .
I got the scrapebook model for certain reasons …it is 18 watts …I’m very happy with this light …I’ve seen this brand begin to appear in fly fishing shops for much more money…
I just recieved two Ott-Lites. The 13 watt craft lamp and the 18 watt floor lamp. I ordered them through the net at ottlite-tv.com with spare bulbs for each lamp the price was about 120 bucks including shipping.
they took about two weeks to get here. They are great
Mikee, did I understand in your post
that you have a ceiling fan over your tying
bench? What a novel idea!G
On the lamps, I purchased an 18 watt
clamp on with magnifier as a result of a
similar thread here on FAOL. The lamp is
far superior to any lighting I had
previously experienced on my bench. Of
particular note to me is the way the light
floods my fly and even shadows from my
chubby fingers and hands is greatly reduced.
Also, a long tying session under this
lighting does not produce the headache I
sometimes got using incadescent lighting.
I’m sold on the style of lamps.
As to brands of lights, I was able to
compare similar lamps from both Ott and
Daylight, side by side, and I was of the
opinion that the Ott light was of better
construction and in all probablility a more
durable product. After reading both
websites online, it sounds as if Ott came up
with the technology and has stayed on top of
it. I do not recall seeing on the Ott lamps
where they were manufactured nor did I pick
it up on thier website. The Daylight lamps
had stickers saying made in China. I was
not able to discern a difference between the
lights as to how the light was concentrated
and I found similar models of both brands to
be more than adequate in the 18 watt versions. Keep in mind that I know nothing
about lighting and these are just my
personal opinions after comparing both side
by side. I obviously have no affiliation
with either. I would make the comparison
of the lights like that of a Cabelas
Stowaway flyrod and a Loomis of the same
weight and similar action. They will both
do the job but everyone will have thier own
preference as to which is right for them.
I personally went with the Daylight brand
lamp. It should be noted however, that most of my rods are in the $100 price
range.G The Daylight product was easier
on my budget. It works well for me. If
price had not been a factor, I would probably have gone with the Ott, but I am
far from dissappointed. There you have
a completely unbiased opinion from a person
totally uneducated in the physics of lighting.G It should be noted however,
that the prices of both brands of lighting
can vary considerably from one store to the
next and that some offer specials and some
do not. It is possible to make a substantial savings on either with a bit of
comparison shopping on line. Warm regards,
Jim
[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 15 February 2005).]
As an architect I have lots of drafting lamps available. I like the kind that have both a circular florescent ring and a 100 watt incandescant.
The Ott lights and similar brands just don’t have enough output for my taste. The output of a florescent is roughly 3X that of a incandecent of the same wattage, for example an 18 watt Ott lamp has about the same overall lumens of a 54 watt incandecant bulb.
You can purchase compact florescent bulbs that will fit into a standard screw bulb fixture. Look for ‘daylight’ or ‘natural’ type bulbs to get a good color balance.
yeah jim, there’s a ceiling fan above my bench. I can get away with it spinning at the low speed, but if I turn it up, I’m in the midst of a ****storm. usually I don’t bother running it.
On Dec 15 ducksterman started a thread on "Fly Anglers Online’ which ended up with a lot of good information on it . Someone suggested going to the Solux website (www.solux.com) for more information. If you do this and click on “spectrum” in the text and then on the first graph you will see that the Ott Light is not the closest match to the daylight spectrum. This may or may not matter.
The most important thing with regard to lighting is the intensity. The more light you have (within limits) the more the pupil of your eye will constrict and the sharper the image will be and the greater the depth of field will be (just like in camera). After this the spectrum does play an important role and it does play an important role in matching colors. Perhaps some of the difference of opinion over which light is better is based on who has the lamp with this most output. This cannot be determined by the wattage. There are also many lamps available off-the-shelf which over “full spectrum” lighting".