Contents
Introduction
Most LED lights are pretty bad. Better LEDs can be found in video/cinema applications, or for museum exhibits. Photographers do not care much about LEDs as they do not tend to use continuous lights.
Most household lamps use E26/E27 sockets, and the most common bulbs are A19, A21, and A23. Every lamp will take A19, many will take A21, but A23 is larger and requires thorough investigation whether it's supported by indoor lamps.
Power and energy
LEDs are pretty energy efficient, but the power density is pretty low. If you need high power, incandescent or halogen is the only way to go. In general, this means you need more LED bulbs for household applications, and it's very likely new lamps supporting more bulbs are required. LEDs with more accurate color tend to have less power and be less energy efficient than other LEDs.
Light output
How many lumens do you need? My incandescent lights have the following specs:
| Manufacturer | Type | Power | Luminous Flux |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philos | Incandescent | 300 W | 4850 lm |
| Powerlight | Halogen | 200 W | 3980 lm |
| Osram | Halogen | 150 W | 2870 lm |
| Philips | Halogen | 105 W | 1980 lm |
| Philips | Incandescent | 40 W | 405 lm |
Color temperature
For general purpose household stuff you want something around 2700K. Very low power dim sidelighting can be lower (even 2000K). High power stuff can go as high as 3200K. Unless you have a special use case in mind, only look at 2700K and 3000K offerings.
Color rendering
The the most common standard is CRI. Unfortunately, CRI is pretty useless, but consumer manufacturers frequently only specify CRI. You want something with CRI over 95. An important color not taken into account by CRI is R9. You want something with R9 over 90.
A much better standard is TLCI. You want something with TLCI over 90.
TCLI results
- TLCI Results as supplied by Alan Roberts
- Television Lighting Consistency Index 2012 (actually results are from 2018)
- Indie Cinema Academy LED database
Notable manufacturers
Quality
- Waveform lighting
- Yuji International
- Soraa
- Solux (Nobel price winner who invented blue LEDs works here)
High power
Notable products
800 lm class
| Manufacturer | Product | Color Temperature | Luminous Flux | CRI | R9 | TLCI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waveform Lighting | Ultra High 95 CRI E26 A19 10W LED Bulb for Home & Residential | 2700/3000K | 800 lm | 95 | 91/95 | FilmGrade series has 95 TLCI | |
| Yuji | BC Series A60 High CRI Remote Phosphor LED | 3000K | 840 lm | 97 | 95+ | 97 | recommended by gaffers |
| Soraa | Soraa VIVID A60 (E27) | 2700K | 800 lm | 95 | 95 | ||
| Ikea | Ledare 11W LED1304G11 E27 | 2700K | 600 lm | 93 | 93 | 600 lm only | |
| Ikea | Trådfri LED1623G12 | 2700K | 1000 lm | 89 | smart bulb | ||
| Solux | ColorView | 3000K | 310-1490 lm | 100 | 100 | 120V only |
Osram has some 95+ TLCI products in its professional spot line. It's unclear whether the A bulbs from the same professional line are just as good or not. Osram only claims 80+ CRI even for the good stuff, and the A products are rated the same. They might be much better than specified.
High power class
| Manufacturer | Product | Color Temperature | Luminous Flux | CRI | R9 | TLCI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EURI | A Series LED EA21-4000cec-2 | 3000K | 1600 lm | 90 | 120V only | ||
| Cree | Cree 100 Watt Replacement | 2700K/3000K | 1600 lm | 90+ | |||
| Green Creative | A21 18.5W HIGH CRI DIMMABLE | 2700K | 1600 lm | 90 | 60 | 120V only | |
| Green Creative | A23 LED 25W 277V E26 | 3000K | 3200 lm | 82 |