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Letter: Tell Us About Color Temperature

Choosing the right lightbulb for your environment matters

In this letter to the editor, the author comments on Karl Zuk’s recent guest commentary “Lumos! Give Me Some Light!” Comment on this or any article. Email [email protected].


Long before the lightbulb ban, way back in the early transition days, I started buying incandescent light bulbs and managed to collect enough lamps for two lifetimes! I rather detested CFLs for their harsh light and RFI, plus they often melted down. These were just not for me. 

I have to admit now that the new LED numbers are much better. Selecting one, however, can be a little challenging as there are too many choices. 

Although I’m not a lighting engineer, color temperature has always been important to me in my career as well as in my personal environment. I much prefer the warm soft glow of an incandescent lamp, even a halogen.

Before I retired almost a decade ago, I spent nearly 45 years of my life with ABC in Chicago in the television engineering department. My experience began with quad machines, image orthicons, vidicons and vacuum tube distribution amplifiers and ended in the era of thumb drives, cameras with factory pre-registered solid-state imaging blocks and high-density processors. 

I don’t have any liking for the new stuff as there is nothing to tweak. Just point the camera at the white card and press a button. Color temperature? Who cares? It used to take a couple of hours to completely align a camera chain from scratch. I miss using my greenie!

All that said, a good article on how to choose the correct color temperature with the new LED lamps would be helpful. You could also compare the new lamps to the old incandescent ones. If your article pitched color temperature as an important but often-overlooked factor in creating a pleasant and productive workplace, even a magazine like Radio World might publish it! 

The author worked for WKS(TV) in Chicago. He describes himself as a “now-retired bum.”

[Check Out More Letters at Radio World’s Reader’s Forum Section]

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