Re: UV Compact Fluorescent Bulb Canadian Source?

Mark,
     There are two schools of thought on black light bulbs. Some respected
list members insist there is little or no difference--for alt photo
users--between BLB and BL tubes; others insist that the BLB tubes are much
slower than the BL tubes. As far as I know, all the screw-in black light
bulbs are BLB.
     In my own case, which does not necessarily confirm that BL bulbs are
better, I cut my exposure times by about 75% by switching to BL from BLB.
The reason I don't think this proves anything is that my older BLB tubes
were "surplus" and may well have been deficient, that is, not representative
of most BLB tubes.
     Still, before you invest in BLB screw in tubes, check out the cost of
ballasts and regular BL tubes. If there is not a significant cost saving,
go for the BL tubes.
      Someone on the list recently made a box using the screw-ins and was
not happy with the exposure times. The straight tubes do require a little
more carpentry and wiring, but not much.
Yours,
Charles Portland OR
Received on Wed Dec 21 22:05:55 2005