MR-16 vs. LED

For almost a decade we have been watching the progress of LED’s as addressing holographic display and Laser Reflections is now very happy to announce that for galleries featuring monochromatic holography - indeed the time has come to upgrade from halogen lamps to LED’s. During the second week of November we replaced (15) 50W halogen spotlights with 2W LED’s. The result is as follows: the gallery power consumption has been reduced from 750W to 30W and the images look better (better contrast); the gallery is more inviting (the lights virtually disappear); and we won’t be replacing lamps for ~20 years! The units can be specified as red, amber, green or blue (we have sampled all) and they are direct replacements for MR16 halogen lamps (they fit into MR16 sockets and accept either DC or AC power- anything from 6V to 24V).

Spot the Halogen?

Like their halogen counterparts, LED's can be specified with divergence cones ranging from 4 degrees to 20 degrees – we have chosen the 4 degree spread for our gallery fixtures as optimum for lighting ~12” wide x 16” tall images from a distance ~6 feet. Unlike halogen lamps, their light output is confined to a narrow band of radiation and as a result they create much less scatter within the emulsions leading to improved image contrast (particularly noticeable in the amber and green images). Also a nice break from halogen – they are not sources of stray light (we had to keep a few halogen fixtures in the gallery just to be able to see where we’re going). If all this isn’t enough to be considered revolutionary: they are almost cool to the touch virtually eliminating liability concerns associated with halogen lamps and ...unit lifetime is guaranteed 100,000 hours. We don’t recommend the LED’s for lighting images larger than 16” x 12” at this point – although we use them for gallery images that allow softer edges up to 24” x 14”






Solid State of the Art

Trying to describe the LED's impact is a bit like trying to describe holography – you really have to see it firsthand to fully appreciate its impact but trust us in saying that LED’s remove many of the negatives associated with the super critical element of lighting. For a recent sales presentation, I brought along LED-equipped Framelights and StandOuts (our LR designed fixtures) and showed them both with a 9V battery (smoke detector as opposed to motorcycle) so as not to have to deal with power cords. Purchased individually or in small quantities they are $40 (so OK there is a down side) but… if you’re setting up a gallery think of the money you’ll save first in having a single $15 power supply (60W) vs. what can cost up to several hundred dollars for ~1,500 Watts of 12V power and next consider how fast you’ll give the money back to your utility company (assuming your power costs approach what we’re being extorted out of here in California).