ALZO 85W Joyous Light® Full Spectrum CFL Light Bulb 5500K, 4250 Lumens, 120V

I needed to add extra natural light to my living space since I work night shift and was noticing a drop in my desire to be productive at home. I figured that adding some natural light would be quite helpful and that was the case.My review will be intended for folks who are in the same situation and I will be reviewing two products at the same time: the  StudioPRO 450 Watt 2 Photography Photo Video Studio Continuous 5500K Lighting Kit - Includes Lightstands & Reflectors  and the Alzo 85 Watt Joyous Light Full Spectrum light bulbs.I have two rooms which are approximately 13 ft x 16 ft. One of them serves as an office/bedroom, and the other is my living room. I wanted to bring some natural lighting into both spaces.I was aware, from reading the reviews, that the Alzo bulbs were quite large. I think one reviewer said they were the size of a champagne bottle and that’s probably not too far off the mark. I also read that they are able to screw into a standard light socket, so I figured I’d just order the bulbs and put them in my stand lamp from my living area. I was not aware at the time that there is a big difference between CFL bulb wattage and the standard wattage of a normal lightbulb. My stand lamp in my living area has a wide light bulb cover so I knew the bulb would fit width-wise, and I wasn’t overly concerned with the bulb peeking over the top of the light cover. I just mainly wanted to see if I would be happy with the bulbs.I put the bulb in the lamp and turned it on and was immediately disappointed. The bulb was not putting out as much light as I was expecting. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Another reviewer of CFL bulbs stated he felt, living near the airport, that the light from a CFL bulb was so intense it could be used as a signal light to bring in aircraft. Unless that person got a very different bulb than I did, I could not disagree more. It’s a lot brighter than your standard light bulb (much more) but I wouldn’t go that far with my description of the light. There were still many shadows in my medium sized bedroom, where I set it up.I tilted the lamp over and noticed a big increase in the amount of light. That is when I realized that these bulbs are very directional. The sides don’t give off as intense of a light as the end of it does. I knew then that I needed a lamp that gave me the ability to point this in any direction I wished as a stand lamp would only waste most of the light pointing upwards.I also realized soon after that the CFL bulbs are different than standard bulbs and could cause a house fire by putting a bulb in a light fixture not made for it, so I took it out immediately.In my research I’ve come across others asking about which lamps they should purchase and the concern that those lamps have a big enough light cover to go completely around the bulb. I have now realized that having a lamp like that would be a mistake. You actually don’t want to cover these bulbs. The more the bulb is exposed, the more light will be in a room.I did some research for a while on light kits for photographers since I doubted that lamps made for standard households would be certified for the required wattage (perhaps there are some that are?) There are kits called softboxes which completely enclose these bulbs in a fabric box with a sheer side the light comes out, and there are kits that have clear umbrellas in front of the bulb which is mounted in a light bulb mount on a stand. Eventually I decided to go with the Studio Pro lighting kit after being in contact with the seller, Fovitec. Just a side note here that I contacted Fovitec twice and they responded promptly (within a day or two both times). I very much appreciated the prompt service. I asked about whether I should order some umbrellas (since they can be mounted on the lighting kit I ordered) and they said that something like that would only mute the light and since I wanted the most light possible to go without.I chose this kit because it seemed a lot more ruggedly built than the cheaper lighting kits I was looking at. I really didn’t want to buy something that would start a fire, so I was reassured by the product description which said it had a ceramic light socket (true, it is made of both ceramic and metal). I didn’t want anything like plastic that could melt if things got too hot (the bulbs do seem to get pretty warm but they aren't ridiculously hot as far as I can tell). The part that goes around the light bulb is made of aluminum and only goes as far as the base of the light bulb but leaves the bulb part uncovered (which is good). According to the seller it is rated to handle up to 500 watts for a standard bulb which they said is the equivalent of a 105 Watt CFL. There are some 45 watt CFL bulbs which came with the kit but I found those to be seriously lacking. I’ll probably never use them.I should also note that there is one piece that seems to be plastic and that is the ring that screws down the ceramic socket to the aluminum light cover. It doesn't come in contact with the light bulb, however, so it shouldn’t be an issue.Also wanted to mention here that Fovitec said the kit is supposed to last for 5 years on an average of 4 hours of usage per day. I’m guessing, based on how much I am planning to use them I’ll probably get about 3 years out of them.The entire kit is very light (because of the aluminum) but the base of the unit can spread out quite wide if you want so that helps. I think my only disappointment with this set is how light it is, but as long as I am not taking this outdoors where the wind could blow it over, I think I’ll be fine.The light kit also can go up quite high. I think I read somewhere that it goes up over 7 ft tall and that seems to be correct. It appears much taller than I imagined it would.I found that my preferred setup is to have both lamps in two corners raised up above eye level with the bulbs tilted down in my direction so my eyes don’t come in contact with the bulbs as I am walking by. I also have my halogen lamp on at the same time since the yellowish tint contrasts with the bluish light coming from these bulbs and gives much more of a natural lighting feel for me. If I just had the CFL bulbs by themselves the light would seem a bit too bluish for me to feel like I was sitting out in daylight. It might show up nicely in a photograph, but that isn’t what I am after. Even with three lights on there are still some shadows in the rafters above me and less light on the side where the lights are not. If I really wanted to recreate the “I’m out on a sunny day” effect, I would probably have to have one of these in all four corners of my room. As it is, with the two CFLs on I get the equivalent of the light you would get on a slightly overcast day in the middle of the day, if that kind of gets the idea across. Maybe slightly better than that. Not blazing light, but decently adequate.I also noticed that the CFL light in the corner just to the right of my desk was slightly noticeable. It was this bright spot high and to the right of me and I thought that would annoy me long term, but I am noticing I am already ignoring it. You can also play with angles, tilting the light in different directions and putting it in different parts of the room if you are concerned with that.I have seen some reviewers state they are putting these in their garages in the ceiling fixtures and such. I am not sure what that would be rated for wattage-wise. I am guessing that a garage/shop situation would have a higher wattage allowance than a living room but it would be best to be safe and find out for your particular home. If a 105 watt CFL is equivalent to 500 standard watts, I am guessing for an 85 watt you will want a socket that can handle the 400 watt range? Maybe having the bulb pointing straight down makes them seem even brighter? But I do recall running across a reviewer somewhere in one of the CFL lightbulb reviews I read who stated that reduces the life of the bulb significantly to point the bulb down. I never saw any paperwork of any kind come with my bulbs to indicate that.I am not trying to bash this setup at all. I noticed right away that the addition of more bluish tinted light really changed how I feel dramatically. I am in a much better mood. Actually it’s pretty amazing that I dealt with my horrible lighting situation for as long as I did. I feel like a plant that has perked up after getting water and fertilizer. And on some days I go with just one CFL light and my halogen and that is enough light for me.There may be folks who don’t have high ceilings like I do and can’t maximize the height of these stands. If so, the bulbs will be more eye level for you and you might want to go the softbox or umbrella route even though it will dim the lighting effect. They kind of looked like they would be a bit huge, however, so you would also need the space for them. I didn’t think that staring straight at the bulbs was that bad however. It is about the equivalent of staring straight at a standard 100 watt bulb. You’ll get that bluish bulb image that won’t leave your eyes for a few seconds, then things will be back to normal. As long as you don’t stare straight at the bulb, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.In the future I will probably go with a 105 watt CFL and will try different brands and I’ll see how that goes.For those who are interested in this lighting kit and bulbs for photography reasons, note that the area directly around the lights is decently lit.One other thing I was pretty disappointed in was the lack of any kind of informational documentation that came with the lamps and the lack of stickers on the lamp informing me of how much wattage the lamps can handle. It’s one thing for a seller to tell you what they can handle and seeing it on the lamp itself. If I didn’t think the lamps were fairly well made, I’d probably be a bit more nervous about it. I still am not very happy though.The most I could find was something embedded in the plastic switch on the cord for the lamp. It said 6A, 120 VAC. I read something online that said if you multiply amps and voltage you can get the wattage. That would equal 720 watts. But since that was imprinted in the plastic switch on the cord, I have to assume that is the rating for the cord and not the lamp itself. I thought it was legally required to have this stuff written on the lamp? Where are these lamps from???Overall this setup does what I need it to do. Hopefully this helps someone with their own lighting issues.

I'm using these lights for dSLR video, and I had to share my experience.For starters, yes these lights are bright, but sadly even these hulking 85W-ers aren't powerful enough on their own if you intend to make videos with your dSLR camera. If you're thinking these will solve your video lighting problems, you're only half right. I first tried using just one in a reflective umbrella and the light output was so low that my camera was recording near darkness even at a high ISO. If you don't know, ISO is the light-sensitivity setting on your camera. You can set the ISO very high and make your videos brighter, but at the cost of digital noise. This means you need ample light on your subjects so you can turn down the ISO, to record more noise-free video. In this case, just one of these lights absolutely did not cut it, at all, and my indie DIY budget shed a few tears.I eventually realized I could go to my local hardware store and buy a 4-way socket adapter to run 4 of these at the same time in my umbrella, and the situation improved, somewhat.For reference, my camera is usually set to about F/5.5 (i forget if thats the exact number), and the shutter 1/125s. F/5.5 is the widest my sad little wide angle lens will go, and 1/125s is so I can shoot 60fps slow motion video. Imagine that the effectiveness of these lights would be about doubled if you were just shooting standard 24fps or 30fps at 1/50s. Using one reflective umbrella with FOUR of these babies about 8 feet away from the subject, I could only get my ISO down to about 3200, which is fine for cheap/quick stuff, but yet not good enough if you're trying to release something slightly higher quality or perhaps you want to do green screen work or heavy video compositing. After switching my reflective umbrella to a brolly (umbrella with a white front cover that encloses the lights so less light leaks out to the room, and behaves more like a softbox), which almost doubles the output, I was able to get my ISO down to 1600 (barely).At this point I have ordered a few more of these and am hoping I can use a 2nd brolly off to the opposite side of my subject and get my ISO down to at least 800, which as you might know is sort of a loose standard for the highest you want to push your ISO while achieving acceptably clean video for web publishing. If I'm wrong, I'll probably try putting both my umbrellas to the same side, then just use one of my huge room-size reflectors to act as a fill light on the opposite side.So there you have my little contribution. I'm not an expert but I thought I would share my personal experience with the output of these bulbs in regards to video lighting a dSLR project. When I first researched using CFLs, I was under the false impression that these would be so bright, I would only need a few to brighten my scene fully and push my ISO all the way down to 100-200. Here I am now invested in about EIGHT of these things, and I am happy, but be warned that you won't get away with less unless you're prepared for reduced video quality.And just to be clear, I AM very glad I got these. They're not too hot to the touch, cool off quickly, very energy efficient (won't bust my residential circuit breaker even with eight at the same time), very nicely color temperature'ed, and very cost effective compared to other types of lighting.