Benefits of this lamp:
1) Pre-focused alignment of
filament to center of the
reflector. Very hard to screw up the
bench focus with this type of lamp as long as it's fully seated or in it's bracket.
2) The
reflector chances are will be both cleaner in not having years of
build up on it which even if kept clean does still coat the
reflector with time. It would also be more refined by way of not having to have a hole in it's center rear that not only is large enough to fit a lamp in, also has some loss of light extra due to the tolerance and room needed in leaving a gap between lamp and
reflector. About 15% of the light from a lamp is lost out of the hole between lamp and
reflector.
ELC lamps are for the most part (few exceptions) no matter the brand all 3,400K in
color temperature (almost as hot as you can get before the
filament burns up) and have a 50 hour lamp life. Output when listed at all normally is within the 800 to 900
Lumen or 800 and 1,500
Lux range dependant upon brand and which catalog the specifications were listed in. Ushio for instance lists both in
Lux - the one having a
lens seemingly is loosing 700
Lux due to it. You most likely don't need lensed lamps inside a
fixture. (Such specifications for all brands change once in a while catalog to catalog for the same brand.)
Beyond this, they have a
focus point to the light of about 31.7mm away from the lamp.
Most have a very important note to follow which would also
effect the usefulness of the lighting
fixture it's installed into:
Burn
Base Down to Horizontal. This means the lamp cannot be pointing upwards or up side down. If this note is not followed the lamp's
filament will probably stretch out and break due to a lack of support in that direction or more likely the lamp won't cool properly and blow
thru it's
pinch seal. The only exception for this seems to be the Osram brand of ELC lamp which notes any burning position. Wiko didn't note a burn position but it would probably follow suite with GE, Phillips and Ushio in the above note. With the advent of P-3
pinch seal Technology and other companies following suite with their own improved pinch tech., many of these lamps in the last year or two may have been upgraded to universal burn also. Before you buy a specific brand, check the brand's website to see what the up to date status of the burn position is should this be a concern. Most of the long life ELC lamps have had this upgrade.
ELC lamps are also more cost efficiently available in 300hr, 500hr, 700hr (I remember 800hr from somewhere) and 1,000 hour now.
There is an exchange (short of new technology compensating for it) in lamp design. Mostly, to achieve a longer lamp life you must give up something else or normally a combination of things.
Voltage of the lamp could be raised, luminous output could be dropped down and or
color temperature can also be dropped. Given the above improvements to
pinch seal technology on the other
hand, it might be possible that while some things did have to change some, due to the lamp now being able to burn hotter, other things could be adjusted to compensate and keep the output and
color temperature the same.
In other words while normally a long life lamp will either be of a higher
voltage which adjusts the
color temperature and luminous output downward by way of the full
voltage not heating the
filament up all the way. Or the
filament is doped to boost the life in exchange for less
color temperature and output.(Doping is a term in reference to the combination of metals making up what the
filament is composed of. In doping say in a
HPL long life verses high output lamp, different more resistant metals which don't burn as hot but last longer are used and some times a thicker and or larger
filament is used.)
In long life lamps available, the real data on the lamp more than at times perhaps wishful thinking is normally not available. Phillips for instance for their ELC/10H lamp in their initial specification of the lamp listed it at 3,100K in
color temperature. As of 3/03 they changed it by way of typo or upgrade to 3,400K the same as the 50 hour lamp. The initial listing of the lamp's
color temperature for this 1,000 hour lamp seems more realistic. No Luminous output data is available for this lamp. This is the lamp
Martin is currently selling their fixtures using that lamp with. I
stock them for resale but don't use them. That much life would reduce the output of the
fixture.
Martin's specifications for their fixtures is based on the ELC lamp and have not been upgraded to cite the expected lower output of the long life lamp.
Note when judging one
fixture to another what the lamp this test data was tested with before you put absolute faith into the
fixture's output.
Osram in their ELC/7x lamp lists a
color temperature of 3,200K which sounds about right and also lists 475 Lumens in output. Seems a
bit low and this might be an inaccurate specification.
Possibly the best balance of lamp life to output is the Philips ELC/5H. I have four listings from the catalogs on this lamp since it came out. Half list it as 3,400K and the other half at 3,100K. I have never measured which is accurate but at one
point did compare the output of the 5H to a Ushio 3x. The Phillips did seem brighter so lamp life is not an absolute figure for expecting the longer the life, the
dimmer the lamp. This is the lamp
Martin used to recommend before the 10H came out.
Wiko also sells a ELC/5X. It also lists a 3,400K
color temperature. Interesting listing for the lamp, must be a typo given only 50 hours of lamp life listed and a note of 120v operation +/- 76 hours. Given this, I'm not sure what the difference between this lamp, their ELC and their ELC/E is other than the other lamps don't have the note. I expect the 5x lamp is a 500 hour lamp and it's a typo on their part.
Osram, Phillips and Ushio all sell a ELC/3 which would be 300 hours and the same in lamp life as the EVC. Phillips does not list a
color temperature for this lamp but does list a 960Lux - roughly 2/3 that of the 50hr version. Osram lists it's
color temperature at 3,250K with 550Lux and Ushio at 3,400K which as above was not realistic. Ushio also lists 900
Lumen / 960
Lux for output.
From above it's fairly certain that while there probably is differences in technology and brands, all brands of lamp probably also list a lot of differing information much of it inaccurate. In other words, none of the specifications on the above lamps provides enough accurate information to say what lamp is best.
Finally there is one somewhat new JER 24-250 Phillips lamp out there which might be a ELC, or it might be it's own lamp. Doesn't list it's
color temperature but does list 900
Lux for output and 50 hours in life. It's also
base down to horizontal.