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Comment by steve_taylor | Hacker News Reader

I'm trying to get my hands on some decently high wattage (100W ideally) incandescent bulbs because it's really been bugging me lately that while I can still focus just fine, I have trouble making out details and some colours in artificial lighting. I've come to the conclusion that there's really no substitute for light generated from heat.

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It hugely depends on the quality of the light. Look at CRI (and the newer, better TM-30). Low quality LED lighting is just terrible, the room appears light but colors and details are poor.

It's technically possible to achieve a 100 CRI score with a broad enough range of frequency spikes rather than the continuous range of frequencies you get from incandescent bulbs. So even the best LED bulb isn't going to match incandescent.

Sure, that’s why TM-30 is better.

Black body will probably always be better, but people unhappy with LED often have CRI < 80 LEDs when even 95+ isn’t necessarily great.

I have some LED bulbs at home but I use G9 halogens in either an E14 or an E27 adapter for the places where light quality is important to me. I tried a number of so-called "full spectrum" LED bulbs but I don't find the light they produce quite as satisfying as my halogens.

Philips Warm Glow A19 Medium Dimmable LED Light Bulb 479428, is something I've found. Phillips has been making more lights in the amber range. I really can't stand lights with higher kelvin ratings.

I really like the GE Sun Filled soft white bulbs (not the daylight version). They’re pricey and only 60w equivalent but they’re the closest to incandescent I’ve found.

I found some in my local dollar store (dollar general, dollar general, etc). You may want to try down market stores.

you could try LEDs made with phosphor. a few companies including waveformlighting (unaffiliated: https://www.waveformlighting.com) offer them.

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