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The
Happy Eyes Desk Lamp mini-review
Dr.
John
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| OK, so it's not a piece of
computer equipment, but I'll bet most of you out there have some crummy
desk lamp on your computer desk. And maybe you've thought it would be nice
instead to have a decent light for your computer work area. Well, if so,
then you should read on about the oddly-named "Happy Eyes" desk
lamp.
The Happy Eyes Desk Lamp is not an
ordinary light. It uses a special type of "Verilux" fluorescent
bulb to produce light very close to the spectrum of natural sunlight. And
it produces quite a bit of light, equivalent to approximately a 100W to
150W incandescent bulb. But the spectrum of the light is shifted
much further toward blue than the yellow light produced by a regular light
bulb. And it puts out all that light while using only 27 Watts of power.
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In some ways, the Happy Eyes desk lamp is
retro in appearance, with an adjustable "gooseneck" support
which lets you position the light to your needs. The lamp stands
about 14 inches tall, and from front to back, is about 17 inches
deep. So if you have a very cramped computer desk, the Happy Eyes
lamp may be a little bulky as compared with a small halogen lamp.
But the benefits over a halogen desk lamp are numerous.
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First off, The light from the Happy Eyes lamp
is very close to sunlight in spectrum, which is very useful if you are
printing photos in color and want wide-spectrum lighting to review
them. Also, the compact fluorescent bulb uses less power than halogen
lights. And just like a halogen lamp, the Happy Eyes light turns on
instantly without any of that irritating fluorescent light flickering.
And it uses solid state circuitry to produce an even source of light that
does not flash 60 times per second the way normal fluorescent bulbs
do. In fact, I hate normal fluorescent lights, not just for their
irritating 60 flickers per second, but also for their un-natural
spectrum. Happy Eyes lights eliminate both of those problems, and
deliver natural, steady light.
But the real test is to take some digital
pictures with the Happy Eyes lamp and with natural sunlight, and compare
them side-by-side. So that's what I did!
Below you will see two pictures, the top
one was taken using the Happy Eyes lamp without any additional lighting. The
color rendition is quite good.
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And the picture here was taken with
natural sunlight on an overcast day. As you can see, the color
rendition is not identical, but it is very close.
I can honestly say that the Happy Eyes
desk lamp is the best desk light I've run across. It turns on and off
instantly, produces an abundance of natural, flicker-free light, and does
so with very low power consumption. It is a technologically advanced
fluorescent light source that is not just good for checking color
rendition on color prints, but also for fatigue-free reading and desk
work. I highly recommend it.
Happy
Eyes Pros
- Natural light in a lamp
- No flicker!
- Long bulb life
- Instant on
- Bright
- Low power consumption
- Excellent for previewing color prints
Happy Eyes Cons
- More expensive than typical desk lamps
- larger than most desk lamps
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RATINGS:
Happy Eyes Desk Lamp:
Price:
Approximately $75US retail
Rating,
: 4.8 out of 5 smiley faces (96%).
:) :) :) :) + Recommended
Availability:
Good
Link:
Buy
Happy Eyes Lamp
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© Copyright, October 13th, 2003 KickAss
Gear
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