# Frosted Bulbs vs. Clear Bulbs?



## 01foreman400 (May 5, 2006)

Can someone please explain the differences in performance for me.

Thanks,
Darrell


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## Paul_in_Maryland (May 5, 2006)

A clear bulb will throw better, but you may see artifacts (holes, rings) and the shape may be uneven. Frosting will make the beam more even and more wide, but the beam will throw less far...sometimes a lot less.

Perhaps in the belief that frosting "steals" lumens, some CPFers prefer to use a "stippled" or orange-peel reflector to achieve the effects as frosting. I've never see the two approaches directly compared.


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## bfg9000 (May 6, 2006)

Simply, clear bulbs have the filament as the light source to be focused, and frosted bulbs "diffuse" the light so that the light source appears to be the size of the glass envelope. This larger source of light gives a smoother, larger, and more gradual rolloff of the hotspot into the spillbeam when using the same size reflector.

Note that frosting can be made lighter or less diffuse also, so it need not be absolute all-or-nothing.

And while both stippled reflectors and frosted bulbs can produce a nice artifact-free hotspot, frosted bulbs also provide an artifact-free spill. This is because the stipple can only defocus the light thrown backwards toward the reflector, while the frosting also defocuses the light thrown directly forward. For this reason I prefer frosted bulbs with smooth reflectors.


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