For my desk lamp, I’d been using a round light with a magnifying glass, but the arm was short and the brightness wasn’t quite up to scratch, leaving me feeling it was lacking. As a light source, it was ordinary and didn’t have great colour rendering either. A lamp with a longer arm offering greater freedom of movement, yet still providing stable support, with uniform light distribution and high colour rendering – in Japan, this would likely be Yamada Lighting’s Z-Light, the Z-80ProII. It is certainly excellent, but it is expensive, and the Pro series does not appear to be sold in Germany.
Since I’m in Germany, I thought I’d look for a well-regarded arm from a local manufacturer. As expected of Germany, there are several high-end lighting manufacturers, and I found some with superb design and excellent mechanical movement in the arms. However, these were ridiculously expensive, costing several hundred euros, making them completely out of reach. So, I changed tack. I decided to find a good, used arm from an existing source and make do with a high-CRI LED strip for the lighting part.
This is a desk lamp from Waldmann, the German luxury lighting manufacturer. It would have cost several hundred euros new, but as no one buys fluorescent models anymore, they’re dirt cheap on the second-hand market. I got this one for around 40 euros including postage.
The arm’s movement and stability are reasonably good. I’d like another axis for the neck area. The light distribution is uniform and good, but I’m a bit dissatisfied with the short length and wish it were a bit brighter. Still, it’s perfectly fine to use as is. But now comes the real test.
Turn it over and you’ll see the fluorescent tube inside. The plan is to rip this out and replace it with an LED strip. The front acrylic panel (diffuser lens?) is merely hooked onto the flexible casing with tabs, so it comes off easily if you pry it.
Remove all electrical circuits related to the fluorescent lights, leaving only the main switch. Pack the LED strips as tightly as possible onto the original metal reflector. The power supply originally had a fluorescent light adapter attached, but this was cut off and replaced with a spare standard 12V AC/DC adapter.
The LED strip used is the usual high colour rendering index CRI97, 5600K colour temperature variety. At the time, it was still quite expensive, costing around 32 euros for 5 metres.
At the moment, it seems you can get the CRI98 version on Aliexpress for under ten euros for five metres?
Here is the modified version. As expected, it provides bright illumination over a wide area. For less than 50 euros, I’ve secured excellent lighting.
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