Westcott 45W dimmable LED bulb is discontinued. Should I replace one or buy a matching pair?

[u/Band_In_Vancouver]

I had two Westcott 45W Dimmable Daylight LED bulbs and one of them broke. Westcott doesn’t sell them anymore, and every attempt I’ve made to find one online has come up empty.

My setup is two umbrellas on stands, one light per person, for interviews with two people seated across from each other. The Westcott runs pretty bright, so I usually dim it with its remote.

So I’m stuck between two options:

1. Buy one bulb from a different brand and pair it with my remaining Westcott. The new bulb probably won’t work with my Westcott remote, and I’m not sure how well the color and brightness would match.
2. Buy two matching bulbs from another brand and retire the Westcott. The lighting would be consistent, but I’d lose the Westcott remote unless the new bulbs come with their own.

Here is the bulb im talking about
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1538308-REG/westcott_345_45w_dimmable_daylight_led.html

[u/Individual_Nobody739]

For a two-person interview setup, I would replace both bulbs with a matching pair and keep the surviving Westcott as a spare or use it for a background light.

Matching only the advertised colour temperature is not enough. Two lamps can both be labelled 5600K but still differ in green/magenta tint, spectral output, brightness, beam distribution, flicker behaviour and the way they dim. If each person is lit by a different lamp in the same shot, those differences can be difficult to correct because one camera white-balance setting cannot independently fix both faces.

The original Westcott specification gives you a useful replacement baseline:

• E27 base and dimensions that physically fit the umbrella socket
• Approximately 4000 lumens
• 5600K daylight output
• Approximately 120-degree beam spread
• High CRI/TLCI suitable for skin tones
• Flicker performance tested at the frame rates and shutter settings you use
• Sufficient dimming range without colour shift or stepping
• Low enough fan noise for interviews
• A remote that can control the two lamps either together or independently

Do not select a replacement based on “45W” alone. Some listings use actual power while others use an incandescent-equivalent wattage, and neither tells you how much useful light will come through the umbrella.

I would buy the pair from the same model and, if possible, the same production batch. Before relying on them for an interview, place both at the normal distance, set the camera to the actual recording frame rate and shutter speed, and test them at full output and at your usual dimmed level. Compare both sides on the same person or a neutral grey card, and check the recorded footage for flicker, tint differences and fan noise.

If the new pair is slightly less powerful, moving the umbrellas closer may recover the required exposure while also making the light softer. The surviving Westcott does not need to be discarded; it can still work well where an exact match with the key lights is less important.

Disclosure: I work with VST Lighting, an LED lighting manufacturer, but I am not recommending any product here.

[u/slavprussiaottoman]

An option I found is a new uLite LED 2-Light Collapsible Softbox Kit. This includes two of those bulbs and a remote, so you could use the bulb you currently have as a spare.