Your favourite light source from favourite to least favourite? And why.

[Funkybulb]

Mine is

Pre 1995 banned fluorescent, simply they
Last a long time, and old school halophosphor
Switch start and Rapid start system

HF instant start gear for EOL shows

Clear mercury vapor, it was once common every where i grew up for street lighting.

Then other discharge lighting

Sox lighting is interesting, it just uncommon in USA but we have them, plus easy to find older sox lamps in the states. Than paying silly prices to get lamps in UK.

LED for street lighting is boring and cold lighting
Goid for Electric tourches. And filament led just arrived in USA, planning on buying some next year.

[AngryHorse]

To follow up on Johns comment, yes the good old gas mantle is a very powerful light source!, with a good colour too.
It takes me back to going on holiday in the 70s, in static caravans with gas lights , fully dimmable and they kept the inside warm too.

[AngryHorse]

Yeah, the SON/MBF life thing is similar, both lamps will run anything upto 15 years, but lumen life wise, SON is far better.
A SON lamp, (quality one such as Philips), will keep 90% of its lumens right upto electrical wear out, but if you study lumen drop off figures, the mercury lamp is very poor.
Say you ran a 70watt SON, and an 80watt MBF side by side from new, after 10 years the mercury would be greened out, whereas the SON would still give a great deal of useful light out.

[AngryHorse]

Osram too, I`ve had Osram 50watt MBF lamps do 8 years and be still quite bright!
I have a 50watt MBF lantern at the front of my house, running a French made Sylvania, and I only just remember our mercury street lighting, before we lost it all to SOX in the late 70s.

I do like the old mercury lamps though, and have enough spare to keep mine going for many years to come.