Uh, no. That is, unless you are buying a really cheap light box. For critical color matching you need MacBeth tubes, or anything 95 CRI or higher.
What's a "Macbeth tube"? Can you post the specs and SPD?
The usefulness of CRI is debated. The Ra8 system only concerns how well it renders standard eight colors. Of course, it only applies to things viewed directly by eyes and CRI is completely irrelevant to sensors and films.
The CIE has a method for calculating CRI based on data gathered from spectrophotometer, only so that it gives something objective.
If its just about spec numbers, the Philips 950 lamps are rated CRI 98
The Chroma50 is a nice phosphor mix aethestically, but it's only CRI 90 or so - rather generic. A good choice for the office, or work areas. Not something you want in a light box unless you aren't that critical.
Not a good choice for office. Continuous spectrum lamps have broad emission spectrum including ranges our eyes are not very sensitive to, so they're not very efficient. They're sold for color matching and such purpose.
'Continuous spectrum phosphor' is an oxymoron - sorry. There is no such thing. High CRI fluorescent tubes fill in the gaps as best they can with less efficient spectral bands, then rely on the rather out-dated CRI spec to inflate their numbers
Yes there is. Continuous spectrum lamps emit some light over the entire visible spectrum while tri-phosphor lamps use R,G,B phosphors to create desired color.
The difference between cont. and multi-phosphor lamps is that multi-phosphor lamp is designed to focus their output to primary colors and not produce spectrum in between in order to increase efficacy.
The Design 50/Chroma 50 type is only 52 lumens per watt, while the 850 type can get 94 lumens per watt.
Not sure what phosphor mix is in the sunshine 5000. Be nice if it were the Chroma 50 mix, but intuition tells me it would be the cheaper one.
The 40W T12 Sunshine is Chroma 50 and it is marked CRI 90. CFLs and 32W T8 sold as Sunshine are SPX50(GE naming for 850). The Sunshine CFL is Energy Star rated. If it was to be made using Chroma 50 phosphor, it will not meet the efficiency requirement to get the stamp.
I think the Ott Lite CFLs are based on continuous spectrum phosphor.
This is the spectral chart of Sylvania Design 50, a continous spectrum, or "full spectrum" lamp. The peaks are not added. They're natural emission lines from mercury/argon discharge. A clear fluorescent lamp would glow pale blue due to these lines.
This is an 850 5000K phosphor with 85 CRI. Rather than spectrum being continuous, there are peaks additional to natural mercury/argon peaks. They're added by using phosphors that emit specific peaks. They usually use R, G, and B phosphors, hence tri-phosphor.
This is the 5000K CRI 98 Philips 950