Mal-illumination plagues us all, and the folks behind SOLshine want to help solve that. Let’s look at their offerings in-depth to see what we’re getting.
The Overview
The Photovites lamp and bioBulb use SunLike diodes to provide high-quality, flicker-free, full-spectrum light that supports circadian health and mood, along with healthy infrared light for added sunlight-like benefits. Though pricey, they’re among the few 2-in-1 products available, making SOL a top choice for this category.
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What is SOLshine?
The SOLshine founders worked with the late original pioneer of light, John Ott, and have now come full circle to provide some truly excellent full-spectrum light products to help solve some of the issues with current offerings.
This is a very small company run by folks who really believe in what they’re doing, which is always a plus.
These lights utilize genuine SunLike diodes (my favorite) and many infrared LEDs to complement them, so let’s dive deeper into this!
Why Infrared?
It’s believed that shorter wavelength blue light should be properly balanced with infrared as it is in natural Sunlight. Which I agree with! This is why I include halogen lights in my office setup!
However, the products from SOLshine offer a more elegant all-in-one solution. And they do contain a whole bunch of infrared!
Infrared can help with:
- Eye health
- Blood flow
- Nutrient assimilation
- Libido
- and more!
So it’s nice that these lights include this crucial part of the light spectrum.
The SOL PhotoVites Lamp
This is SOLshine’s premier lamp, which offers a very bright SAD lamp experience coupled with five wavelengths of infrared light.
SOLshine recommends using the FSL (full spectrum light) mode for 15 minutes first thing in the morning, followed by 15 minutes on the NIR (near infrared) mode.
Using the Photovites lamp is very simple, with an on-off and mode buttons that switches between VIS+NIR or just NIR.
The all-metal build feels good, and a built-in fan on the back helps to assure me that this will last a long time!
Testing the PhotoVites Lamp Output
Using our lab-grade spectrometers, we can see exactly what the spectral output is here and how bright it is.
The first thing I want to look at is the visible spectrum, which is fantastic as it uses SunLike diodes, the world’s best full-spectrum diodes.
Here are the average lux measurements I got over the 15-minute run time:
- 1 ft: 20,700 lux
- 2 ft: 11,500 lux
SOL claims 13,470 lux at 2 feet, so we have different values here, but it’s close. And regardless, achieving over 10,000 lux at 2 feet is phenomically bright; many lamps struggle to achieve this at even 1 foot.
Testing the Infrared Range
The PhotoVites lamp also outputs a bunch of infrared, so I was curious to see what kind and how much. You can barely see it in that visible spectral graph above, but here’s the output from inside of our integration sphere:
As you can see, there’s a ton of infrared light here! It even rivals the visible light output, which is pretty impressive. My meter only measures up to 950nm, but it appears there’s one more peak at around 950nm.
Here’s a graph of the entire output from 12 inches away to give you a better idea of total power during normal use. As you can see the output is a bit different since we’re not measuring the average reflected light like we did inside of the sphere.
Testing Flicker
Next, I checked flicker with our flicker meter.
It turns out this is very flicker-free! I love to see this. Below, you’ll see the completely flat waveform, meaning this flickers about as much as the Sun.
The SOLshine bioBulb
The bioBulb from SOLshine is a pretty interesting idea. They’ve essentially packed the lamp into a much smaller form factor, which is VERY bright.
The basic bioBulb comes with a clip socket that allows you to attach it to anything you want.
Here it is attached to my lovely fake tree!
You can see that this is almost like a flashlight. You won’t want to look right at it! Position this above you at the edges of your vision and point it towards your face.
Checking Out the Floor Stand Add-on
There’s also a very handy telescoping floor stand that lets you use this anywhere if you can’t find a place to clip it.
Now, here’s how it looks extended: it gets pretty tall!
Here are a couple of photos from SOL’s website to give you an idea of use cases for this:
But let’s see how this compares to the lamp…
Testing the bioBulb Lamp Output
Once again, we placed the bioBulb in front of our spectrometer.
This emits a very similar spectrum as the Photovites lamp:
Here are the lux measurements:
- 1 ft: 31,300 lux
- 2 ft: 10,700 lux
It’s interesting that at 1 foot, this is much brighter than the lamp; however, actually becomes slightly less bright at 2 feet. Still, this is a very bright, full-spectrum light bulb capable of significantly impacting your circadian rhythm, among other things.
Flicker
Of course, flicker was also tested on the bioBulb, which also doesn’t disappoint!
Below, you’ll see that there’s a slight waveform ripple here, but it’s something I’d still consider flicker-free!
Nothing to worry about here.
Conclusions and Thoughts
Utilizing some wonderful SunLike diodes, the Photovites lamp and bioBulb emit a very high-quality, flicker-free, full-spectrum visible light that’s perfect for enhancing your circadian rhythm and improving your mood.
But they also emit a broad range of healthy infrared light! Bringing them that much closer to providing you with the full benefits of Sunlight indoors.
While these are certainly expensive, they’re some of the only products of their kind on the market. And if you’re looking for a 2-in-1 product like this, SOL is a great company to go with.
SOL Photovites Full-Spectrum Infrared SAD Lamp
Pros:
Cons:
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SOLshine bioBulb
Pros:
Cons:
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Hi, how does infrared range of this lamp compare to the blockbluelight model? They both have spikes in that range, but it appears that solshine covers it better?
It definitely does appear to be better on the SOL device. MY measurements area bit different than theirs, so I’m not sure if maybe there’s just more variation in the IR diodes, but yeah that’s my take.The SOL also uses cooler VIS diodes so it’s a more effective SAD lamp as well.
Dang, I already bought the blockbluelight version and then just saw this review lol. Saved $100 with coupons tho so can’t complain I guess.
Haha! They’re pretty similar so I wouldn’t be too mad.
ELI5 – The SOL graphs are measured in mW/m² and the blockbluelight is measured in 1 µW/cm². If you convert µW/cm² to mW/m² you get a number 10x bigger, but surely blockbluelight isn’t 10x stronger?
Apologies! Good catch Nep. I’ve updated the graphs to use the same scale.
I have the Theralight Aura Qi Light I use it right in the morning for 30 minutes. my main goals are mood, circadian rhythm and Energy. is this reviewed light way better? why such a difference in price for the box one and light bulb one? should I be keeping a light on like this all during the day? I’m feeling really confused now.
Hey Nicole, the Aura Qi is a good lamp! If you feel like that’s been working. I don’t really think you need to upgrade. However, yes, the SOLshine emit a much higher quality visible light and includes infrared so if those are important, this is one of the only lights that does that.
As for the price difference, the lamp allows you to switch between infrared and visible+infrared so people will often use just the infrared all day long while they’re using their computer. The bulb itself does not have this option.
I am considering purchasing one of the lamps mentioned above and, taking into account the spectral power distribution graph shown above, I noticed that the infrared (IR) power output appears to be relatively low—only a few microwatts per cm².
Could you please clarify whether this level of near-infrared (NIR) intensity is sufficient to provide any meaningful biological benefits, especially when used for 10–15 minutes in the morning? I’m particularly curious whether this dosage could have any effect on general well-being, mitochondrial support, or visual function (e.g., retinal or ocular health), as has been suggested in some photobiomodulation studies.
Thank you very much in advance for your time and clarification!
Hi Matti! Thanks for pointing that out. I actually had to correct that data as the values were incorrect. If you check back now you’ll see a new graph from 1 foot away which will give you a much better idea of how much infrared this is putting out, and it’s plenty I think.
Hello Derek,
First and foremost, thank you so much the comprehensive reviews you have done on these lights.
I was wondering, when you consider the amount of UVA the SOLshine BULB is putting out, how does it compare to being outside in the sun, is there a risk of photoaging with these bulbs? I don’t want to risk skin damage.
Also, would it be possible to add the SOLshine Bulb to the comparison chart here on your website so that I can rank it with the other lights you have tested, particularly I would like to know the glare and CLA numbers.
Thank you so much!
Hey Kevin!According to my measurements there really isn’t any UVA, plenty of violet or perhaps “Near UV” so I wouldn’t worry about skin damage with this 🙂
I will see about adding it to the list!
Does this address vitamin D? My husband has vitamin D deficiency and health problems to go with it. I read your review about Mitolux ( it helped me decide I probably would not go with it since it did not change your D levels that greatly). What is your best recommendation for vitamin D lamps?
Is Sperti the best?
Hi Melissa! Frist, no this lamp will not assist with Vitamin D levels.
Secondly, the Sperti will work and is the easiest option. However if you feel up to it I’ve gotten great results from a DIY approach as well: https://optimizeyourbiology.com/diy-vitamin-d-sun-lamp
Hi!
Regarding the Solshine Bio light, I’d like to know what the CLA measurement is! Thank you
Hey June, I’ll aadd this to the SAD lamp database, but at 1 foot the CLa is about 78,000!
How would you compare the Sol Photovites Full-Spectrum IR lamp to the block blue light version? thanks.
They’re quite similar really. Although the SOLShine one had much cooler visible LEDs which made it a more effective SAD lamp. There was also some variation in the IR LED output but I’m not sure if that’s a big deal or if that’s just natural variation in diodes or how I measured.
Hi Derek, great post! I’d love to ask what wattage the PhotoVites is in the NIR-only mode! (Already purchased with Your code haha – just wanna precompute my monthly spendings from nuking my face with this all day long 😀 ) Cheers!
My friend is borrowing this currently! But i’ll try to get a reading for you when I can haha
SOL PhotoVites seems perfect except that in their manual (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C2yOVkB4hM23y-L-ROaJevoVY9m6phkg/view), they say between 15-minute FSL sessions, you must allow at least 10 minutes for it to cool down. That means to get the recommended 30 minutes of light therapy, I need to spend at least 40 minutes. And in case I want light therapy of longer time (let’s say if I want to do 1 hour), I need to wait for even more time, which is putting me off.
Also, I see that Glare data is not yet available for BioBulb. Are you going to upload it soon? Thank you!
I will update the glare!
As for the cooling… I’m not sure I agree. The unit has a built in fan for this very reason and I’ve used it for much longer than that many times with no issues.
Hi Derek,
Thank you so much for your work !
I have an issue with making a choice for a SAD lamp. The bio bulb seems amazing, but if it is so bright, isn’t too difficult to expose directly your face and eyes ? Do you actually need to expose only the environement around you to get indirect exposure to make it confortable, and in this scenario, then you are receiving less lux (because the light is not coming right in your eyes) ?
I am wondering how much it is more effective to get a less bright light with less glare so that you can actually put the device in front of your face without eyes discomfort, even if you have to be exposed for a longer amount of time.
What are your thoughts about that ?