Are those real neon tubes or fluorescent bulbs?
It's real neon tubes. Here's the ref
The colors available are : Red, Green, Yellow, Blue and Black light.
I've used a mix of them + some colored filters (a light plastic film in the shape of a tube to go over regular white tubes)
Sorry Bruno, but those are not true neons.
They are colored TL (fluorescent) bulbs.
Here's a description of the differences:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question293.htmTo go short: with neon lighting, the gas itself lights up (in a certain color). With fluorescent (TL) lighting, the _coating_ of the tube lights up.
F.I. the red neon tube I will be using is a clear glass tube. The red color comes from the gas neon that lights up red under the high-voltage. Other color neons use different kinds of gas mixtures and sometimes a coating.
True neons require a seperate high-voltage powers supply.
Apart from that all, the colored TL's are not bad at all, and absolutely a LOT cheaper ! They also emit more light compared to a neon, a neon is just "decoration" light, not meant to light up the area around it. The TL does a much better job at that (as you can see from Bruno's pics !).
I wouldn't go with the sleeves, it's the cheapest but also the worst looking of the three.
In order of looks and price:
Neon>colored TL (Fluorescent as the US guys call them)>colored sleeved TL.
No matter what, it looks great !
Here's some pics of my neon tubes:
Unlit:
Note: the HV unit on these pictures was only 2000V, not enough for those neons, so they light up very dimly only. I've since bought two nice (and cheap!) HV units from the US that are fully electronic and gives out anything between 2000V and 9000V (automatically regulated by the unit, depending on the tube connected). Looks much better