Bob
My bulbs were actually 9 months old and as with yours, they definately lost alot of their output quite quickly. That being said, I would still put the brightness of the new panasonics over new coralife bulbs in a heartbeat.
I will monitor over time see how longevity and brightness compare to the old bulbs, but very happy out of the gate.
I would like to try a set from Hello lights as well, as I have read very good things about their lamps, however, with their no shipping to outside the continental US policy
getting them here is a clusterf*@#.