The first LED lamps had a minimal light output, mainly intended for "marker" lamps on control panels. Most would work at 1.5 to 5 volts, but required a resistor to limit the current or they would burn out quickly. Modern LED lamps work with 3 volts or so, but still require a resistor to limit the current. But the light output is many times higher. LED lamps do illuminate almost immediately, just a bit faster than a filament lamp. But they are very efficient, giving about 6 x the light output for current input. Incandescent lamps are very inefficient, producing only about 30% light output for the current input. The rest of the energy is wasted as heat. And they (incandescent lamps) generally give only about 2,000 hours of use maximum. LED lamps can last more than 50,000 hours!
Those compact fluorescent lamps are efficient, giving about 4x the light output for input power. They do produce some heat, but very little. Their life is about 10,000 hours maximum. They are affected by temperature changes, taking longer to full-brightness as temperature drops.
There are two basic types of fluorescent lamp designs. One is the older pre-heater type, with a glowing filament at each end that caused the mercury vapor inside to become an active plasma. They relied on the 120 volts or so line voltage to then keep the plasma glowing. They used a ballast that kept the input current down, as well as voltage across the lamp to about 55 volts. Once the plasma was active, the "starter" was deactivated. The "starter" was a bimetallic switch inside a small glass tube filled with neon gas. Heat from the neon gas igniting caused the switch to momentarily close the filament circuit.. causing the lamp to light. Later designs used a ballast transformer with a low-voltage winding that caused the filaments to glow, and they glowed less when the lamp was activated. Another type is the "rapid-start" which uses a high-voltage (around 350 volts) to ignite the mercury vapor, then the ballast transformer drops the source voltage to about 60 volts, keeping the lamp lit.
LED lamps can be operated only on DC current, where fluorescent lamps are not fussy.. AC or DC voltage works equally well. An incandescent lamp can be wired in series with other lamps, as long as the filament current is identical in all bulbs. An example is those strings of Christmas tree lamps. They can be 6 volts or 12 volts, in series.. one burns out, they all go dark! Same is true of LED lamps. Fluorescent lamps cannot be used in series. Special ballast designs allow two lamps on one ballast transformer, but both lamps will go dark if only one does.
Modern incandescent lamps usually contain an inert gas, which gives the filament longer life. Earlier lamps were in an evacuated bulb only.
Photography work requires a specific light intensity and color level for best results. It is known as the Kelvin temperature. Incandescent lamps give off a different Kelvin level than fluorescent lights, LED lamps or "outdoor" sunlight. Older film cameras and vidicon TV cameras had special settings for each light type.. or flesh tones became blue or green alien colors!
Sorry, long posting. Hope it was interesting.
Reference: Kelvin chart..
Reference: incandescent lamp history..
Reference: fluorescent lamp history..
Reference: LED lamps..