gcaus
08-25-2004, 07:09 AM
Major problems:
I used two Rostronics soft boxes 600s + two 600s (without softbox) as key light, and two 1000s. *I received them a few days prior and tested them for about an hour. *We had a long session Saturday. *It was an interview setup. *A bulb in one softbox went out after about 6 hours. *Then one of the 1000s *made a "clank" noise. *Turned out the bulb simply fell out and hit the glass! * ??? A few hours later, the other 1000 did the same thing, except one of the posts the bulb attaches to, was completely melted and a ceramic piece broke. *Then, an hour later, the other 1000 made the "clank" noise again, but this time, the metal post that holds in the bulb and powers it also melted. :-/ *( I suddenly had no 1000s!)
One person helping me was a film maker from Europe. *He was initially real impressed with the lights. *By the end, he didn't want to buy them anymore! *I told him that I did "research" and that these came highly recommended.
I was very disappointed, to say the least.... *I hadn't planned for that many failures, but we did make it through the shoot by being creative with the remaining lighting. *We stopped using three cameras and could only shoot one talent, pretending to have both talking to each other. *The light changed, of course, but, nothing that can't be fixed in post (I hope.)
It was important to me to impress this client, but oh well. *The next day, ABC showed up to film a documentary on the making of our documentary. (ABC - Australia Broadcasting, not our ABC! *They flew all the way from Australia to interview the author and shoot us editing the documentary!)
Still, after a few days all went well, luckily. *Client is thrilled.
I talked to Tom and he says he's only seen this problem once before. *He's sending two replacement 1000s.
I'm hoping that this was simply bad luck and remain hopeful. *I'm going to test any new lights by keeping them on for about 12 hours, and turning them on/off every few hours. *The problems always occured after turning them off, and after 15 minutes back on.
I hope people are posting their problems with these lights. *They certainly aren't made at the level of quality of some more expensive lights and it was a b*tch gelling them. *(I'll do a search and hopefully find posts that suggest third party scrims and gel holders.)
Tom is very amiable, and customer oriented. *I hope I just had bad luck. *Tom is sending me two replacements, so I'll test them thoroughly this time!
I still have faith in everyone elses enthusiasm for these lights, and the soft boxes gave a wonderful light. *When they work, I'm impressed. *Impressed enough to buy two HMI Dayphotos from Tom even after this problem.
-Jerry
I used two Rostronics soft boxes 600s + two 600s (without softbox) as key light, and two 1000s. *I received them a few days prior and tested them for about an hour. *We had a long session Saturday. *It was an interview setup. *A bulb in one softbox went out after about 6 hours. *Then one of the 1000s *made a "clank" noise. *Turned out the bulb simply fell out and hit the glass! * ??? A few hours later, the other 1000 did the same thing, except one of the posts the bulb attaches to, was completely melted and a ceramic piece broke. *Then, an hour later, the other 1000 made the "clank" noise again, but this time, the metal post that holds in the bulb and powers it also melted. :-/ *( I suddenly had no 1000s!)
One person helping me was a film maker from Europe. *He was initially real impressed with the lights. *By the end, he didn't want to buy them anymore! *I told him that I did "research" and that these came highly recommended.
I was very disappointed, to say the least.... *I hadn't planned for that many failures, but we did make it through the shoot by being creative with the remaining lighting. *We stopped using three cameras and could only shoot one talent, pretending to have both talking to each other. *The light changed, of course, but, nothing that can't be fixed in post (I hope.)
It was important to me to impress this client, but oh well. *The next day, ABC showed up to film a documentary on the making of our documentary. (ABC - Australia Broadcasting, not our ABC! *They flew all the way from Australia to interview the author and shoot us editing the documentary!)
Still, after a few days all went well, luckily. *Client is thrilled.
I talked to Tom and he says he's only seen this problem once before. *He's sending two replacement 1000s.
I'm hoping that this was simply bad luck and remain hopeful. *I'm going to test any new lights by keeping them on for about 12 hours, and turning them on/off every few hours. *The problems always occured after turning them off, and after 15 minutes back on.
I hope people are posting their problems with these lights. *They certainly aren't made at the level of quality of some more expensive lights and it was a b*tch gelling them. *(I'll do a search and hopefully find posts that suggest third party scrims and gel holders.)
Tom is very amiable, and customer oriented. *I hope I just had bad luck. *Tom is sending me two replacements, so I'll test them thoroughly this time!
I still have faith in everyone elses enthusiasm for these lights, and the soft boxes gave a wonderful light. *When they work, I'm impressed. *Impressed enough to buy two HMI Dayphotos from Tom even after this problem.
-Jerry