Affordable China Ball Kit

Andrew Brinkhaus

Andrew Brinkhaus

Veteran
How does this assortment of products look togethor, in terms of coming out with an efficient and long lasting china-ball/lantern solution? Does somebody know of a cheaper or easier way of going about this?

GE Photoflood 500W lamps
http://cinemasupplies.stores.yahoo.net/ect50tunphot.html

White Nylon China Balls
http://www.paperlanternstore.com/16whnyla.html
(or)
White Even Ribbed Paper China Balls
http://www.paperlanternstore.com/24evriropala.html

High wattage fixtures
http://cinemasupplies.stores.yahoo.net/chinlansocas.html


Only thing left to consider is rigging...:Drogar-Thinking(DBG
 
i'm not speaking from first-hand experience but seems to me that a 500w bulb in a 16" china ball may get a little too hot
 
I know it's not 600W I just worked with 400W array in a paper china ball and it was okay. I was careful to not get anywhere near the paper with the bulbs and turned it off when not in use. China balls rock.

By the way Drew, thanks for the info.
 
For those of you who have used these often, which are better the Nylon Lanterns or the round paper lanterns? I've used china balls a few times but I don't know what kind they were. Is one better and why? I've been checking out this paperlanternstore.com site and the prices are really good.
 
im curious to know why someone wouldnt use this bulb over the one listed in the original post since it has 2000 hrs of life over 4 hrs http://cinemasupplies.stores.yahoo.net/jt500walaus.html


also can anyone tell me if there would be any use for a china lantern in homes with a 8 or 9 foot ceiling and what would you use it for in that situation!
 
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Well thanks for the replies guys. Zimzum, heres some info from the link you supplied-

Perfect for Chimera Mogul based E39 Sockets. The entire lamp measures 7.5" end to end, and the glass portion is 5.5" in length. Although the mogul screw base looks like a common household base, its not- it's twice the size.
Click to expand...

This lamp isnt ideal for sockets being used with paper or nylon, like a standard 120v socket would be....Plus the price difference is pretty dramatic for a china ball.
 
dp all the tungsten balanced bulbs that fit into household sockets have that 3-4 hr lifespan? thats why i brought up the other since it was 5000 hrs , but i didnt realize they werent usable with the lanters.
 
No, definitely not. The reason this specific lamp has such a short lifespan is because of its very high output in wattage, for a conventional edison socket. Generally a lower wattage lamp of the same type would last 10 or 15x longer.
 
None of the lanterns are rated for 500 watts. You might be able to do it fine, but if something goes wrong you've got a big problem. I especially wouldn't use a large, mogul socket bulb in one unless it was fluorescent.
 
psts said:
Are there any good fluerescents that would be good for this? Would one be powerful enough?
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Yes I like the 200w "8U" bulbs (they call it 8U because it has 8 U shaped tubes in a self-ballasted base. You can really only get them in the 2700K, 5000K and 5500K range of color temps for now.

I've included two pictures. One of me using a 36" nylon china lantern on a worklight stand with an 8U bulb and another of a 200w 8U bulb (in a fixture like the one I used with the lantern) so you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

The main two questions that will come will be:

(1) but fluorescent is already diffused so why use a china lantern? answer: sometimes you need the 360 degree dispersion of light like that and I really don't like to use high wattage incandescent bulbs anymore and certainly not in a nylon or paper lantern. So if you need around 500 to 800 watts worth of light in a conference room for example what better way to light the people around the table than with a 150 or 200w fluorescent 8U bulb in a china lantern. No fears at all about catching the place on fire with an 800w bulb in a delicate nylon frame. Those large lanterns are easily rated for 300 watts so you're under your rating with a 200w fluorescent.

(2). How do you hook the china lantern to the fixture. answer: best way is to fashion a china lantern "speedring." Sort of the same idea you have on a softbox that allows you to attach the chinese lantern to your fixture in a neat and easily separable way. That really requires a bit of surgery on the lantern and you could ruin it if you weren't careful. Best way would be to attach one of those clamping metal rings (from Home Depot plumbing department) to the lantern with fine fine wires inserted through the nylon and wrapped around the metal ring at the opening in the top. Then you can clamp the ring around the fixture. Its not optimum but will have to do until we get a better china lantern speedring (and someone may just be working on that as we speak!).
 

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woops, i just saw this after posting a new thread. probably could have just posted it here. i built some china balls from compact fluorescents. check them out in our drama fest thread here.
 
Tim's pictures in the other thread that he has a link to in his post above are great. Really shows what you can do with some flo's and china ball. After seeing the pictures I ordered one of the nylon china balls and cord set.

Richards company, Cool Lights (click on his link in his message above) also looks like it is on track to give the companies who have been over charging just because they were the only ones around a run for their money.

The real break through will be when one of these bulb makers wakes up and makes a high CRI flo in a standard screw base and makes it 3200K!!!!

A 30 or 50 watt 3200K bulb that you can screw into all kinds of fixtures would solve so many problems and make the options unbelievable.

Want to make some money? Just come out with one of these in 3200K for around $15 to $20 and we will beat down the doors to buy them!!!!!

Why is this so hard????
 
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zimzum said:
this looks interestinghttp://www.lanternlock.com
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I looked at these and thought they were a great idea and if you are getting paid on a regular basis for your lights they may make sense but for the average low budget person, $85.00 for a socket and wire hanger seems like a lot of money.

For the exact same price you can get a Britek Pro Cool fixture which will hold 4 standard screw base flo's with individual switches in a housing with a light stand connector and a soft box.

I know, I know - Britek! So many complaints here about the hot lights. But I'm going to try this one hoping that the lack of heat from the flo's will make them not melt or blow a fuse.

One tip I was given by another person here is to order from Britek and ask that they replace the flimsy diffuser with a diffuser from one of the hot light soft boxes.

Going to get one this week and put in 4 Sunalux 26 watt 93 CRI which are 5500K and then CTO them down to 3200K. Then with the switches, just toggle on and off until the right out put is achieved.

That is the plan, anyway.
 
well first off im a newbie to lighting, so im not sure what i have is good or not!
so taking that into account i have 2 britec 600/300 w floods with thier stands and soft box's, i only used the light for about 10 hrs so far and they work with no probs:cheesy:
but the soft box's are total junk,they are hell to open , the rods have this tiny piece of plastic on the end and the pocket they go into are very poorly sewn!

ok i open one up and the rod goes right through the pocket , so i had to sew the pocket myself and go to home depot to get a nice rounded cap to fit over the rod so it wouldnt pop through again.
after this fiasco , i wont be buying anything from them again and if i had read these forums before actually buying gear i would have not went with briteks .i would have bought 1 good light and 1 good box to start from a reputable company and used reflectores for fill ect..!
 
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i just watched saw3 and in the making of they had a ton of china balls on the set, i dont know if they were using them in the movie or just lighting the studio where they were shooting!
 
Kelly Olsen said:
The real break through will be when one of these bulb makers wakes up and makes a high CRI flo in a standard screw base and makes it 3200K!!!!

A 30 or 50 watt 3200K bulb that you can screw into all kinds of fixtures would solve so many problems and make the options unbelievable.

Want to make some money? Just come out with one of these in 3200K for around $15 to $20 and we will beat down the doors to buy them!!!!!

Why is this so hard????
Click to expand...

Kelly, why is this so hard? Let me tell you why. I wrote an article on CRI and Color Temperature in my blog that covers many of the issues about why 3200K and even really 5600K are so hard to find:

http://www.coollights.biz/wordpress/archives/13

Also I show you in this article how CRI is actually measured--I doubt most people could tell you what the process is or the machine that is used.

To summarize, this is the main problem: China is the source for most all bulbs today of all kinds. There are two main color temperatures that all the factories there standardize on--2700K and 6500K (of course these are the standards for very warm white and daylight). Even the ubiquitous office color of 4200K (cool white) is considered a custom color temp to China. The common CRI is between 75 and 80--factories, grocery stores, offices, etc. just don't care about CRI or really that much about color temp.

The photo/film/television production crowd is a small minority of all the users for fluorescent bulbs in the world so our standards for Tungsten and Daylight color (3200 and 5600 respectively) were never considered when they made their standards for lighting. When someone like me comes along and wants to order some bulbs in 3200K or 5600K to sell in the USA, they first try to talk you out of it and "why can't you just use this same color that everyone else uses?" is the common first approach. Later, after you insist, they will listen if you want to buy a full Container of bulbs. They'll custom make any color temp you want for the right size order. Even then there are issues with CRI though!

There is a special rare phosphor that must be used inside the bulbs to get higher CRI values and not all the manufacturers are willing to use this process. In any case, the price goes up when they know you want that because its harder to do and requires more specialized knowledge that only a handful of factories have. I came so close in the first order to having just what you said: simple, small CFL 3200K and 5600K bulbs with high CRI values in a 200w and a 30w was what I wanted to start out with as a simpler alternative to the 55w biax tubes. We didn't get them on the first order but we will on the 2nd one though. I'll be going back to China soon and will run the business from there eventually. The only other thing about that is that your price point of $15 to $20 may be hard to meet when you factor in premium for higher CRI, custom color temperature, customs, ocean shipping and other "costs of goods sold." I'm all too familiar with what all these costs really are!

Obviously I share your opinion that this is lacking in the market now--particularly 3200K which is super rare. I spent about 5 months in China sourcing all my fixtures and the 55watt biax bulbs that I am selling now.

I intended to have 200 watt 8U bulbs and a few smaller screw-in fluorescents also but there were a lot of difficulties in obtaining them for various reasons not the least of which was room left in my container for them and being able to meet the minimum order quantity. I made contacts though and we should be able to get them in the 2nd order very soon along with a couple of other things I ran out of time on.

You would think 5 months would be long enough but you'd be surprised at the "wild" nature of some of the places you have to go in China to get things you need and some of the communication issues that can arise also--you really need a translator most of the time with you on business trips.

I will say though that it looks like to me that more and more people are using daylight bulbs now though. Tungsten color may be dying off with the new generation of filmmakers coming up now--so few people seem to say they are interested in it.
 
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