BluLine fresnels???

Cool Lights said:
Yes, I'm chosing one of these smaller blueline bodies to put the CMH 150w in, but I am also probably going to carry the tungsten models on a special order basis though and will offer a better price too than the current one being offered by Image West.
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Gotcha. That sounds like an awesome package and glad to see that your gonna be competitive with the pricing. Hoping it wont take too long, I finish with this client at the end of the week and then its paycheck time, so ill have to start ordering stuff before im too wrapped up in the next jobs. I plan to order some of your existing stuff soon too. Have you come up with any plans for a removable fluorescent setup like the kino 4banks. I love mine, theyre so versatile. Last month we had them wrapped together like a giant light saber connected to a gobo and c-stand and then operated like a boom pole. Turned out great for the long dolly shots working inside a parking garage.
but anyway they cost an arm and a leg, and 2 banks doesnt cut it for me anymore. :(
 
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Cool Lights said:
Yes, I'm chosing one of these smaller blueline bodies to put the CMH 150w in, but I am also probably going to carry the tungsten models on a special order basis though and will offer a better price too than the current one being offered by Image West.
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I second the excitement here... sounds great man... I would most certainly be interested in a couple of their tungsten 150's. (And your awesome alternative modded designs.)

Keep us posted.
 
Avenger007 said:
Have you come up with any plans for a removable fluorescent setup like the kino 4banks. I love mine, theyre so versatile. Last month we had them wrapped together like a giant light saber connected to a gobo and c-stand and then operated like a boom pole. Turned out great for the long dolly shots working inside a parking garage.
but anyway they cost an arm and a leg, and 2 banks doesnt cut it for me anymore. :(
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This brings up another interesting point. The trip I'm on now took me to two cities: first Beijing for a stage lighting fair (to find more interesting items to sell) and second Shanghai to talk to a couple of factories I hope to add to my partner list.

I found two kino clones that I think were just spectacular. One was a bit too much like the diva. I won't sell that one as it is really corrugated plastic and I don't like that material for durability. Interestingly though, they did use aluminum around the plastic to protect the edges where the real diva has a plastic protection around the edges to keep the corrugated plastic ok. So the aluminum is more tough.

The other one though is more interesting though and more in line with my ideas for the portable units I've been designing so with a few mods at the factory, these units show great promise to be the new Cool Lights Portable Softlight Series (or something like that).

What I like about these other units is they have another kind of plastic used on the housing which is used in some attache cases I've seen (and this was my plan to have the portable units built using this material and an aluminum frame around it for strength--even removable lid with pluck foam in it to easily pack the 55w tubes for transport). This plastic is super lightweight and tough as nails. The Existing unit I like even has an interesting lolipop type mounting on the back but it's missing a few things to be the best solution:

1). the lolipop needs a 5/8" female adapter on the end of it--right now its just a 7" long 3/8" rod. they probably mean it to attach to a grip head. I would prefer the longer kind of "U" shaped rod that starts with a female baby adapter at the bottom, bends around a bit then ends up with the lolipop.

2). My idea of having the removable lid isn't doable with this design. The barndoors fold up to cover the reflectors but there's no handle. Maybe what it needs is a separate carrying case with the bulb compartment in that but I would still like a handle on the unit itself to allow people to grab while adjusting angle.

3). Manual / non-dmx dimming. This idea is how I plan to keep my units more low cost than other dimming solutions out there now. Most of you don't need dmx and that just adds to the cost. Besides, a portable unit is for use outside of a studio mostly. How many people are carrying a dmx controller to their gigs? You don't care about that--my studio series fixtures will more appropriately have a dmx version (which of course will be the most expensive ones too). A set of dimming ballasts in this unit to replace the non-dimming ones and a dimmer dial on the side of the unit to allow ultimate control by hand of the brightness would be right in line with my plans.

My other idea related to dimming was that I would like a remote control to control the brightness and while I don't think this would add to much to the cost it would add months to the development cycle and I'm really wanting to get this dimming/portable solution out soon. Maybe we'll do remote control versions later.
 
hemophilia said:
I second the excitement here... sounds great man... I would most certainly be interested in a couple of their tungsten 150's. (And your awesome alternative modded designs.)

Keep us posted.
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Yes, here's my thinking about this. I'm not too much of a tungsten user anymore and I wasn't planning on carrying any tungsten products but the more of these bodies I buy, the more the price goes down. So if i buy a bunch of these and use some for CMH and some for tungsten, the factory doesn't care. They'll just make some for me with the tungsten rated sockets and some with HID rated sockets (and the appropriate reflector adjustments for the HID bulbs too which are a bit larger than the halogens).

Seems logical to me. I get my minimum order quantity and people who still want to use tungsten fixtures benefit from a lower price.

It will probably work like this. I'll have two prices for the tungsten models. 1 lower price for those that buy some of my other existing products in the same order and a slightly higher price for those that just buy the tungsten units. Kind of a gift to our fluorescent and the new CMH users. All the prices for both tiers though will still be under the current pricing you're seeing on these blueline models in the usa. I don't see any reason for instance why the 650w couldn't be offered at $139 and $199 for the two tiers.

On the color schemes: I'll probably have the CMH models be the GreenLine's (green--energy conservation, get it?) and the others some other color like maybe pink (what do you think: a pinkline?) ;-).

I just wish a CMH bulb would fit in that 150w, it's such a great size!
 
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Richard!!!! I would love it if you used these bodies for your HMI alternative!
Do you know what wattage output you are planning on? and on which bodies?

On a side note:
I'd rather you kept the silver-blue color with perhaps a green sticker/logo? Or make them black with the logo?
 
USLatinContent said:
Richard!!!! I would love it if you used these bodies for your HMI alternative!
Do you know what wattage output you are planning on? and on which bodies?

On a side note:
I'd rather you kept the silver-blue color with perhaps a green sticker/logo? Or make them black with the logo?
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Yeah, it seemed obvious to me that this was the body to use for a number of reasons--portability being foremost. Right now, I'm planning on a 150w and maybe a 575w fresnel and then some pars too in 575w and 1200w. We may have some surprise pars too that I think people will love in some bodies I didn't think I'd be able to find.

Just curious, why is everyone so married to the "blueline" around the front?

I'm just kidding about the pink but I was considering something else to make them more distinctive so you know it's one of my units when you see it. One powder coating factory I know has a unique process that gives a swirl effect which is pretty cool. Looks like one basic color where another darker color was swirled in and not completely mixed. Very unique.

Another idea is anodizing which gives a tougher finish sort of like plating that can't be worn off really unlike powder coating which is very, very hard but could be scratched or dented pretty easily. I wonder if it might be possible to gold anodize them for instance? Would probably be very cool looking. Black anodizing would be no problem at all and black powder coating is very easy. I have a model that was totally coated in black.
 
Yeah I'm all for more efficient and cooler lighting instruments, but there's still certainly a place for tungsten, particularly in those smaller fixtures, and if you could bring the 150's to market in the U.S. for a reasonable price, I imagine they'd do pretty well...

...unless...

Cool Lights said:
On the color schemes: I'll probably have the CMH models be the GreenLine's (green--energy conservation, get it?) and the others some other color like maybe pink (what do you think: a pinkline?) ;-).
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Dear lord please don't do pink... I hope that was a joke. Just copy-cat blue or boring-ol'-black please. :)

-Kevin
 
I like the silver-blue color cause I am so used to see it and now I associate it with studio projects... but it is no big deal... I am sure you'll come up with something distinctive and pro-looking... on regards to finish... whatever is tougher for sure... that way they hold their value longer since they won't be chipped...

I am sorry Richard but I don't follow... I am still far from understanding all about lights and I am afraid to admit that I am not 100% about what a par light is...
What kind of output are you planning on for your HMI types? (tungsten-equivalent)
 
No the 650 still flickers. Its a wiring problem but its only those 2 lights that have it. Arri has replacements that look like they will fit.
Last night, well this morning, (it was a LONG shoot) one of the 1k lights little knob that tightens it to the light stand snapped off. I don't know if it was because someone tightened it way too much or if because it was too hot but we hung them from the ceiling on I beams for 12 hours straight.
 
USLatinContent said:
I am sorry Richard but I don't follow... I am still far from understanding all about lights and I am afraid to admit that I am not 100% about what a par light is...
What kind of output are you planning on for your HMI types? (tungsten-equivalent)
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We should probably start another thread and talk about some of these kinds of things so we don't hijack this one.
 
hemophilia said:
Yeah I'm all for more efficient and cooler lighting instruments, but there's still certainly a place for tungsten, particularly in those smaller fixtures, and if you could bring the 150's to market in the U.S. for a reasonable price, I imagine they'd do pretty well...

...unless...



Dear lord please don't do pink... I hope that was a joke. Just copy-cat blue or boring-ol'-black please. :)

-Kevin
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Yes I'm sure they'd do well too unless they were painted pink :crybaby:
 
Cool Lights said:
We should probably start another thread and talk about some of these kinds of things so we don't hijack this one.
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yup... there I go again...

Aram Bauman said:
No the 650 still flickers. Its a wiring problem but its only those 2 lights that have it. Arri has replacements that look like they will fit.
Last night, well this morning, (it was a LONG shoot) one of the 1k lights little knob that tightens it to the light stand snapped off. I don't know if it was because someone tightened it way too much or if because it was too hot but we hung them from the ceiling on I beams for 12 hours straight.
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the knob coming off sucks... the flicker might be something they might replace them for, did you ask them?

12 hours straight running? and hanging from the roof? that sounds hot... was it warm in the room? if so the roof would have been warmer and that would have accounted for a nice little heat test...
 
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Yeah, Im confused about who is using what lights. Highjacked for sure.


Blulines flickering and knobs falling off? That's sad news to these ears. I was ready to buy a kit.
 
Knoxworth said:
Yeah, Im confused about who is using what lights. Highjacked for sure.


Blulines flickering and knobs falling off? That's sad news to these ears. I was ready to buy a kit.
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I was a bit bummed by this as well, but ultimately, I still think I'm going to buy some of these lights. They have a one year warranty, so if the problem was in fact in the wiring, then it would be covered. I'm waiting to hear back from an e-mail I sent regarding some custom kits. If they can work out a good price for me, I'll probably be buying 5-6 lights this month.

-DES
 
Anyone outside of the US have any luck ordering these things? Their website tells me there's no shipping available to my address, and when I call they take all my name and number down and tell me someone will call me back (a call center handling the calls for them perhaps?). Tried the phone route twice so far with no call back.
 
The problem wouldn't be present in the HMI alternative built by Richard (Cool Lights) but since those are completely different lights I am starting a separate thread...

I apologize for my contribution to the hijacking of this threat which should focus on the Blue Line lights as they are being sold currently by Image West...

Is the knob an easy fix?
 
We used a pliers to try to get it off and it broke. I don't think it had to do with build quality. The flicker is only the 650s, all the others have been working fine.
 
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