$150 for a 575 HMI par?

Dang it I go away for 2 weeks for a photo workshop and for work and I miss the deal on the $95 dollar light, its now $195. Maybe I can ask them why they increased the price because for $95 bucks I would jump on one more. If I had a second one I would be much more willing to try the fan mod to mine. Oh well for now it will work for the music video I have coming up next wednesday, will share some samples if we use the light, have a crazy schedule to make this project happen.
 
These are turning up all over the place, just keep your eyes open and do searches for "daylight source 4", etc.

Kinda wish I'd bought another at $95, I think mine was $150… sucker kicks out some lumens!
 
One of my used bulbs just went out on a job (at least I think it was the bulb since I didn't have time to inspect it but the ballast light was on). I guess you never really know how old those used bulbs are...

Anyway I realized I should probably have backup bulbs so I'm looking into what bulbs to buy. I just ordered a cheapo $35 one immediately to test that has specs about the same as the MSR575/2 I was using. I came across this one which sounds too good to be true: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/moving-...286816.html?sku=269286816&listingId=353353942
The specs say CRI90 and CCT5600k and 2000hr life, which all seem pretty ideal but how can this cheap have better color and twice as long life as the other bulbs at that price?

Maybe I'll order it anyway, since worst case its a falsely advertised 7200k CRI80 bulb, I suppose. I have heard sketchy things about rakuten, but I guess as long as you pay with Paypal or google wallet you are protected from getting your money or credit card info stolen.
 
Man, let us know how that works. I'd think they're just lying with the specs, but that seems odd - the market for "moving head" lights are nightclubs, higher-end DJs, show companies - I think they actually prefer bluer whites and aren't as concerned about CRI, just cost and dependability.

The fact that even American DJ sells a $40-ish 575 with 7200k makes me think there's a lot of 575 gear out there, so maybe the market is big enough that product improvement is ongoing and competitive? $50 for a globe with those specs seems like a milestone.
 
All the bulb life spec means is that the lamp will strike. They don't guarantee color temperature or intensity which tends to go after around 300 - 400 hours. Also at that point they become prone to catastrophic failure - they blow up. And thats with using brand name bulbs like phillips and osram. My experience is with moving light heads in the theater for the most part.
 
Well it turns out the bulb wasn't dead, it did strike like normal the next day, so I've been using both units as my primary lights on a job for Esquire and so far it's looking quite nice.

I also just received my cheapo spectrometer (http://store.publiclab.org/collections/spectrometry/products/smartphone-spectrometer) and I'm curious to see if it is able to evaluate the and compare these HMIs to daylight or other HMIs to see if they have any substantial downsides in terms of color.
 
nyvz said:
Well it turns out the bulb wasn't dead, it did strike like normal the next day, so I've been using both units as my primary lights on a job for Esquire and so far it's looking quite nice.
Click to expand...

I assume these have some sort of thermal shutoff, could that be what bit you?
 
User Manual and other Docs

User Manual and other Docs

I got touch with Enliten, the company that sold the 575 Exhibition Par that the original poster linked to, and they where kind enough to send the original user manual and other useful docs.
I've uploaded to google drive and posted the links here.
Brochure and specs:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9L5yFVpoOjJMnpFU2hlbVljcFE&authuser=0
Info on the Ballast:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9L5yFVpoOjJZ0dwbWJRMVFmUDg&authuser=0
User Guide:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9L5yFVpoOjJS2tMekYzYlFtVUk&authuser=0
Diagrams:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9L5yFVpoOjJcVIzd0dBamxBaWM&authuser=0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9L5yFVpoOjJZXZwakRUeXN6bEE&authuser=0

Paul was also kind enough to send this sketch for a head cable extension:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9L5yFVpoOjJV2x5MENYLXVjbzA&authuser=0

I bought the following items from B&H and they are working with this light.
NEUTRIK-CONNECTORS COUPLER - POWERCON NAC3F
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/880864-REG/Neutrik_NAC3MM_1_3_Pole_PowerCON_to.html

BLIZZARD POWERCON TO PWRCN 25' ML-BLU TO ML
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._ercon_inter_1425_cool_cable_powercon_to.html

I did ask for the used bulb at $25 option from 4wall, and I've been able to correct to roughly 5400k with 3/4 -green and 1/4 cto
Fan noise is around where a computer from 2005 would be. May have a look at tamping down the fan inside the ballast to see if that helps......
 
Michael Carter said:
Yep, use a TVMP, not one of the cheaper baby receiver with 3/8 screw deals. it's a heavy-ish light with that igniter and the extra-large yoke.

And avoid the Matthews one with the thumbscrew - they SUCK unless it's a permanent install (requires tools to loosen/tighten)! Get an Avenger or similar with a nice t-handle.
Click to expand...

Having real difficulty loosening the c-clamp from the yoke of the Enliten 575 par. How did you end up removing yours?
 
Aharon Rothschild said:
Having real difficulty loosening the c-clamp from the yoke of the Enliten 575 par. How did you end up removing yours?
Click to expand...

I recall I used a plumber's style pipe wrench, the kind that bites down as you tighten it. If you want to get the bolt out of the yoke, I believe you take the igniter off the yoke.

350140-10.jpg
 
Understood, I believe the tvmp adapter screws down into the bolt anyways... This was basically designed to go up on a truss forever.... Sigh... I'm going to take the bulb out before banging the light around. Thanks for the heads up!
 
Michael Carter said:
I assume these have some sort of thermal shutoff, could that be what bit you?
Click to expand...

It's possible, though I used that unit to light another scene the next day where it was on again in a similar environment for a few hours and it worked fine.

I did notice the CTO/minusgreen gel cocktail in the frame seems to have faded really fast, basically it looked clear this morning in one of the lights, I imagine some heat shield is in order... and that wasn't even at VNSP or anything, I think that one had a wide lens on.
 
I just did a job where I lit INT DAY interviews and ended up using one of these 575w HMIs for each interview. The only interview where I tried to use two lights was the one where the light went out but then kept working the next day. Didn't really have time to troubleshoot so maybe it lost power and just needed a longer cooldown.

Hopefully it's ok if I share these, but I'll take them down if it's a problem.

First one was just the HMI into a 4x4 bounce, second one was a very small room so it was through a 8x8' silent lite grid folded into a 4x4' at close range, and the third was a bigger space so it was through the whole 8x8' silent lite grid cloth. The grid cloth was just hanging off 1-2 stands. All shot on 35mm@f1.4 on FS700 with 4-stops of ND

1.jpg
2.jpg
3.jpg

Edit: The program I took the screengrabs from seems to have left some weird pixel columns at the left of frame... disregard those :)
 
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nyvz said:
It's possible, though I used that unit to light another scene the next day where it was on again in a similar environment for a few hours and it worked fine.

I did notice the CTO/minusgreen gel cocktail in the frame seems to have faded really fast, basically it looked clear this morning in one of the lights, I imagine some heat shield is in order... and that wasn't even at VNSP or anything, I think that one had a wide lens on.
Click to expand...

Duuude… just the gel frame, yep. you'll end up with "hmm, are these clear gels??"

They make a snoot-top-hat style "gel saver" for the source 4, but the easiest thing is to clip the gels to the barn doors. Even with the side lens (as I recall) you can spread the doors enough for gels. You'll use full sheets (or at least bigger than the 6x6 frame trims) but they'll stay robust much longer.

I had mine on for about 6 hours for one shoot and the gels survived on the doors.
 
Aharon Rothschild said:
I got touch with Enliten, the company that sold the 575 Exhibition Par that the original poster linked to, and they where kind enough to send the original user manual and other useful docs.
I've uploaded to google drive and posted the links here.
Brochure and specs:
Click to expand...

Aharon deserves a beer!

I couldn't get hold of anyone at Enlited, great job man!
 
Aharon Rothschild said:
Skin looks great and this feels polished and expensive, there really is no substitute for a large daylight source... Thanks for posting these!
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Oddly it wasn't until the last day (3rd image) I noticed the gels in the frame had turned nearly clear and replaced them. I don't see any evidence of the color shift in the frames fortunately, though.
 
nyvz said:
Oddly it wasn't until the last day (3rd image) I noticed the gels in the frame had turned nearly clear and replaced them. I don't see any evidence of the color shift in the frames fortunately, though.
Click to expand...
More expensive than regular gels are fade not gels, but they'll last a lot longer when installed correctly. The heat resistant coating has to be towards the bulb. If installed incorrectly they'll fade just as fast as plain gel.
http://www.fxlight.com/fade-not-gel.html
Even more expensive and not stackable like gels are dichroic glass filters. They all fade eventually from the heat
 
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