https://secure.lumenlab.com/shop/product.php?id=58
Hmm? And remember, CTO 1/4 barely cuts out any light at all!
Hmm? And remember, CTO 1/4 barely cuts out any light at all!
400W "HMI" 6500K, 91 CRI: $199 (with ballast)
- Thread starter Policar
- Start date
vidled
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Nice one.
It looks like an electronic ballast too, but not sure of course.
Check this thread out also (used a 1000W and placed it into a Desisti Fresnel light).
Edit: Just checked - it IS an electronic ballast, so that's sweet!
It looks like an electronic ballast too, but not sure of course.
Check this thread out also (used a 1000W and placed it into a Desisti Fresnel light).
Edit: Just checked - it IS an electronic ballast, so that's sweet!
I saw your thread earlier; good stuff. It seems the 1k you built has a bit of the same green spike my 65 CRI growth lamp does, but nowhere near as bad. Overall it's pretty cool and with a little magenta gel could probably be extremely useful.
I may have to pick one of these 400w kits up when I get back to the states, though, and possibly put it in a 1k body or something, since the bulb looks small enough that it might work. What's cool is that the site where I found it (totally by accident, might I add) is devoted to making home built projectors so they even have a reflector custom built to fit the bulb as well as replacement bulbs for $50. And I don't know how good the ballast is, but if it's electronic, that's a good sign.
By the way, the Arri lights you sent me are still going strong. I used them for my final 16mm project then for my friend's thesis, which won best film, and then for a couple projects of my own. I don't think I've blown any fuses yet with them, either. Of course, they're also not quite strong enough for use with my 35mm adapter...hence my interest in HMI/HID lighting. But yeah, they've been good to me.
I may have to pick one of these 400w kits up when I get back to the states, though, and possibly put it in a 1k body or something, since the bulb looks small enough that it might work. What's cool is that the site where I found it (totally by accident, might I add) is devoted to making home built projectors so they even have a reflector custom built to fit the bulb as well as replacement bulbs for $50. And I don't know how good the ballast is, but if it's electronic, that's a good sign.
By the way, the Arri lights you sent me are still going strong. I used them for my final 16mm project then for my friend's thesis, which won best film, and then for a couple projects of my own. I don't think I've blown any fuses yet with them, either. Of course, they're also not quite strong enough for use with my 35mm adapter...hence my interest in HMI/HID lighting. But yeah, they've been good to me.
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vidled
DVXuser Sponsor
Hey, GREAT news about your using the ARRIs!!! (I miss them, you know! 
)
Re: HMI: don't underestimate the size of that bulb; it's 9 3/4" long! That's almost as long as my 1000W bulb in the Desisti.
Also, sometimes those types of bulbs are be made to burn at a specific angle, i.e. base-up, base-down, horizontal, or universal (there's combos of that too). Would be good to find out if these bulbs are mountable in any position.
)Re: HMI: don't underestimate the size of that bulb; it's 9 3/4" long! That's almost as long as my 1000W bulb in the Desisti.
Also, sometimes those types of bulbs are be made to burn at a specific angle, i.e. base-up, base-down, horizontal, or universal (there's combos of that too). Would be good to find out if these bulbs are mountable in any position.
Cool Lights
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I would definitely be careful playing around with some of those kinds of bulbs. There's no guarantee that the bulb is UV shielded. Here's an article describing some of the issues you can get into. We can experiment, but should be careful...
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/business/321918,4_3_JO01_BULBS_S1.article
I'm looking at putting a UV shield/CTO filter extra glass behind the fresnel / par lenses on the fixtures I'm engineering.
By the way, how did you find that site? That's one of the ones I was going to list in my article on building an inexpensive metal halide fixture as a source for these ballasts and bulbs.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/business/321918,4_3_JO01_BULBS_S1.article
I'm looking at putting a UV shield/CTO filter extra glass behind the fresnel / par lenses on the fixtures I'm engineering.
By the way, how did you find that site? That's one of the ones I was going to list in my article on building an inexpensive metal halide fixture as a source for these ballasts and bulbs.
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Wow, that's scary. Rosco sells a $6 UV gel; I don't know if it does much but I'll be sure to use it, altough I assume the glass bulb blocks UV, too.
I don't know about CTO in the lens, though; that might limit light output unnecessarily. I have 6500K high CRI lighting in my bedroom back home and I turned my DVX on and it seemed to do okay under daylight balance...and cloudy days have nearly that color temperature anyway...
If you do ever come out with 1.2k pars sign me up for at least one, though. That's a light I really need but really can't afford.
And I found the site largely by accident....a link on a message board about projectors or something. I think I'll probably buy at least one kit.
I don't know about CTO in the lens, though; that might limit light output unnecessarily. I have 6500K high CRI lighting in my bedroom back home and I turned my DVX on and it seemed to do okay under daylight balance...and cloudy days have nearly that color temperature anyway...
If you do ever come out with 1.2k pars sign me up for at least one, though. That's a light I really need but really can't afford.
And I found the site largely by accident....a link on a message board about projectors or something. I think I'll probably buy at least one kit.
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
I know about these UV gels but I'm not totally sure about that yet and how safe it really is. I'm doing some more research on all this. As for the filter built into the fixture, it will most likely be a removable glass filter in combination with UV block and it'll be just behind the main lens. Will use something like 1/4 CTO for it. How much light could it block gelling down from 6000K? Just like you mentioned above.
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Okay Policar, I posted the Part II of my article on building your own metal halide fresnel on my website.
http://www.coollights.biz/wordpress/archives/33
Also I did more research on those UV protection gels and their definitely effective and I think the easiest solution to use for now. I talked about this in a bit more detail in the article towards the end.
By the way, a 1/8 CTO is all you need to color correct from 6500K to 5500K when matching to other, more standard lighting like fluorescent 5600K tubes or other daylight HMI types.
http://www.coollights.biz/wordpress/archives/33
Also I did more research on those UV protection gels and their definitely effective and I think the easiest solution to use for now. I talked about this in a bit more detail in the article towards the end.
By the way, a 1/8 CTO is all you need to color correct from 6500K to 5500K when matching to other, more standard lighting like fluorescent 5600K tubes or other daylight HMI types.
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Will someone please enlighten me as to why these lights from Lumen Labs would be higher quality than the lights from image west?
http://www.imagewest.tv/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=75
http://www.imagewest.tv/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=75
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Good question!
The image west solution is an open face light with no focusing controls, no lens, no super fine parabolic mirror, etc. A barndoor is about all you get there to help with control.
The article I wrote talks about using a ballast and a bulb and an old fresnel to make your own super efficient hmi type fresnel and goes into enough detail to allow you to do the same. Also, the lumen labs solution is drawing an actual 400w which means conservatively that it could put out around 1200w worth of light. It's 90 CRI too and 6500K so we know it's specs. Read on to find out more about the Alzo solution...
A single light from the other source is NOT 800w despite their marketing hype. Disingenuous in the least! They don't even list lumen output anywhere on the page...
That unit is actually the Alzo 800 they sell and it only draws 140w. Saying that it puts out 800w worth of light and not reporting actual draw (except but in fine print there) is super insincere (and I'm being very kind there because this is a public board ;-).
One of my customers that bought one of these units reported back to me that it's a joke in its light output compared to a 200w household bulb which turned out to be brighter. You should conservatively expect to get about 360w to 400w worth of light out of a bulb like the Alzo one though (actually metal halide bulbs can be anywhere from 80 to 140 lumens per watt so I usually quote near the 80 to be safe and set expectations correctly)--and they should report it as such instead of calling it an 800w and confusing people. Also, they don't seem to be too proud of CRI for the unit too which is a valid and important spec to report on a light like this! Lumen output would be a normal thing to talk about too.
They manage to spam every other keyword in their sales copy. Do you suppose they know what CRI is? Why would you make users write to you to find it out--just curious? This isn't a security floodlight they're selling for putting above the garage although it's probably only suited to that kind of use in actuality. They're packaging it as a "video light" so it should be marketed with all the proper specs.
Maybe my customer whose real first name is "Greg" too will see this posting and chime in, I'm actually not sure what his DVXUser name is...
The image west solution is an open face light with no focusing controls, no lens, no super fine parabolic mirror, etc. A barndoor is about all you get there to help with control.
The article I wrote talks about using a ballast and a bulb and an old fresnel to make your own super efficient hmi type fresnel and goes into enough detail to allow you to do the same. Also, the lumen labs solution is drawing an actual 400w which means conservatively that it could put out around 1200w worth of light. It's 90 CRI too and 6500K so we know it's specs. Read on to find out more about the Alzo solution...
A single light from the other source is NOT 800w despite their marketing hype. Disingenuous in the least! They don't even list lumen output anywhere on the page...
That unit is actually the Alzo 800 they sell and it only draws 140w. Saying that it puts out 800w worth of light and not reporting actual draw (except but in fine print there) is super insincere (and I'm being very kind there because this is a public board ;-).
One of my customers that bought one of these units reported back to me that it's a joke in its light output compared to a 200w household bulb which turned out to be brighter. You should conservatively expect to get about 360w to 400w worth of light out of a bulb like the Alzo one though (actually metal halide bulbs can be anywhere from 80 to 140 lumens per watt so I usually quote near the 80 to be safe and set expectations correctly)--and they should report it as such instead of calling it an 800w and confusing people. Also, they don't seem to be too proud of CRI for the unit too which is a valid and important spec to report on a light like this! Lumen output would be a normal thing to talk about too.
They manage to spam every other keyword in their sales copy. Do you suppose they know what CRI is? Why would you make users write to you to find it out--just curious? This isn't a security floodlight they're selling for putting above the garage although it's probably only suited to that kind of use in actuality. They're packaging it as a "video light" so it should be marketed with all the proper specs.
Maybe my customer whose real first name is "Greg" too will see this posting and chime in, I'm actually not sure what his DVXUser name is...