575 or 1.2K HMI

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DanKov

Well-known member
I am looking to add an HMI to my light kit, and I can't seem to decide between a 575 or 1.2K. I mostly do small scale work inside, but that may be changing in the future. Would a 575 fresnel be worthless outside in sun at a distance? What are the plus and minus to each unit?
 
Yes a 575w Fresnel would be basically worthless outside in the sun at a distance. So too would be a 1.2k Fresnel. A 1.2k par is about the minimum for getting something that's even going to register on camera at any distance, in sunlight.
 
We have used both 575w & 1.2K on occasion for a fill light outdoors with something along the lines of a 1/4 grid cloth overhead, but these are not far and wide shots.
 
Understood and agreed; the part I was responding to was when he said "at a distance". I was trying to let him know that a 575w Fresnel, at any substantial distance, isn't going to even show up on camera. For fill for a headshot, maybe, but for a wide scene, no, you'd be far better off with a reflector board.
 
Id start with 1.2k/1.8k pars. These will work the most in terms of small HMIs. There really is no reason to go with a 1.2k that doesnt also do 1.8k anymore. I love my frensels but 90% of the time we are diffusing the units anyways. Ive worked movies where the only hmi fresnels were 18ks. Everything smaller were pars. Kind of a rule-of-thumb, a fresnel will be as bright as the next size down par. So a 4k fresnel will have approximately the output of a 2.5k par. This only holds if you don't need to make nice shadows. To make nice shadows through a window for example you would need the next larger sized par then fresnel. This is because you would need to put the par farther away. A 575 fresnel would be useless in the broad daylight unless it was overcast and all you needed was an eyelight. The main thing when choosing an HMI is to buy a quality unit. Mole and Arri are all i use. Never been a fan of LTM but they are hardy units as well. Avoid Ebay lights. Keep in mind the ballast is the heart of the system. Buy a new ballasts and the head itself can be used, dented or even something you've built yourself, etc. I use Power-to-Light ballasts exclusively. Cool lights is not an option.
 
Own-your-own... budget has a massive impact on that. The Joker stuff is killer, but you need to be pretty busy to drop $4k on one light.

I think of work as sort of 2-level stuff... bigger gigs, and smaller gigs where I'm filling in open days and using what I own. I really wouldn't mind an HMI for those days (or for music vids or experimental stuff). I'll probably keep an eye on pyramid films for a 1.2 used with an electronic ballast. Or maybe give the cool lights stuff a try - used HMI pars in the 1.2 range just don't show up very often, and that would be a useful light to own.
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys. Right now my budget is somewhere is the 1,200 range. I'm thinking 1.2K may be the way to go if I can find one in that price range.
 
I picked up an old Arrisun 1.2K Par with a magnetic ballast for less than that at an auction. I have to replace some of the lenses but it kicks out enough daylight for my purposes, mostly sunlight coming in a window stuff on smaller location shoots. I have a 575 fresnesl but I don't find that as useful. You know what's really useful to me is a 200w fresnel with an electronic ballast that I picked up at that auction. That's pretty handy because I can use it for hard daylight inside with the daylight kinos.

Doing a big setup like Macs's there isn't how I currently can daylight exteriors. I mostly bounce and butterfly but I'm hoping I can use that 1.2K like that, closer and on a smaller scale. It seems to have a lot of punch and so far the testing has been pretty good.
 
Fresnels in that range are quickly falling into disuse, the rental company for the last job I was on didn't even have 1.2k fresnels. Go with a PAR, you can punch those through a small to medium sized window on a sunny day and still get a pretty strong effect.

I could see 575w fresnels being nicer than PARs for indoor use though, since they wouldn't require as much flagging.

For 1.2k's, unless you find a magnetic ballast for a price that's too low to pass up on, save up more and go with an electronic ballast. That's what everyone uses now, you won't break your back carrying one of those around. Magnetic 575w ballasts are manageable, but still pretty heavy.
 
First define the size of your productions. Based on that you will know the kind of light you might want to consider. There are some HUGE lights in this range and very small ones (the best and most expensive being K5600). On my own productions i reach for 575 more often than 1.2 mostly because 575 is a light that can be managed by one person while 1.2 (even small one like LTM) needs extra person to help.

Electronic ballasts are great but they cost an arm and a leg (1-1.5k) moreover they often produce considerable hum at the head (especially with double ended bulbs) - the soundman will hate your electronic ballasts and love your mag ones.

Honestly if you have only $1200 then you will have to look long and hard to find a bargain. Add around $500 more and you can get yourself a great kit.
 
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