Advice purchasing HMI lights

Paul Hudson said:
Look, I don't own any Cool Lights but I hav used them. To be sure they are not built like an Arri or LTM but their build quality is not bad, at all. IMHO dollar for dollar Coollight is the best bargain out there.
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Well said. I have three of their fluorescents and they have all performed very well. For non-Kino Flo fluorescents I don't really think there is much competition, I think they are the best in that area.
 
Ricky,

"I'm not saying Cool Lights are trash, I never said that."

But you DID say that in your first post!

"But I do agree, Cool lights are terrible and NOT a good investment. You might as well buy a beat up truck painted new from the 80s, because it will only last you (if lucky) a few months.

I want to be done with this, but it just cranks my ass when someone makes comments like this that are simply rubbish. I think Paul summed it up in the previous post. Couldn't have said it better.

Peace
Grant
 
Ricky, are you trashing Lowel light? You don't know much about lights, do you? If you knew you would know that they are a very unique design that is unlike anything out there and thus can be a solution for many problems that more standard instruments can not handle.
 
Thanks to all for your input. I think I'll give Cool Lights a try in the future with their kinos or led fixtures. For now I have another dilema regarding the HMIs.

Can high power leds be an alternative to hmis? I guess I'll start a new thread on this since it is a completely different topic, but just wanted to throw it out there meanwhile.
 
David Seow said:
Thanks to all for your input. I think I'll give Cool Lights a try in the future with their kinos or led fixtures. For now I have another dilema regarding the HMIs.

Can high power leds be an alternative to hmis? I guess I'll start a new thread on this since it is a completely different topic, but just wanted to throw it out there meanwhile.
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In a way, yes. LEDs tend to be soft though, and sometimes you'd want hard light to shape through diffusion or flags and stuff. And in most cases HMIs are used outside so you're battling the sun. And every LED I've seen can't really compete with that ball of fire up in the sky
 
RickyC said:
In a way, yes. LEDs tend to be soft though, and sometimes you'd want hard light to shape through diffusion or flags and stuff. And in most cases HMIs are used outside so you're battling the sun. And every LED I've seen can't really compete with that ball of fire up in the sky
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These pics are from the Nila website. They seem to hold up for exteriors compared to other leds...

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David Seow said:
Can high power leds be an alternative to hmis?
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No. Those are two very different beasts. HMIs are used when low ISO is needed or exposure with something where outside is visble (thus potentially fighting the sun) while LEDs are generally used as accent lights. Yes, they can be used as your key light but then you run into a host of other issues (color temp etc).
 
Yeah LEDs are fine when its overcast, but try that in a sunny day. I've used Kinos in overcast days, even small tungsten lights with some CTB on it and its fine.

HMIs are also popular for their power, try standing infront of a 12k. We light cigarrettes that way :) Do they even make some really high powered LEDs? Something thats small and portable? I havent seen anything except for those prototype big lights. David those lights look like they pack a punch, but can't really tell how dark it really was

I wouldn't mind owning a few of those, which LEDs are they? First time seeing them here
 
RickyC said:
Do they even make some really high powered LEDs? Something thats small and portable?
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Just recently I worked on this feature and used the most amazing LED light the DP had gotten from PRG to test out. There was no name for the light or any specs in terms of how much wattage it drew. It just had two 10"x10" panels where you would slide in these daylight or tungsten filters. The weird thing was the daylight and tungsten filters looked both pretty yellow and the daylight one would only change blue when you turned the light on, could have been a diachroic filter or something, not quite sure.

Either way, the head was pretty portable and lightweight, but it had a pretty hefty ballast, maybe 10-15 pounds. I'd say the output is comparable to a 400 or even an 800 watt joker with a chimera, but was dimmable down to maybe 15% with very little color temperature change. We used it for both day interior and night interior scenes and it worked pretty great.

I wish I knew what they were going to release it as, but just keep an eye out for a red colored light from PRG.
 
RickyC said:
Yeah LEDs are fine when its overcast, but try that in a sunny day. I've used Kinos in overcast days, even small tungsten lights with some CTB on it and its fine.

HMIs are also popular for their power, try standing infront of a 12k. We light cigarrettes that way
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Do they even make some really high powered LEDs? Something thats small and portable? I havent seen anything except for those prototype big lights. David those lights look like they pack a punch, but can't really tell how dark it really was

I wouldn't mind owning a few of those, which LEDs are they? First time seeing them here
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Hey Ricky, I placed the links to those and other similar lights in this thread:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?288347-Nila-LEDs-compared-to-HMIs
 
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