Alzo 15% off sale for those looking

[starcentral]

Hey guys, Alzo Digital is offering 15% off on their products until Feb 17th 2013 incase you were thinking of getting any lights.

I've used their dimmable 2 and 4 bank flo's and they are really good I have to admit. They are dimmable, selectable, and come with a grid and diffusion screen so can be put to all kinds of uses from key, fill, and even background lights.

One thing I really liked about them is the flat square edges on all sides which means you can actually just put it on a floor and it will stand by itself, etc..

I don't know a lot about their other products, but anyway just wanted to pass this along.


** I do not work for Alzo Digital.

 

[Michael Carter]

I grabbed another bulb & ballast HID combo - with the sale it was $111. Really, really nice little light. It would really rock in their pancake lantern (which is dirt cheap).

Just tore up an old speedotron blackline head to take the Alzo bulb. Now I can use my 11" grid reflector, striplights, octobox or beauty dish for video. Very psyched!

 

[starcentral]

Post some pictures of that, sounds intriguing...

 

[Michael Carter]

Kind of looks the same, except instead of a flash tube and bayonet modeling light, it has the big Alzo bulb sticking out.

The middle hole in the front plate of the light was exactly perfect for an HID rated ceramic socket. About an inch down into the light was a circuit board; I just chopped that out and made a steel bracket for the socket and bolted it in, so the socket is recessed into the head. I rewired the modeling light switch to the fan in the head, so when there's no audio I can run the fan and cool the light. The bulb sticks out too far still to use a 7" reflector with a grid, but the 11" is fine as are softboxes.

Temperature on a speedo 103 head (150 watt model light with no fan) is about 127 degrees; temp on the modded 102 running the Alzo is 114 - about 100 with the fan running, so I'm well within heat limits. And between takes you can run the fan - the fan aslo speeds up the cold start time significantly, so it's handy even when capturing sound.

The only oddball thing I had to do was get a male household plug (the big extension cord size) and run one lead out to a female computer-style plug to power the alzo ballast, with 120 going on to the light for the fan; then sticking out of the light is a household plug; so there's sort of a "Y" out of the power plug - one cable goes straight to the head and the other "breaks open" to attach the ballast. All this so I wouldn't have to run 2 cables out of the head and waste a stinger on set. I don't like the Alzo's rubber stand-holder straps, I'll do a nylon strap & carabiner so I can hang it from the stand.

With a 36" strip light (internal baffle removed but with the fabric grid) I'm getting just shy of f4 at 5 feet, 400 iso. So it's not really killer - the Alzo bulb is diffused though, so I'll try it without the front baffle and see what I get. So not super-killer for a sotbox light, but I tend to use the Alzo's for bounce, 3 or 4 of 'em at a time. Mainly I don't love the Alzo lights with built-in ballast - they're rickety things. I had one overheat and die. Took it apart to see if there was some temp breaker that could be reset, found the temp sensor on the circuit board but nothin'. Put it back together to send it in, and it worked again. The bulb & ballast is a third of the cost and pretty flexible, just not a ton of light but useful.

I'm thinking of trying one of those 400 watt mogul grow lights (or aquarium or projector, depending who's selling 'em). They have some 6500k units rated at 95 CRI, looking into that - about $150 for a bulb & ballast, which should work in a mogul based Photoflex Starlight rig (which take up to 1k tungsten mogul bulbs). I have the amvona knockoff to play with.

 

[starcentral]

On the grow lights, I bought a 250w 6200k massive CFL on eBay (no ballast required). It wasn't cheap, but throw it in a medium sized softbox and you've got 1000w (equiv.) soft daylight.

 

[Michael Carter]

I've some 85 watt big-ass CFLs, I use them for extra green screen lighting. Their color is a bit lame, but I probably got 'em 2 years ago and things may have improved - what's the color like on those huge 200's? And are they mogul or standard?

I'm interested in the 400 HIDs - could I really get a 1200 equivalent in daylight for under 200 bucks? Waiting to hear back about their return policy, they say DIY projector people have bought them and been satisfied.

I made these out of scraps and some china ball sockets, they do kick out some light - I tend to use them on really wide green screen shots but I've used them when I need a little more kick as well:

 

[starcentral]

This is the one I have; 250w 6500k (correction not 6200k as I specified earlier) for only ~$90. 120volts, no ballast and MOGUL base.

Bounce this sucker off a large 8x8 hanging muslin and you've get the most beautiful looking natural "window daylight" you've ever seen.

I can't believe this shipped to me to Canada and didn't even break!