Best lights for Chimera?

R

Ronald Gerald Smith

Active member
I'm looking in to investing in a Chimera Softbox. I love the way it looks, and the way it wraps light around the face. But there are so many options when it comes to a Chimera - there are daylight, daylight jr, video pro, quartz bank.

The Quartz bank looks the best to me, because it can handle higher temperatures and also is a lot shallower than the daylight banks, and it is only slighter deeper than the video pro.

I am wondering what sort of lights would be better for a Quartz bank? Money is not too much of an issue, but I would like to stick with tungsten rather than any HMI. I have to choose between Arri or Mole open face lights, Tota light, the Lowell 1k, and I am open to any other suggestion. I have heard that Arri open face lights can melt, because of their plastic casing, so I am leaning more towards a Mickey and/or Mighty Mole. Money isn't really an issue, so I want the softbox/lamp combo that is the prettiest, wraps the best, and overall is an excellent match for the softbox. I know that this is all very subjective, but I trust all of your judgement!

(I posted this same thing on cinematography.com, just wanted to get the expertise of dvxusers as well)

Thanks!
Ron
 
Mole dominates tungsten lighting. But may I ask why you want to go tungsten? I'd take HMI all day, every day.

If you want pretty and soft, why not go for a barger baglite? The don't even need a speed ring.
 
Thanks Perrone,

I've considered all of those choices. First of all, I kind of lied; price can be an issue, especially if we're talking about the cost of HMI lighting. I need some good interior tungsten balanced lights, which are cheaper and are at the right color temperature, and I don't want to have to gel HMIs. I will consider HMIs an investment for the next 10 years or so. I will rent HMIs until I can afford the $6K-$8K to get a decent 1200W HMI Par.

I considered Barger Baglite. That might be a good option.

I never used an open face light with a chimera. I've used several bare bulb kind of fixtures. I'd like to know peoples' experiences with open face lights (Arrilite or Mickey/Might Mole) and chimeras.
 
So the open face 1ks give that much more via the reflector dish? If so..maybe a cheap DP would do. I've used a 1/2 blue on a tota/chimera in a controlled setup. If you're matching to raw windows..gotta go much higher than any of the 1ks when in a tent.
 
I read from a user that he recommends barebulb kind of fixtures rather than open face, because they are more omni directional inside the softbox and thus a softer light that shooting a directional beam through the diffusion. This makes sense, however, it leads me to question the idea about the general size of sources, and the bigger the source, the softer the source, rather than the intensity.
 
a bare bulb would have much harder spot than few totas or few DPs, than bigger reflective surface than better
 
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