I can’t agree with Chris on this point either. Incandescent lights are the least efficient of all the available light sources that you can run on generators. Since eighty percent of the energy consumed by an incandescent light goes into the generation of heat, they generate less lumens per watt of any other light source. Add to that, the fact that the Full CTB gel required to convert incandescent lights to daylight has a transmission factor around .3 (it takes a 1000 Watt incandescent source to generate 300 Watts of day light balanced light) make them the most impractical light source from an efficiency standpoint to operate on a portable generator. If you absolutely can’t afford an HMI, I would suggest you use the Kino Flo Parabeam for the reasons discussed above.
The Kino Flo Parabeam 400 fixture is similar to a 2,000 Watt incandescent softlight in both quality and intensity. But unlike a 2k softlight, they can operate both 5500K (daylight) & 3200K (quartz) lamps and use 1/10th the power of comparable incandescent soft lights. These features make the Kino Flo Parabeam fixtures, like all fluorescent lights, a more efficient light source to operate off of portable generators.
But, what distinguishes the Parabeam fixtures from other fluorescent lights is their throw, power efficiency, and the innovative accessories Kino Flo makes available for the fixtures. Accessories include barndoors, a gel frame, a diffusion panel, and Honeycomb Louvers. These features enhance the production capabilities of the Parabeam fixtures and make them suitable to serve as a key or backlight source where conventional fluorescent movie light fixtures are not.
As discussed in this thread conventional fluorescent movie lights (Kino Flo’s included) have a very broad soft light output that is hard to control. The light also tends to drop off rapidly which means that to serve as key source, the units need to be positioned close to the subject they are lighting. These characteristics make them best suited to serve as key sources in documentary interview set ups where the keys are typically positioned close to the interview subject. In that capacity they generate a wonderful soft light that wraps around the interview subject without wilting them. But, given these characteristics, conventional fluorescent movie lights have only limited applications as fill sources in dramatic set lighting.
The ParaBeam fixtures have computer aided designed (CAD) parabolic reflectors that focus the light output where it is needed most for lighting dramatic scenes - at a medium distance – making it an ideal key source for HD Digital Cinema. If you compare the photometric tables in my post above of the Parabeam 400 and the Diva 400 (which uses the same four lamps), you will notice that at 16’ the Parabeam 400 puts out almost three times the light level (28FC) than the Diva 400 (10FC) even though they both use the same tubes. In fact a Parabeam 400 generates as much light at 16’ as the 4’ 8-Tube Kino Flathead 80 fixture, yet uses less than a quarter of the power (2 Amps verses 9.2 Amps.) While the seven amp difference is not a major consideration when using house power, it can make a difference when your power is limited (coming from a portable generator) because you can use four Parabeam 400s for the same power as a 4’ – 8 Bank Kino Flathead 80. Kino Flo Parabeam ballasts are one of the few Kino ballasts to include filters to reduce the return of harmonic currents into the power stream and improve their power factor. The Parabeam fixtures have power factor ratings of over .9 making them an especially suitable fluorescent light for use on small portable generators.
If by chance you are shooting with the Red Camera, Kino Flo Parabeam fixtures are ideal for filming with the Red One. Since the Red’s native color balance is 5000K, it looks best when the lighting package consists of 5500K sources. Using tungsten light sources doesn’t make a lot of sense because balancing tungsten to 5000K is not very efficient for the reasons given above.. A 1000W 3200K light becomes a 300W 5000K light when you put Full CTB on it. It makes more sense to use HMIs to light for the Red’s native color balance of 5000K because they provide more lumens/watt and require less filtration with gels. A 400 W HMI will give you considerably more output than a color corrected Tungsten 1k, and use up a lot less of the limited power available from your generator. Unfortunately HMIs are expensive to buy or rent.
Kino Flo Parabeam fixtures are a cost effective alternative to HMIs because they can use 5500K tubes. The provide beam control similar to that of swapping lenses on an HMI by interchanging their honeycomb louvers. And, they are even more efficient sources than HMIs. When using 5500K tubes to light for the Red’s 5000K native color balance, you can warm the lights without losing output to CTO gels by simply mixing in 3200K tubes with the 5500k tubes.
Compared to LED Fixtures, Kino Flo Parabeam fixtures offer greater versatility. Able to interchange different color temperature tubes, and vary beam spread with their interchangeable honeycomb louvers, the Parabeam fixture can do what it takes four different Lite Panel LED fixtures to accomplish – Spot and Flood in both 5500K and 3200K. If you absolutely can’t afford HMIs I would recommend the Kino Parabeams because they have great light quality, output, beam control, and versatility making them an ideal key or back light source for HD cinema production.
Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip , Boston
