China Ball Question

The lanternlocks on that site are no longer for sale for some reason. They have the site up but no ability to buy them and it says "sales suspended."

I had another dvxuser send me an email with interesting substitute idea that he fashioned. I just asked him for permission to post the pictures and if it comes back positive I'll post it so you guys can see. It's a bit different from my trombone idea but it would work too for an adjustable lantern and is certainly easier to put together than the trombone.

As IBE mentioned, the paper lanterns are a bit fragile. You can try nylon ones from the paperlanternstore and see what you think.

http://www.paperlanternstore.com/

I tried going to paperlanternstore.com by the way and it didn't work for me--server not found, but I'm in China and some links don't work from here and we're not always sure why.
 
Last edited:
Maybe the lanterns there aren't "red" enough. You see red ones all over the place here. Next thing you know they'll be fluoridating the water. Oops too late.

Yeah there's a lot of censorship here. Wikipedia doesn't work for instance but answers.com hooks into that so I can still get some articles from Wikipedia when I need to. The "Iron Curtain" is more like a mosquito net these days with the internet being what it is. Every tv broadcast though has to be approved before it can go on the air and all news correspondents have to have their stories approved also--including foreign ones.
 
Been a while since anyone has been on this thread, thought I'd get some quesitons in.

Does the size the of the ball solely depend on the type of scene?
CFL's where is everyone getting them and what kind? Is that for each scene as well?
I've seen the discussion for size, can you put the Y adapter inside anything smaller than a 24" china ball? I want to try and use 18's"
Should I get dimmers? And where should I looking?
Anyone have scenes from their set up?
Why has the Lanternlock.com site not able to take orders? Anyone email them?
 
18's may give you room for two Y adaptors with 4 bulbs at the most. Size of the bulbs may limit this as well. Dimmers will not work on CFL's except for the dimmable kind. I bought some and they sucked. Get some black fabric to block part of the output. Felt might work, I use Duvetyne. If you use regular bulbs you can use dimmers...harbor freight makes a nice router speed control that can dim up to a 1k lamp. You don't need Lanternlock, why spend the extra dough? Get the bulbs from Home Depot, they are labled Envision. You can check Snodart's beautifully filmed After School for excellent BTS pictures of the Envision daylight bulbs. Check out Timur's awesome work and BTS for Katrina from a tungsten perspective.
 
cinebuddy said:
Get the bulbs from Home Depot, they are labled Envision..
Click to expand...

Actually, they are N:Vision. Sorry to sound like a know-it-all, but I'd hate to get anyone confused. And they work great. I shot a feature with them last month. Haven't had time to post any shots.

E
 
How dare you!

How dare you!

IBEJohnson said:
Actually, they are N:Vision. Sorry to sound like a know-it-all, but I'd hate to get anyone confused. And they work great. I shot a feature with them last month. Haven't had time to post any shots.

E
Click to expand...
You smug son of a...how dare you correct me! Lol, no you're absolutely right that's what I get for trying to remeber details after consecutive nights of 3am feedings. Post those grabs brother!
 
how do you guys store the bulbs...at $8 a crack, it gets real expensive if you drop a "tree" of them
 
jnatalie said:
how do you guys store the bulbs...at $8 a crack, it gets real expensive if you drop a "tree" of them
Click to expand...

I take them out and put them back in their boxes (I don't use N-Vision, mine came in individual boxes). It's not much fun, but it's the only safe way to transport them. Plus, I have tungsten and daylight versions.
 
The ultimate thing would be to make a case that had an eggcrate type thing in it to carry the bulbs around in. Maybe using some of the pluck out foam like Jason has used before. Another possibility is to go to a liquor store and get an empty (or a full one if you prefer) liquor case that has eggcrate separators in it to keep the bottles safe during transport. Not so professional looking though when you show up to a job with a box that says Smirnoff or Jack Daniels on the side ;-)

Definitely don't carry them around on the tree they are way too fragile. And you don't want to be cleaning up mercury either...
 
thanks for the response. so dimmers are no go....black cloth. read ya.
any suggestions as to what watt? i know a 42w in CFL is equiv to like a 200w regular. right?
 
After looking at the Octopus light, it occurred to me that maybe you don't really need a China Ball around it. Anyone tried this?
 
Hi Paul!

As usual your thinking is right ;-) Since flos are already soft, its probably really not necessary other than for further diffusion or dimming. That was the only reason I put my 200w CFL in one.

Someone like Timur who's using a 500w tungsten light really is using the China ball to its greatest advantage. A metal halide inside would be nice too!

Imagine a 150w metal halide putting out almost 13,000 lumens and encapsulated in an explosion-proof glass or polycarbonate clear casing. That would be putting out a bit more than the 500w tungsten light which should be about 10,000 lumens.
 
You don't *need* the china ball, but your talent will probably appreciate not staring directly into 8 lights. :)
 
I tried both ways and I would say the diffusion of China Ball is very apparent compared to bare CFL's, so depending on usage China Balls could be necessary.

Two observations when I tried to construct China Balls in Hong Kong:
1. Despite the nickname finding China Balls in China is harder than one might think, because white lanterns are used solely for funeral affairs in the Chinese culture. Moreover since many Chinese would consider white lanterns as misfortune bearing I am not sure how appropriate their use would be in China.

2. Some very powerful CFL's are widely available in Hong Kong, as powerful as 500W tungsten equivalent; can one find something like that in Home Depot?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top