Cool Light HMI

Paul Hudson

Paul Hudson

Vacuum Tube Member
Does anyone know if the 1200 watt Par HMI from Cool Lights have a 300 hertz ballast. Most new electronic ballast are and the older ones aren't. This cause some serious banding and flickering when shooting high frame rates and fast shutters. Anyway, I hope so it looks like a good alternative for table top work for us.
 
Its currently 75 hz at the flicker free setting which is what flicker free commonly meant in the past. We are considering higher rates for the 1200 in the future. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Richard. 75 hertz is good for 95% of things people shoot. It is good for 50% of my stuff but I am often called on to do tabletop (food) and it always comes down to fast frame rates and fast shutter speeds. As you know the 75hz lights are a big problem with both of these. I do have a couple of newer Power Gems 575 300 hz but when shooting at 120 fps and 1/2000 shutter speed it really doesn't get the job done.

These HMI's are used primarily as kickers the keys are usually Kino Image 80's placed about a foot to 18 inches from the product. The frequency on flo's are high enough to never cause a problem.
 
phudsontx said:
Thanks Richard. 75 hertz is good for 95% of things people shoot. It is good for 50% of my stuff but I am often called on to do tabletop (food) and it always comes down to fast frame rates and fast shutter speeds. As you know the 75hz lights are a big problem with both of these. I do have a couple of newer Power Gems 575 300 hz but when shooting at 120 fps and 1/2000 shutter speed it really doesn't get the job done.

These HMI's are used primarily as kickers the keys are usually Kino Image 80's placed about a foot to 18 inches from the product. The frequency on flo's are high enough to never cause a problem.
Click to expand...
Are you the guy making those wonderful food shots for Red Lobster?

Love to see some of your stuff, Paul. Got a link?
 
Pouring liquid is part art and part science. To make it real sexy you really have to rev up the shutter and frame rate. I will post some things when I get back to the studio in a few days. I am in LA for a film premier Friday. A little film I produced is premiering at the the theater at Warner Brothers Studios.
 
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