Cool Lights CDM 150 Inensity Control

L

Lasvideo

Active member
I am about to buy an interview kit from Cool Lights USA. In it will be:

CL-LS4 Cool Lights Air Cushioned Portable Stand 3- $195.00
 Cool Lights CL-SRB0650 Fresnel Softbox Kit 1-$79.00
 CL-SCR0650 650w Scrim Set $24.00
CL-SCR0300 300w Scrim Set $20.00
CL-MF0070 Cool Lights CDM 70 Fresnel 1- $379.00
CL-MF0150 Cool Lights CDM 150 Fresnel*** Color Temperature 5400K 2-$918.00

My question is this...what is the best way to control the light intensity of the CDM 150. I know the barn doors can cofine the light, but reducing the intensity is the issue here
If it is to bright for the environment, do the scrims effectively bring it down?
I know with tungsten you can get a voltage controller to dial down the brightness, but Im not sure the best way to do this with the CDM lights. Thanks!
 
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Scrims are your best bet. Using dimmers will change the color temperature of your light, so people usually try and avoid that.
 
You answered your own question Tom! Scrims are really the only effective way to do it until we get a ballast with dimming but its not on our priority development list though and even if you could, metal halide doesn't dim below 50% before it loses ignition. But yes, the ballast is the only way with any electronic lighting like fluorescent, CDM and even LEDs.
 
Cool Lights said:
You answered your own question Tom! Scrims are really the only effective way to do it until we get a ballast with dimming but its not on our priority development list though and even if you could, metal halide doesn't dim below 50% before it loses ignition. But yes, the ballast is the only way with any electronic lighting like fluorescent, CDM and even LEDs.
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Richard, given your detailed knowledge of light theory and your products, can you give me a rough idea of the reduction effect the scrims I am purchasing would have on the CDM150 (ie 10% reduction for the full scrim) ? Also, would the soft box I am purchasing provide a reduction of light as well?
 
The other way to bring down the light intensity, of course, is to move the light back. If it's six feet away, move it back about 30 inches and you'll cut the light in half.
 
hey Richard we were tring to buy a led 600 kit last week but when we hit the buy now button it came back to the us website? and what are we going to be looking at for shipping for the 600 led with softbox kit /stand to get into canada? cheeper for 2 ?
 
Does dimming from the ballast on an HMI head change the color temperature? Or is it only on tungsten lamps that this happens?

Also David, a clever solution. :)
 
Not clever in the sense that it's original -- it's one of the most basic ways of controlling light intensity. It's also usually the quickest and easiest.
 
Lasvideo said:
Richard, given your detailed knowledge of light theory and your products, can you give me a rough idea of the reduction effect the scrims I am purchasing would have on the CDM150 (ie 10% reduction for the full scrim) ? Also, would the soft box I am purchasing provide a reduction of light as well?
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The softbox has what we call 1 stop silk on it so it brings it down 1 stop of light. The green scrims bring down by 1/2 stop and red scrims bring down by 1 stop.
 
RyanT said:
Does dimming from the ballast on an HMI head change the color temperature? Or is it only on tungsten lamps that this happens?
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Yes somewhat. But you can't dim it below 50% anyway as HMI isn't capable of it so the amount it changes almost isn't worth talking about.
 
Tom,

Given that the kit is an interview specific set up, is there a reason why you're not considering a fluoro unit for your key ?
 
Lasvideo said:
You have good timing. After more researching I decided to buy only 1 CDM150 and add this to the kit.

CL-455P Cool Lights Portable 4 x 55 watt Softlight

This way I have several options for a key with varying qualities of light.
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I recently took the plunge into the fluro world myself with the dimmable version of that unit- I'm loving it! They rock for interviews-little heat, low power draw, and daylight balance capability. Their output is amazing for the size. I use mine with some opal or frost over the front. If I didn't, I'd consider getting the two bank unit instead due to the output. FWIW, it replaced a Tota/ Chimera key light combo. The only drawbacks are the size, weight and increased fragility of this unit over the Chimera set-up.

Also, I can't speak highly enough of the 256 LED. I'm ga-ga over this unit. If you are so inclined, check it out. I use mine as a hair light for interviews and any number of ways for commercial work. The versatility of the unit blows me away- especially the ability to use it with batteries. I look at this unit as being a Pepper replacement (at least, in part) for me.
 
hotchkiss said:
I recently took the plunge into the fluro world myself with the dimmable version of that unit- I'm loving it! They rock for interviews-little heat, low power draw, and daylight balance capability. Their output is amazing for the size. I use mine with some opal or frost over the front. If I didn't, I'd consider getting the two bank unit instead due to the output. FWIW, it replaced a Tota/ Chimera key light combo. The only drawbacks are the size, weight and increased fragility of this unit over the Chimera set-up.
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Can you clarify what you mean by this statement? Also, why is this unit more fragile then the Chimera?
 
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