Cool Lights or Alt. Flo Lighting - Screen Grabs/footy

[tverhaar]

tverhaar,

For sure the spiral lamp models are really simple and can be made quite a bit cheaper. One thing that bothers me about them though--especially the ones where the bulbs are really close to each other is the part that's not getting out to the world but just shining over on its brother (or sister if you prefer) bulb next to it. I prefer the model where most of the spiral is exposed to a reflector.

When you have 4, 6, 9, 12, or whatever bulbs all crowded together, I wonder about the efficiency of the inner parts of all those bulbs, not making it out to the reflector. With biax lamps its easier to design a reflector that exposes much of the backside of the bulb too.

And on another note, Richard... :smile:

As far as creating something in the multi-spiral-bulb form factor, I would suggest spacing the sockets farther apart and angling them slightly outward. If they are angled outward and placed in a reflector box, some of the issues you speak about would be mitigated - more of the light would be either thrown forward or reflected off the sides. If the sockets were placed farther apart and the lamp were wired to handle higher wattages overall, larger bulbs could be fitted to the unit (assuming the reflector box would accommodate their size). That way, as larger high quality bulbs were developed, the fixture could accommodate them. I see some of the bulbs at 55 watts have a cone shape but being 4 1/2 inches wide, most fixtures couldn't accommodate them. It's true that they are only 82 CRI (and may be unreliable) but I can only guess quality will improve in all these areas over time. Have I missed on too many points here?

Your single bulb socket is certainly interesting but, admitedly limited as it is only one socket. And, of course, there isn't yet a reflector available. Your site says it could accommodate an HMI bulb but wouldn't one need a reflector and some sort of front screen to be safe with the HMI/HID bulb? Otherwise, I could certainly see using the Alzo bulb and ballast, maybe??

OK - i'll shut up now.

Regards,
TVH

 

[vidled]

High CRI CFLs (and tubes):

- FullSpectrumSolutions
- Sunwave
- Ott-Lite

(all 93 to 95+ CRI)

 

[Cool Lights]

Hi tverhaar,

My blog article on color temperature and cri explains why companies like britek sell bulbs in 6400K:

http://www.coollights.biz/wordpress/archives/13

Read that and then if you still have questions come back and let me know.

You can buy 80w bulbs here very cheaply in 6400K. The price goes up quite a bit for custom orders. The reasons I rejected many of the samples we got were varied. Split between color temperature / CRI issues (in some cases outright lying about what color temp or cri they sent to us) and ballast issues.

Many of the ones we saw here were just like ones you see for sale in the USA. There's another level where you step up in quality with companies like Maxlite which are also made here but have a very solid feel to them.

But for us, it's so much easier to deal with the 55w tubes and control their quality now that we have a trusted manufacturer for those.

 

[Cool Lights]

As far as creating something in the multi-spiral-bulb form factor, I would suggest spacing the sockets farther apart and angling them slightly outward. If they are angled outward and placed in a reflector box, some of the issues you speak about would be mitigated - more of the light would be either thrown forward or reflected off the sides. If the sockets were placed farther apart and the lamp were wired to handle higher wattages overall, larger bulbs could be fitted to the unit (assuming the reflector box would accommodate their size). That way, as larger high quality bulbs were developed, the fixture could accommodate them. I see some of the bulbs at 55 watts have a cone shape but being 4 1/2 inches wide, most fixtures couldn't accommodate them. It's true that they are only 82 CRI (and may be unreliable) but I can only guess quality will improve in all these areas over time. Have I missed on too many points here?

That's my thinking too. If I designed a multi-spiral fixture, first of all, I wouldn't put more than four bulbs in it perhaps and would space them apart and probably put them at an angle too -- even though thats a pain to engineer. All of those points are right. Then we need a custom softbox though with a bigger opening in the back for the larger fixture. Most of these types don't use a speedring anymore. The fixture is the speedring and the mounting poles for the softbox go into the fixture. That's what we would have to do also.

Your single bulb socket is certainly interesting but, admitedly limited as it is only one socket. And, of course, there isn't yet a reflector available. Your site says it could accommodate an HMI bulb but wouldn't one need a reflector and some sort of front screen to be safe with the HMI/HID bulb? Otherwise, I could certainly see using the Alzo bulb and ballast, maybe??

We don't carry the reflector yet, but the customers that are interested in our fixture are using the bulb and reflector I point them too. For bulb, the Maxlite is a good one in 5000K:

http://www.servicelighting.com/catalog_product.cfm?prod=MX35871

There is this one too but no one has been the "guinea pig" yet to order it and try it out:

http://www.teksupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&storeId=10001&productId=65629&langId=-1&division=TekSupply&pageId=ItemDetail&parent_category_rn=&top_category=&breadcrumb_trail=Lighting+Fixtures+%26+Bulbs%7CLight+Bulbs&breadcrumb_categoryIds=35044%7C35054&isDoc=

One reason I hesitate on that one is it looks a lot like many of the reject samples I have in my closet.


For softbox reflector, this one works well with our CL-SFT1 fixture because its got a 5 1/2" speedring which is what our fixture needs to fit in the reflector:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130006289293&ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX_Stores&refitem=120092963395&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget

You can get 24x36 and 31x47 softboxes from that guy too. We'll carry a softbox ourselves soon, just need to find a quality one in China that makes sense to go along with the fixture. So many of them have poor stitching that looks like it might come apart.

And yes, our CL-SFT1 fixture should work fine with the Alzo HMI solution as long as you keep the silk on the front of the softbox.

 

[Kelly Olsen]

Just as an experiment, I did buy one of the Britek 4-bulb/spiral softbox units (the bigger head wasn't yet available) and it doesn't seem too bad so far. I'll post more info after I have had a chance to play with it.

This is exactly one of the things I have been planning on doing. I was thinking that this configuration may be a little more controllable that the Diva / Cool Lights 2 or 4 flat lights.

The main factor is decent spiral CFL bulbs and Bluemax made some that were 30 watts and 5500K which would gel down to 3200K nicely but they stopped making them. Sunalux is still selling some at 5500K.

Be really interested in hearing how it works out for you and your impressions.

 

[Bucknfl]

I just recently purchased a 4 bank cool light and have been impressed. The price and the quality of the light were good.

I did'nt like the silver light intesifers on the inside of the barn doors so I simply removed them. I also noticed that the barn doors can fall out if you pick the light up sideways. The biggest negative on the light is that it is alot heavier than most other comparable flo lights, but hey the price rocks.

 

[Slimothy]

I'm about a week away from making my first Cool Lights purchase and I'm pretty excited.

woop.

 

[Kelly Olsen]

I just recently purchased a 4 bank cool light and have been impressed. The price and the quality of the light were good.

I did'nt like the silver light intesifers on the inside of the barn doors so I simply removed them. I also noticed that the barn doors can fall out if you pick the light up sideways. The biggest negative on the light is that it is alot heavier than most other comparable flo lights, but hey the price rocks.

Thanks for posting your feedback. I was going to order one of these today but your experience has made me think I should take one more look around at other lights before I jump in since there are a couple of other companies selling at the same price point.

 

[JasonFox]

Thanks for posting your feedback. I was going to order one of these today but your experience has made me think I should take one more look around at other lights before I jump in since there are a couple of other companies selling at the same price point.

I don't think you'll find lights at this price point of the "lightweight" variety. From what I've seen posted by others on here, the Flolights are at least just as beefy. Granted, I'm assuming the weight thing is what you're concerned about.

I have the Cool Lights 4x55 and dig it.

 

[Cool Lights]

I just recently purchased a 4 bank cool light and have been impressed. The price and the quality of the light were good.

I did'nt like the silver light intesifers on the inside of the barn doors so I simply removed them. I also noticed that the barn doors can fall out if you pick the light up sideways. The biggest negative on the light is that it is alot heavier than most other comparable flo lights, but hey the price rocks.

The barndoors are supposed to be kept in with two thumbscrews on the end of the slide-in adapter, are those missing in your unit? I think they are about a 1/4-20 size and look like the enclosed pictures.

As far as weight goes, the lights are designed to survive a long drop and still work although the tubes themselves couldn't survive any fall at all. You can think of these as primarily studio models. Something lighter like a Diva won't last as it's made from plastic and wear and tear will take its toll. It's hard to have both portability and sturdiness.

 

[zeke]

For those looking for some 'stout' stands to hold flo boxes, American DJ, Odessy and others maks several models that extend up to 10 feet and have dual cross bars to hold lots of those colored stage lights (Pars) ,that also use yolks like the cool lights. Guitar Center sells them in store and on line http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/dj_lighting/navigation?q=light+stands&x=7&y=9
for some samples