I was thinking of ordering some lights from Cool Lights (a dvxUser sponsor), then I noticed their last activity on this forum was in 2013, and the last blog entry at their website was from 2009. :shocked: I sent them an email ... no response yet. Are they still doing business? Anyone bought from them in 2015?
Cool Lights: Still around?
- Thread starter Ken Hull
- Start date
Good for them, still in business. When I was looking to put some lights together, I took a serious look at their HMI fresnels. It was a good deal. But lighting technology has moved on, and it seems to me - I might be wrong - that Cool Lights has sort of stayed where they were. LED lights have come on strong, and CL have one LED fixture - nominally (it's out of stock) - whereas LED lights are now starting to move into traditional HMI territory. I honestly believe that LEDs point toward the future - more efficient, less heat, more portability, more durability, faster to set up / take down, more color options etc. We're still not there, but getting closer: colors are getting better and more full spectrum, and crucially they're getting brighter. I think that within a very few short years, we'll get to the point where LED lights will take over most production work at almost any budget. Even prices will come down eventually. In view of this evolution, how are companies like CL going to handle that transition? What are they going to bring to the table that's going to be their competitive advantage? I wish them the best, but it looks to me like the film/video lighting industry is going to be very challenging over the next few years.
Phil Rhodes
Well-known member
There is a need to be cautious here.
LED technology is new(ish) and shiny and promises much. There are, however, still things it can't do properly. It isn't available in power densities over a hundred watts or so, at least if you want a point source. It frequently requires potentially-noisy fan cooling. It isn't much more efficient than things like HMI, if at all. The colorimetry, other than in the very best units, is questionable, and the very best units are extremely expensive. Quality products such as the Zylight F series, in their new 200W version (which is fan cooled), is only a few tens of percent cheaper than a much more powerful K5600 400W joker bug HMI. Cheap LED can suffer severe caveats.
This gap is narrowing, but HMI has plenty of legs left in it. Let's not get caught up in the rush for the new shiny.
P
Grug
Veteran
They're very versatile, being able to run both 3200k and 6000k lamps in the same fixture is great. But the cold-start ballasts can get quite problematic on fast-moving sets, and the build quality is very much commensurate with the price point. I bought two and within 18 months had the barndoors on both become useless, the yokes refuse to tighten, and the supports holding the electronics in the ballasts in place, crumble.
So both of mine have been out of action since.
Buy once, cry once would be my warning when it comes to cheap gear compared to the expensive stuff.
Phil Rhodes
Well-known member
Strictly speaking, they're not HMIs, they're ceramic metal halide. But that's not really a problem, as I say, other than the fact that nobody seems to make 150W metal halide ballasts with hot restrike. I suspect it is theoretically possible to do so.
I have several cheaply-converted source four PARs using essentially the same technology which are very useful. I would have thought that the sort of mechanical problems you describe would be fixable by anyone with basic workshop skills. What's actually broken?
P
I have several cheaply-converted source four PARs using essentially the same technology which are very useful. I would have thought that the sort of mechanical problems you describe would be fixable by anyone with basic workshop skills. What's actually broken?
P
Bern Caughey
Veteran
CoolLights' CDM globe was not properly centered so the pattern produced by the fresnel wasn't great. Full flood was OK, but spot produced an elliptical pattern.