Daylight Fluros instead of worklights?

John_Hudson said:
I'm all for the guerilla appraoch; but how about some grabs of the lights in action?
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John... this probably 'aint what you had in mind... but here's a short clip which I lit using just one of my Matt-o-flos from 10' away. There is NO other light source in this clip... just the one light. CLICK

As soon as I get a few of my sale-able lights done I'll post all sorts of stuff about 'em. They are really coming together nicely. I think my initial lights will be a little more heavy duty then the next batch... I'm using diamond plate aluminum for the shells. The first 14 lights will be made in a slightly thicker gauge... when I was in the warehouse I thought that the .063 felt like it could be too thin... and .080 is really hard to find, but I found some... normally the jump goes to .100... so anyway, my shells at .080 will be 1.24 pounds per square foot vs. 1.04 on the next batch. I just unwrapped yet another tool yesterday for cutting out the endcaps...

Stay tuned... they're coming.
 
Keep up the good work Matt!

I went to NAB for the expressed purpose of finding a high quality low cost fluro solution that would give me the light of say a Joker 200 in a Chimera for the price of.... say the Lights of America fixtures that are available at Lowes. I know, I know.... asking way too much for way too little, but I did find a few value priced products from Taiwan and am waiting on information from them. When I have a chance, I'm going to do a brief write-up on all the new products coming to the market but I'm still waiting on most of the pricing materials.

One thing I did notice is that the price point for the new fluro's seems to be at about the $700 to $750 price range. My thoughts are if you can come up with a similar product priced a little better, you should have a hot item due to the interest in the lower-cost fluros at NAB.

-Tim
 
Thanks, Tim. Has anyone heard of a light I think is called the "Georky". I know I screwed up the spelling, but I am, being a "Hooked Phonics" sucess story that it is pronounce that way.
They look like some very interesting lights.
 
HI PDX

It is my understanding that you want to shoot for (No Pun) over 90; although I have heard people use some in the 80's. Obviously with the CRI goal being the truest CRI as possible but with todays POST tools and Color Correction styles one can have some leeway on this?

MattinSTL

Thanks for sharing that; it looked good! :)
 
The thought of being able to do something similar to a Kinoflo is awsome. I am seriously considering trying to put something together. My hope is that I could put a kit together that would draw alot less power than my 500w work lights, so that I could possibly use it with a small honda generator that I have access to:

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/ModelDetail.asp?ModelName=eu1000i

I do alot of mountain bike video type stuff, and being able to setup some lights at the local dirt jump spot or even at some trails could add alot to the production. What's the difference between the T12 and T8 lights? And what lamps that have a CRI of 80+ could be used with the "lights of america" fixture mentioned above?
 
I found this sound bite:

"Fluorescent lights are identified by their T-measure. The T-measure is the measure of the diameter of the light in eighth of an inch. Thus, a T12 fluorescent light is twelve-eighths of an inch (or 1-1/2 inches) in diameter, T10 is ten-eighths of an inch (or 1-1/4 inches) in diameter, and T8 is eight-eighths of an inch (or 1 inch) in diameter.

T12 Lights - Energy efficient T12 lights use about 15 percent less energy than standard fluorescent without a noticeable decrease in light level. For example, a standard 40-watt F40 fluorescent can be replaced by a 34-watt F40 fluorescent.

T10 Lights - T10 lights typically contain phosphors which produce high efficacy and color rendition. They will operate on most ballasts designed for T12 lights.

T8 Lights - T8 lights produce an efficacy of up to 100 lumens per watt, the highest efficacy of any fluorescent light. They will not operate on standard ballasts rated for T12 lights. T8 lights use less of the toxic materials found in larger fluorescent lights, They require a T8 compatible ballast to operate."

One thing to consider (at least I have considered it) is using one of those DC/AC converters that plug into your car? For location shots of INT car shots abank like the one were talking about could just be plugged right in. Anyone know if this is feasible? (Wattage/Voltage?)

I have seen the Faux Diamond Plate fixtures and they are shiny; they look good and would definatley work as far as bounce and spread. We gotta figure out a good way for Barndoors though to control the light; maybe some sheetmetal type contraption?
 
I think it could be possible with some small guage aluminum sheet metal painted with flat BBQ paint. All it would take would be some creative adaptation of pivot points on both ends. Either that or you could use that "piano hinge" type stuff and run it along the whole edge. Using aluminum would be good because it would reduce weight.
 
It wouldnt be very hard to make, especially with small guage sheet metal. All you need is some various self tapping sheet metal screws, some tin snips, and files/sand paper to smooth the edges of the cut metal. A sheet metal sheer would be even better, but you could get by just fine with tin snips. In the future when I get some DIY flouro experiments going, I might try some and will deffinetly post up pics.
 
Rosestar said:
Thanks, Tim. Has anyone heard of a light I think is called the "Georky". I know I screwed up the spelling, but I am, being a "Hooked Phonics" sucess story that it is pronounce that way.
They look like some very interesting lights.
Click to expand...

You're probably thinking "Gyoury".

Neat lights, though pricey.


Also, I noticed that lamps (at least European/Asian ones) are starting to use the nomenclature "XYY", where X is the CRI, and Y is the colour temperature. For example, "950" for a high-CRI daylight-balanced lamp. "830" for a low-CRI halogen-balanced lamp.

Osram/Sylvania for sure uses this, though I noticed some other manufacturers using this as well (sometimes these numbers are buried with other numbers, which can make them hard to find).

So if these specs aren't listed on the box, take a look at the glass -- maybe you'll get lucky.
 
John_Hudson said:
I found this sound bite:
One thing to consider (at least I have considered it) is using one of those DC/AC converters that plug into your car? For location shots of INT car shots abank like the one were talking about could just be plugged right in. Anyone know if this is feasible? (Wattage/Voltage?)[QUOTE

I have used to 12volt invertors quit a lot, they work great for lighiting in a car. The largest one I have found that does not need to be hard wired in is a 300w invertor. This is why the fluros are so promising, the light output to wattage is higher. Also, these things are cheap, I paid about $40 bucks for the 300w one four years ago. Watch out though, they will run a battery down pretty quick, have good jumper calbles around.
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Fairly cheap HMIs existed briefly -- the Britek Dayphotos. Weren't fresnel though, they were open-face, and the bulbs have a green cast to 'em so you have to either white-balance to them or use some MinusGreen gel on 'em.

HMI fresnels don't cost *that* much on ebay (used, of course), I've gotten a few in the $500 neighborhood for 575w/magnetic ballast. You really need something more like at least a 1200w PAR for outdoors work, but for lighting indoors and balancing against a window or something the 575's work.
 
Ernest, yeah those are the lights. It's very misleading how they say stainless steel though... I even thought that on the original boxes when I bought 'em. They 'aint stainless steel... what isn't depicted in the ad is the tiny word "finish" under the words "stainless steel." The thing is painted gray.

I hate to be cocky... but anybody looking for cheap flos should give me about one more week. My fixtures are rapidly nearing completion. I'll have to see just what it really cost me to make each one... but I expect to offer a single biax version (ideal for interviews) for under $175.

I'm going to do the math on each of 3 models as I complete them... and I'm going to do everything possible to get the cost down. I'm working to get the cheapest model done first.
 
pmark23 said:
You're probably thinking "Gyoury".

Neat lights, though pricey..
Click to expand...

Thanks, Gyoury lights. These lights are twin tube fluoros that us a 2G11 (German) base. I saw a set-up for these bulbs on an aquiarium supply website but now can not find the site. Has anyone seen a place to get the 2G11 lights with wireing harness and ballast. I think that they would be very useful lights, but I do not want to spend a grand for the a set of Gyoury lights.
 
Matt,

I am very much looking forward to see what you have come up with. I had looked at building some biax lights using aquarium kits, but never got around to doing it. So far, the closest thing that I have found at a reasonable price is the Prompter People Flo-1400 at http://www.flolight.com/. No barndoors, but looks like it would be good as a large soft light.

However, I am going to wait and see what you have. I wish you luck!
 
Thanks Barry and Matt. Matt I am going to wait and see what you've come up with. I am very much interested in purchasing some Flo type fixtures. Barry I think you or someone else had mentioned to process of dealing with a magnetic ballast as opposed to an electronic one. Can you refresh me in how to use them shooting 24P? I've seen fixtures on Ebay from Pyramid Films but was hesitant to purchase them because of the magnetic ballast.
 
Magnetic ballasts work fine with 24p; what you have to watch out for is when using them with high shutter speeds. If you're working with 1/48 or 1/60 it's fine; we tried using them with 1/250 and 1/1000 and that didn't work, they cycle and pulse very noticeably. But at regular speeds they work just fine.
 
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