DIY Light Questions

JohnMC

JohnMC

Member
I have a couple of quick questions that I'm hoping someone can help me with. First, I'll tell you what I want to do. I would like to build a set of Kino-like fluorescent lights. By budget is +/- $200.00 each with bulbs. I am willing to raise the budget if needed to get the best performance. With that in mind here are my questions:

Is it possible to mix fluorescent lights with regular video lights like ARRI's (I use these now), if so what bulbs would everyone on here advise me to use? If not, what bulbs match daylight the best?

I have been looking at ballasts all day and have found the Advance ASB-1232-24-E, it works with 3 bulbs instead of just two. Is this a good thing or not? Also as I can't find a price for it do you think it would fit by budget? Are there any better ballasts on the market?

Sorry for being a newbie but after shooting all day in a small room with the ARRI's I need a cooler solution that is cheaper than Kino's but without giving up quality.

I have a person to help with the metal and electrical work, so that is not a problem.

Any comments welcome.

Thanks,
John
 
Hi,

I know a couple of things about this so I'll comment.

Yes, you can mix fluorescents and tungsten as long as you choose a tungsten colored bulb of fairly good quality. The 55w tube is one of the easiest to base a design on and has a very wide range of color temperatures easily available including 3200K and of course the various colors of daylight from 5000K to 6500K. 5600K is considered to be the professional film/video standard for daylight.

On the ballast, why did you choose that particular ballast? What was it that attracted you to it? That ballast is meant for sign usage and 6 foot tubes. Is that what you wanted to use? It's also a T12 which is an older technology. The T5 models, with the 55w biax tube included are quite a bit more modern technology with higher lumens per watt.

I also wouldn't try to drive 3 or 4 bulbs from one ballast. The 2 bulb ballasts are the best performance and also allow you to turn off bulbs in pairs of two. If you want to bank select one bulb at a time, you'll need one ballast per bulb which is a bit more costly.


I like Sylvania ballasts a lot so that's what I sell on the site along with other information and parts for DIY efforts like the one you're attempting.

http://www.coollights.biz/parts-and-diy-c-24.html

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments and links. Coollights I have been looking at your site, nice lights btw, what are the size (HxLxD) of those biax bulbs? Also, I have seen some people use green fluorescent bulbs when working with a green screen, do you know if you can get those kind of bulbs for this socket?

Thanks
John
 
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