hmi question restrike

Jason Miller

Veteran
on my latest film I worked with a 1200 hmi, it was a cold restrike, so everytime with lost a fuse, or power burped we lost 20 to 40 minutes of shooting waiting for the thing to cool down. anyway, I'm wondering what would happen if we had done a hot restrike with this cool restrike hmi, it was an arri par 1200.

Jason
 
Just wear the lamp out quicker. Not a good idea in general. In fact, hot restrike is always stressful on the bulb and why those bulbs don't have the same life rating as the NHR ones.

But, I am surprised that it took 20 to 40 minutes. The HMI prototype units I'm building that only have NHR or cold strike take about 5 minutes before you can relight them. I took it for granted that most of the products out there were like this. Very surprising. Was it an electronic ballast? And how old did the product look to be? I've never used any of the older HMI products. Perhaps a very old one if it took that long.
 
well my lighting director, was the guy who rented the light from his contact and felt responcible for it, so we waited untill it was cold to restrike it. it was a light non of us had worked with before. but after working with it, I know I'm going to when I can afford it, add a 1200 and maybe 2 575 hmi's to my lighting kit.

I was paying 150 for the 4 days, so I think i probably got my moneys worth, even with the loss of a half night do to a blown fuse, and all the other lost time do to other issues when it went out.

Jason
 
i think it was magnetic, but I'm not sure, it was pretty quiet, it was an arri, 575-1200 which means you can use either a 575 head or a 1200 head, we had the 1200.

Jason
 
I think they were just being cautious on the time or so it sounds. How heavy was the ballast? That's the key as to whether it was magnetic or electronic. If it was in the 40 to 50 lb range you had a magnetic. So I assume you didn't have any flicker issues in any case right?
 
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