Lumen Lights

Tomorrow I begin driving to Santa Monica for the American Film Market!

If anyone is interested in visiting our booth, come on by The Loews Hotel and ask the concierge to contact us on the 8th floor. We'll happily let you come up and check out The Lumen. And, I can finally meet some of my fellow dvxusers!
 
We've had a number of inquiries within the last 24 hours. Most are asking the same question...how much will it cost to upgrade to a 2K and how much will shipping be?

The cost for upgrading to a 2K is:


(1) 1K Lumen $1095.00 (if purchased before October 31st)
(1) 2K Upgrade $120.00
Shipping: approximately $120.00 UPS ground. Please note we do not pad our
shipping fees. Our shipping fees are transparent. We only charge what Fed Ex
or UPS charges.
TOTAL COST: $1335.00.

This is a generic shipping price within the continental US. If you are outside the US, simply go to www.ups.com and calculate shipping between your home and ours in Albuquerque for a single 17" cubed box that weighs 50 lbs or less. Include that with your order.

For our new customers, thanks for your belief in us. For those who are close to ordering, we hope to hear from you soon. And everyone is welcome to visit us at the AFM!

Please note I'll be difficult to reach via email from now through the 31st. Thanks!
 
Filmat 11 Lumen owner # 1... I get the first one when he ships it.
Richard at Cool Lights..When your new style- 4 bank flo lights arrive, I'm ordering.
 
Jon, we're glad to have you as a customer!

And, our website has gone live earlier than expected. It is still being built as we speak, but if you go to the link you can finally see the basics of the site. Within the next two days it will be finished, including the shopping cart features.
 
Our site is completely live!

Within the next 24 hours we'll have the check out cart reflect the $1195.00 AFM price. Currently, it reflects the standard MSRP.

Let us know what you think of the site!
 
Kwan Lumen owner # 3 ...
My check is on the way. I hold 3rd position in waiting list.
Kwan
 
Question for you, how good is the Lumen in doing what HMIs do best: competing with the sun? I don't see how it can work, fluoros by their very nature do not have good reach, they are too diffused. How can 525w of fluorescent compete with the sun? That's less light than a 575hmi, and people don't take those very seriously for such purposes, you need at least a 1.2kw HMI, preferably a 2.5hmi or beyond.

Fluorescents light effectively at a 4x ratio of lumens per watt as compared to tungsten, which is roughly the same as HMI. So how can you compare your light as more efficient than an HMI? You advertise that you used to lug around gennys and HMIs and now you can just use your Lumen. Did you somehow get bulbs that are 10x more efficient than tungsten? Otherwise, you are no more efficient than an HMI, and most likely a bit less.

But, I guess if you keep it close then the fall off that fluoros have can be mitigated. Are you planning on advising people to have the Lumen a few feet away and treat it more like a Kino than an HMI?

Not trying to be rude, just trying to see how 5 fluoro moguls ganged together even begins to light like an HMI. Perhaps you could post a side-by-side shot of someone lit by your lumen from a distance of 10 feet vs not lit during high-noon?
 
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was wondering if u would like to answer the question i have asked. i have sent u an email as well. u don't seem to be interested in doing business.
 
shawneous said:
Question for you, how good is the Lumen in doing what HMIs do best: competing with the sun? I don't see how it can work, fluoros by their very nature do not have good reach, they are too diffused. How can 525w of fluorescent compete with the sun? That's less light than a 575hmi, and people don't take those very seriously for such purposes, you need at least a 1.2kw HMI, preferably a 2.5hmi or beyond.

Fluorescents light effectively at a 4x ratio of lumens per watt as compared to tungsten, which is roughly the same as HMI. So how can you compare your light as more efficient than an HMI? You advertise that you used to lug around gennys and HMIs and now you can just use your Lumen. Did you somehow get bulbs that are 10x more efficient than tungsten? Otherwise, you are no more efficient than an HMI, and most likely a bit less.

But, I guess if you keep it close then the fall off that fluoros have can be mitigated. Are you planning on advising people to have the Lumen a few feet away and treat it more like a Kino than an HMI?

Not trying to be rude, just trying to see how 5 fluoro moguls ganged together even begins to light like an HMI. Perhaps you could post a side-by-side shot of someone lit by your lumen from a distance of 10 feet vs not lit during high-noon?
Click to expand...

CFLs are fundamentally different from Linear Fluorescents. We did a series of light meter tests at the AFM. From 12 feet away our light meter was registering approx 42 foot candles (400 ISO, 1/60th of a second).

The critical difference is the "C" in CFL. Remember, a CFL is a long, linear tube that has been wound into a tight, compact space. It emits the same amount of light as a linear tube, but takes up less space...which means we can fit more of them in a small area...which means we're outputting more light than a linear fluorescent instrument.

We had DP's coming by our booth and every single one of them made the same assumptions until we handed them the light meter. I kept saying "CFL's are not the same thing as linear flo's. Despite the fact that they emit light in the same fashion their compact nature changes everything. And by using our case you have an easily controlled light source that is softer than an HMI but harder than a Kino."

Even more importantly, our case is a universal case. It gets brighter by putting brighter bulbs in it. Originally, we were only using the 105 watt CFL's. When 5 are ganged together it is the equivalent of a 2K tungsten or 575 HMI. Two brighter CFL's just came to market. The 150 watt CFL and 175 watt CFL. These raise the brightness of The Lumen to a 3K and 4K respectively...which means (5) 175 watt CFL's do indeed compete with a 1.2 Kilowatt HMI.

I haven't bought the bulbs yet so I haven't done tests. I'm still recouping from two very long shows. However, you can buy them right now at www.1000bulbs.com. And since our case is future-proofed you can keep swapping out the bulbs for something brighter as that technology emerges. Its like P2 cards, only the variable is light output not storage space.
 
Ernest Kwok said:
hi, is it a universal electronic ballast 110/220v 50/60hz? i do plan to use it around asia/aust.
Click to expand...

I apologize for not answering more quickly. Unfortunately, the AFM began on the day you asked this question. Once we wrapped the AFM we were at the HD Expo in Burbank.

The bulbs are self-ballasted, which means you should buy bulbs for your region of the world. The case is currently 110 only. We'll eventually be developing a universal adapter for The Lumen. However, this is easily remedied in the meantime. The Lumen only draws 534 watts with our 2K equivalent bulbs. That means you can use a hair dryer adapter. Because it draws such a small amount of electricity you can use off-the-shelf adapters with ease. A hair dryer is an electrical hog...anything that would work for a 110 hairdryer in a 220 environment is more than enough for this instrument.

I bought one for my laptop when I went to India. It cost less than 30 bucks.

I wish we could come out with every accessory, every varient and every additional product simultaneously. Unfortunately, investors are cautious and we only have the financing to support our flagship product and focus on the US, which is currently the largest and most easily accessible market for us. It doesn't mean I don't value customers from other parts of the world...it means we can only reach so far so fast.
 
shawneous said:
I just re-read my post, and gosh I sound like an ass. So try to imagine my post more in an inquisitive/debateful tone than a jerk one.
Click to expand...

I didn't take it that way. :)

And your questions are valuable. They get to the heart of a major misconception. Many people assume that CFL's behave identically to Linear Flo's.

However, it is worth noting:

- CFL's are self-ballasted. Linear Flo's aren't.
- The twists and turns of a CFL allow more surface area to exist in a smaller area. Linear Flo's take up a lot of space...which is why they are hard to control and why they have such a poor Lux rating. The light is scattering everywhere rather than being concentrated in a source, like a CFL.
- CFL's are less fragile. They can be treated more like an incandescent bulb.
- CFL's can get brighter by simply adding another "ice cream swirl" of glass to the design. This makes them marginally longer, but they plug into the same socket. Linear Flo's are a dead-end technology. They only "get brighter" by ganging more of them together.

When thinking about lighting, CFL's are their own category. They aren't as hard as a Tungsten or HMI, but they're much harder than a Kino. They fall in the middle of the two. CFL's are like an HMI that has already had a silk placed in front of it.
 
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- Linear flos can be mounted and hidden in a variety of spaces you can't get a CFL in such as: under a bar top, on a low ceiling, on your car visor

- Linear flows in an array give a broad soft light with no "hot spot" in the middle.

- Linear flows can be mounted in areas where the depth of a "head" won't allow. Such as behind a door, or taped along the top of one, etc.

- Linear flos are great for lighting green screens and cycs because of their even broad stroke

- Linear flos shouldn't be compared to CFL's to begin with.


Tim Naylor - Dp
www.timnaylor.com
 
I need testimonials. Have these lights shipped as of yet? Have they shipped any to users to users for feedback? Has any of these lights been seen 1st hand by anyone one on this forum not associated with LUMEN LIGHTS? Really need to know.
 
Unfortunately, The Lumen is now dead.

Backstory:
I was an art director at a video game studio. My employers heard about an invention I was dabbling on in my spare time. They pushed to invest. We became partners and they agreed to incubate the company inside their video game studio. This meant they'd continue to pay me a salary, provide office space for Prodigi Products and fund the company until it was self-sufficient.

AFM:
We debuted The Lumen at the American Film Market and HD Expo. At both markets we were overwhelmed with effusive praise for The Lumen. However, it became clear that it would take time to convert these positive reviews into sales...

...and the investors, who were also my employers, didn't have any patience. I was fired on the floor of the AFM. They asked me to continue to work for free for Prodigi Products. I made it clear that I had a wife and son and am not in a position to work for free.

Without getting into details, this violated the operating agreement of the company, violated the law, killed a deal with an investor who now saw my partners as dishonest...and it killed the light before it ever had a chance to succeed.

Legally, they didn't have the right to do this. Our company charter makes it clear that any management decision had to be reached unanimously...but, the real world operates differently than the law. So, I'm fired and The Lumen is dead.

What a shame. We had hundreds of people at both the AFM and HD Expo going nuts over the light.

I've returned the money to all our customers. I've paid all our vendors. The six Lumens are now sitting in my garage.
 
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