Most efficient lighting instrument under 1500USD

N

naavt

Well-known member
Hi,

I'm in the market for a lighting instrument for my next project. The first one that came to mind was the Joker Bugs 800/1600 which I've used on a production 2 years ago and found them to be quite exceptional.

Went to search their price online and became aware that I was miles away from the reality of HMI prices.

I've read all the posts made on the "Cheap HMI" thread started by tommygdawg and also realized that Chinese knock offs aren't the most reliable instruments so it seems that I have to put the HMI idea aside because of budget restraints which leaves me to the title question of this thread:

Knowing that portability and current consumption will be important, what is the most efficient (lux output for € / fc output for $), instrument out there under 1350€ / 1500USD with good color rendition?
 
I've been able to find some good deals on used hmi's. That's about $1800 tho and it's a huge 1200w ltm par the only kicker is that ltm is out of business. There product line brand name is going to be purchased by another company but I don't think they'll be creating lenses etc for these old lights. It's an Electronic ballast though with lenses etc. that's the best bang I've found for close to your price. At this time you have to make a sacrifice of some kind in order to get some power for that price. Either Chinese brand or an older model like I'm looking at. I've been searching for a long time and this is the best I've found.
 
While LED light levels and power are creeping up, at the moment we are looking at equivalents to the 500W discharges at the moment. 1.2K and 2.5K HMI equivalents will be available soon I suspect, but until people like Arri and ETC produce them, the Chinese much cheaper versions will fall behind. They never really understood HMIs - not really appreciating all the issue the things have in terms of heat, reflectors and glass and the requirements of video and audio friendly power supplies and ballasts. The white LEDs in the 90-125W range are great, but seem to have slowed down their evolution, suggesting more powerful ones have design issues at the moment. HMIs were never the nicest things to have around anyway, and the overall need for an HMI replacement probably isn;t a huge share of the market.
 
paulears said:
HMIs were never the nicest things to have around anyway, and the overall need for an HMI replacement probably isn;t a huge share of the market.
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Seems like Mole-Richardson is doing their job with the 900w Senior LED. It's way out of budget for me but I suspect that's the future for HMI replacement.
 
naavt said:
Seems like Mole-Richardson is doing their job with the 900w Senior LED. It's way out of budget for me but I suspect that's the future for HMI replacement.
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Color isn't great on the Mole daylight LED.

I own around 30 Mole lights, and looked into the Mole LED stuff but decided to pass on them.
 
David W. Jones said:
Color isn't great on the Mole daylight LED.
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I've noticed that their "tungsten" offers a higher CRI (95 compared to 91 for daylight). Nevertheless they stated that CRI "is just a figure" and that they "quantum process" their LED chips to render good color hues.

It's a fixture out of our budget anyway but just for sake of knowledge, can you be more specific on your findings on it? Thanks.
 
I grabbed a KinoFlo flathead80 off ebay last year for about $1300. I use it for everything, ton of soft light, not a huge power draw, I can go Tung or Daylight (or both), and it's gorgeous when pushed through diffusion.
 
bill totolo said:
I grabbed a KinoFlo flathead80 off ebay last year for about $1300. I use it for everything, ton of soft light, not a huge power draw, I can go Tung or Daylight (or both), and it's gorgeous when pushed through diffusion.
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I'm looking for a hard source.
 
Well there is a thread on here about $150 575w HMI pars. I picked up two (for $200+sh each) and it's hard to beat the price but there are big caveats that can be overcome if you either can live with some inconvenience or are willing to put a but more money into solving the problems.

Basically they came with used bulbs which need cto and minus green but look great though they burn through gels if you use the drop in frames. Also the ballast is compact but noisy and needs a fan replacement or has to be run far from set.
 
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nyvz said:
Well there is a thread on here about $150 575w him pars. I picked up two (for $200+sh each) and it's hard to beat the price but there are big caveats that can be overcome if you either can live with some inconvenience or are willing to put a but more money into solving the problems.

Basically they came with used bulbs which need cto and minus green but look great though they burn through gels if you use the drop in frames. Also the ballast is compact but noisy and needs a fan replacement or has to be run far from set.
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I started that Enliten thread - they're a pretty good bang for the buck.

The gels will last all day if you have the barn doors and clip to those (and they're very common doors, the source 4 par has been knocked off by everyone from Altman to DJ companies).

You can extend the ballast up to about 100' according to Enliten. I followed the PDF on the thread and made a fifty footer for maybe forty bucks. I just bought a 14 gauge outdoor extension cord and chopped the ends off, about half the price of buying raw cable.

It's sort of a big beast of a light (though doesn't need a combo or junior stand) with the attached ignitor and the larger yoke to fit; but the Source 4 is a wicked-efficient fixture, my 575 Tungsten par outshines a 1k Leko or Fresnel with ease. You don't get fresnel looks (though there is a source 4 "fresnel" lens available, never tried it).

There's a closer-to-daylight globe for it, but those are usually about $200. I also found the proper scrims, though it took some hunting.

You could likely find a 575 HMI fresnel used, electronic ballast, for around $1k with some hunting around - won;t have the punch of the par though. The Enliten par really excels at reach - those lense really work, and for bounce or scrimmed soft light. Also a decent daylight-fighter outdoors (closeups mainly, it ain't no 4k) or in a room with windows.

EDIT - BTW: Source 4 makes a "gel saver" basically a top-hat/snoot that drops in the gel holder, $20 or so. I think the barn doors do this just fine though.
 
nyvz said:
Well there is a thread on here about $150 575w him pars. I picked up two (for $200+sh each) and it's hard to beat the price but there are big caveats that can be overcome if you either can live with some inconvenience or are willing to put a but more money into solving the problems.

Basically they came with used bulbs which need cto and minus green but look great though they burn through gels if you use the drop in frames. Also the ballast is compact but noisy and needs a fan replacement or has to be run far from set.
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Did a search and found the thread. Thanks. I'm going to find some time to go through it.



Michael Carter said:
I started that Enliten thread - they're a pretty good bang for the buck.

There's a closer-to-daylight globe for it, but those are usually about $200. I also found the proper scrims, though it took some hunting.
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Are they G22 lamp sockets? How about UV filter? Does it come with one and does it work? For 200USD one can buy the new Osram's UVS which I assume are the safest HMI lamps out there.



Michael Carter said:
The Enliten par really excels at reach - those lense really work, and for bounce or scrimmed soft light. Also a decent daylight-fighter outdoors (closeups mainly, it ain't no 4k) or in a room with windows.
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That's good to know since it's our main purpose. How much time do they need to restrike?
 
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