need help with Biax 8 bulb choices

S

Saddler

Well-known member
I have 3 Mole Biax 8's that I'm working with. The bulbs in each are probably very old, the bulbs are GE Showbiz Cinema Plus Biax 32s, and I have 6 brand new replacement bulbs. I'm not too concerned with PAR intensity left in the bulbs, but I'm wondering if the lower kelvin bulbs have any major spectrum shift with age like the really high kelvin bulbs have. Also, would I be okay with just white balancing for a good image (shooting on an HVX), or should I get gels to bring the lights up to 5600k?

I also just purchased a PromptorPeople MicroBeam 128LED on-camera light that I'd also like to possibly incorporate as an eyelight, hairlight or similar. I know that the GE Showbiz bulbs seem to be strong in magenta, and the MicroBeam has a green cast, so I'd probably use the tungsten gel on the MicroBeam. Is this a good setup as is, just white balancing, if I'm shooting green screen interviews?
 
Not to take you too off-topic here...but so far I haven't seen an actual user review of the MicroBeam and I'm curious about your experience with it so far. Couple of other posters around here curious as well.
 
I like the light. I needed an on-camera light for a shoot in Vegas and the people at PrompterPeople were very prompt in reply so I was able to get it ordered and overnighted. The aluminum housing is nice. The bulbs themselves, on arrival they were coated on the sides with some layer of crud, like a light layer of glue perhaps. It can be easily scraped off, but I don't think it really matters since LEDs are so directional, and the front of all bulbs were clean. The bulbs aren't individually fitted into the housing, instead they're mounted on a board which is held within the housing, so you see the board which is coated with a lightly reflective surface. I really like that the light is powered by DVX and HVX batteries; I ran a test to see how long they burn on a battery. I fully charged an Impact 2400mAh D16 battery (the small ones), and I don't have the number in front of me, but I'm fairly sure that it ran at full power for 1 hour and 35 minutes even. A bonus, is that if you use one of the large 5400 or 5600mAh batteries, it provides a nice support angle for resting against your forehead if you're shooting HD on a digital SLR. I did that last night with my T1i and it worked well.

The lights indeed cast a green hue. Are any film LED light companies offering lights with RGB LED lamps? The Micro128 comes with 2 minus green filters in addition to diffusion and tungsten. Are they bright? Yes, I'm very happy with how bright they get; I don't have experience with the other on-camera LED lights, but these appear to be what they advertise. The LED light is very stable, even when dimming. When in operation for awhile, the housing gets warm to the touch. This is a good thing since it means that the aluminum is pulling heat away from the LEDs - LEDs burn very long, but if they get to hot they pop and then they're dead.
 
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