Newbie Britek Question.

O

ozone1979

Active member
I'm thinking of getting either the 2 britek 500w/1000w set or the 2 1000w set from rostronics. However, I'm trying to find info on the effectiveness of using dimmers to substitute the light output of bulbs of lower wattage.

I currently got my eyes on this dimmer:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30082&item=2927980528&tc=photo

It says that using a dimmer can not only ctrl the output of the bulbs but also prolong the life of them.

I see that many dvxuser members are going for the 250w and 600/650w sets. And I remember reading by someone that for some shots, 600w is too much light, hence the reason for the 600/650w set (it can use bulbs of lower wattages).

But using a dimmer, DAM....
I hope what just came across my mind is incorrect:

Using a dimmer, ... would it cause the color temp to go warm, huh?

Dam....it prolly does.

So is there a way to take a 1000watt britek light and make it give the out put of ...say..... a 600 or 250 watt bulb?

---For Versitality Purposes
 
Re: Newbie Britek Question.

..if you buy the 500/1000 kit (which is one of the kits I have my eye on) and you gel to daylight.. its going to be a 125/250 kit. or you could just leave it at the 3200k temp if you like, and just buy a set of ND gels. then you can cut your light output by whatever you want.. its just that your still using the same amount of power to run the light. but you could start at 1000, and switch to 500 if you want, and then add an ND of varying strength to cut it down from 500 to pretty much any odd output beneath that pending the vairable strengths of the NDs you have to put on it. you would probably only need one to cut it down to apx somewhere around 250 though..

..but at that point you should probably consider just buying another light kit or single light using lower wattage when you can to accompany your 500/1000 kit. bad part about the 500/1000 kit is that it has no focus control.. but barndoors will help some for controlling that wider output.. and if your softboxing it, you probably wont be focusing it too much anyway. but the smaller kit would help out here as well by allowing you to have some smaller lights with focus control to pinpoint highlight something if you like, or widen it out to soften it for a little fill.

..anyway, just my thoughts on it.
 
Re: Newbie Britek Question.

what's a really cheap source for gels and nd filters?

plus...

man...
i wish i could see some pictures of the power of the 600 watt bulbs at full illumination on a dark/exterior subject (night shot).

and this gel u're talkin about, is it a strong blue color correction gel?

Yeah.....and what u mentioned about using 500 and 1000 as the wattage benchmarks (or whatever)...and use gels to change the output in between them.

hmm....so it looks like the dimmer is out of the picture. (since it will not only lessen the light output, but change the color temp)

I wonder,...how useful is that focus nob anyway?
 
Re: Newbie Britek Question.

..the 600 watt bulboutput.. hmmm... id compare it to a lower powered halogen worklight... a little one.. not one of the huge high powered ones.


the daylight correction gel for 3200k (tungsten) would be a full CTO BLUE to change it to 5600k (daylight)

I wouldnt mess with a dimmer.. just gel the lights, or buy a smaller light or lights to go with your kit.

focus knobs are great .. it lets you concentrate the light, or spread it out more. which changes the amount and intensity of light in the beam area.  good for quality technical lighting.. but again youll be pretty ok with just the barndoorsfor just controling it its thats what your looking for.


for buying gels you can start here.. flip through the pages.. then just shop around in B+H lighting accessories for anything else ..im not really sure what size of gel you would want for the 500/1000 light.


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=NavBar&A=search&Q=&ci=1183&pn=3
 
Re: Newbie Britek Question.

question:...

the focus knobs....

do they yeild much effect while the softbox is on?


just putting together everything, as far as the capabilities of the barn doors vs. those of the focus knob.

I apologize if i'm getting on your nerves.
 
Re: Newbie Britek Question.

..im not sure what sort of a change focusing the beam would have with the soft box on, as i dont have the box to test it with, but i assume it would just result in a slightly harder and narrower light out of the box. in general if you have the soft box on, your going to have the beam spread wide so it is more dispersed, and diffused better by the softbox. so the non focusable light would be fine.

the barndoors will only cut off the light to control where it falls, the focus control gives you shape control of the beam to concentrate it more or less, and make it a little harder or softer as a result. of course having both of these is the best so you have the most control. so it really depends on how much technical control you want with the lights as to whether you really need the focus control or not. you could always just buy the lights seperately, and build a custom kit based on your needs. optimally they would all have focus control of course, but it would cost mor to make the equivilent kit since the 500/1000 are kind of 2 lights in one. but perhaps you do not need 2 1000 watt lights.. maybe just one 1000 one 650, and one 250 would work for you? at any rate i would at least consider just building your own kit based on what you want to do with it right now.. an individual light is only a hundred or two anyway if you want to expand the kit later on.
 
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