Recommendation for dimmers?

Walter Graff has dimmers also.
http://www.bluesky-web.com/
He also has a very useful lighing newsletter.

But I built my own with supplies from Home Depot for about 20 bucks. They will handle up to 600 watts no problem.
I built 5 of them and they are probably the most useful thing in my kit.
 
Thanks guys. $20 sounds better than Walter's $70. Although, the $9.99 sounds good too. There is no problem with it being a router speed control instead of a dimmer? How many watts can you go up to? How much is shipping?
 
The Harbor Freight dimmers handle up to 1500 watts. They are well made and a steal at the price. I use mine on almost every shoot.
Hope this helps.
Ken
the Screen Skins guy
 
Yeah, about 1500w each and I haven't had any buzzing that I have noticed yet and have used my 1k Lowel DP several times on it.
 
Hi all:

I read this and was inspired as I have been needing some more dimmers, one of my old ones burned out and I only have a couple left. I went to Harbor Freight today and picked up four of these router speed controls.

Other than the fact that they have a plastic housing, they look to be GREAT! I am getting no noise with an Arri 1k open face or Arri 650 fresnel.

I love something cheap that works well for video production. Thanks for the tip!

Dan
 
Hi Guys ! I am living in Europe (230v) and was looking for the same thing a couple of 650w dimmers for use with some Arri Tungstens, Any suggestions or links please ? ?
 
Follow up about the Harbour Freight dimmers......Great for the price, I have 5 of them now. I have not heard any hum.. however, on a recent shoot, we DID get some interference on one of our wireless mics. We attempted every fix, but discovered the dimmer to be the source. We re-routed our stinger to another outlet, in another room and it helped. But ultimately, we removed the dimmer from the equation, and added more scrims to dim our source. I then added some 1/4 cto to make up for the warmer light I was going for.
 
filmat11 said:
Follow up about the Harbour Freight dimmers...... [...] on a recent shoot, we DID get some interference on one of our wireless mics [...] ultimately, we removed the dimmer from the equation, and added more scrims to dim our source [...]
Click to expand...
A valuable experience. While I like using dimmers, I make it a point not to be dependent on them, and always make sure I have a set of scrims for each light and a selection of ND3 and ND6 neutral density gels... it's actually nice not to have to deal with the huge color shifts, if you need to thrown on a 1/4 CTB to make up for the dimmer... you might as well put an ND on it or use a scrim. On the other hand, I do like how working with dimmers rather than scrims or ND gels does make the lights less hot, and working around talent, it's a bonus.
 
RayFrisby said:
Hi Guys ! I am living in Europe (230v) and was looking for the same thing a couple of 650w dimmers for use with some Arri Tungstens, Any suggestions or links please ? ?
Click to expand...

I'd also like to know if there's any cheap solutions for us folks in Europe (specifically the UK) too?
 
I use these on lights under 600w. never a problem.

283607.jpg


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=283607&is=REG&addedTroughType=search
 
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