The old 1000w movielight: Are their new alternatives?

Joost

Joost

Well-known member
movielight_100watt.jpg
Many of you will know this lamp. It is cheap (10-30 bucks) and a exelent light source. I am looking for an alternative (I know it will not be cheap as this one).

I love the light it gives, it creates awsomeness. Their are ton of uses for it, and I especially use it to let subjects pop out of the shadow in outside scenes.

The dark side of this light is that it gets superduper hot. I am a little (very much) afraid of it :)

1- Im afraid it will couse fire some day.
2- The whole crew gets sweaty when it's on for a few minutes.
3- It has a big power consumption.
4- You smell the burning of the dust in the room.

I would love to know who knows some alternatives for this lamp wich do not have this side-effects.

-I'm prepared It will not be cheap, but still would like to know the cheapest options.
-1000w light eq
-Low power consumption and heat production (LED, PL?)
-Portable (very good spec of this lamp to)
-day or tungsten col does not mater so much for me.
-Bundled light (is that called spot?)


I'm curious.
 
That's a Lowel V-Light. I've got a few of those kicking around in one of my old light kits. Visit their site and see if they have anything which peaks your interest or gives you ideas.
 
I have a few of those, and typically use them through a silk or umbrella or to light up white/green backgrounds (since they spill everywhere anyway). Truly a portable powerhouse, nice paired with some Lowel Pro-lights for mobile work. I think they're actually 650W. It's kind of its own beast that I'm not certain they've replicated in LED-form - there are a number of LED fixtures that might yield a similar wide spread, but LED tends to fall off much much quicker... maybe a good or a bad thing depending on application.

Just make sure its always on a secure stand, never let anything (except maybe gels/clips) touch it while in use, never point it down (it will melt itself), give it time to cool after a shoot and always pack some heat-resistant gloves in your G&E bag.
 
You can find used rectangular theatrical lights that use the "work light" bulbs, can be lamped from 100 - 1000 watts, and have nice barn doors. You'll never use an overpriced Tota again. Bulbs are cheap and easy to swap.

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But that won't solve your heat problems or power draw issues. The cheapest source of 1k of light that's cool and low-amps (if ya ask me) is a quad biax flo unit. There are chinese versions for $200-$300. They put out 1k of nice nice daylight, without gelling, and you can get tungsten tubes for them. A couple of those and several dual-biax (cheaper) kicks out a LOT of light, little heat, and you can run a ton of 'em on household power. I own all chinese (no Kino's) and they're going strong for years.

Here's a pair on Amazon for around $400.

They are broad soft sources though - if you need something aimable, check out cool lights' 150 watt CDM fresnel - puts out about 650 watts daylight equivalent. Or just buy the bulb and ballast and convert some old fresnels (that ballast is expensive at $300, I'm going to try that bulb with a cheaper electronic ballast this summer - it's a great bulb). They also sell a 3" HID fresnel that's about 300 watt equivalent.

You can use a 1k par or fresnel with full CTB to mix with the above stuff - often just 1/2 CTB looks really nice, a bit warmer. Really wasteful though, the full CTB kills a LOT of light.

Alzo sells 150 HID lights that I use often. They're a little rickety but very bright, about 600-700 equivalent, and it's clean, no-minus-green needed 5500k. They also sell a bulb & ballast combo that's just handy as hell for under $150 (think China balls). (They also sell a cheap pancake lantern that's great with those). I converted a fresnel for this setup but it wasn't killer light output since fresnels are inefficient and the bulb is a frosted household style - Cool Light's bulb is a true "projector" style bulb that works great in a fresnel. I'm thinking of converting a Flexipar for one.

From there it's used HMI, a 575 or 1.2k will run on a house circuit. Next step up would be the chinese HMI knockoffs (many people reporting they're coming around on quality and are a good deal if handled gently - not for rental houses). From there it's the cool lights 575 HMi fresnel or 1.2k par (about $2 & $3+k but a great company). And then up to Arri, etc for the big big bucks.
 
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Thanks for the awnsers. I have many lights and found out the old movie-light might be inreplaceable because of the aim and bundle + the brightness and low falloff.
I have 5 construction-lamps, 3 320w PL, 2 Coollight PL, 1 620 LED. When I expand my Kit I think it will be 3 1008 LED so that I keep it cool and portable.
 
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