Ushio ColourMax LED retro fit tube bulbs for the Kino Flo Diva

It was a spelling mistake, but it almost works for what they cost now. My last 2 400s I got on eBay were $200 with the hard case and 2 honeycombs. I just like them a lot more than the divas. Really well made and can take a beating.
 
Hi, bulbs arrived a few days ago, I mounted them into a knock off diva type fixture...and wow they're much brighter than the divas. Still have a few tweeks to do as these bulbs are a bit longer than the reg kino biax bulbs.
 
So Adorama appears to be out of the daylight ones again, but has tungsten left.

Do we think they'll appear again randomly in a few months on B&H and adorama as they seem to be doing, or do we think these are done?

I'm very interested in grabbing some of these for the random Flo fixtures I have sitting around.
 
Since Ushio announced these at CineGear (was it 2 years ago??).... maybe we'll hear more soon about what has transpired behind the scenes. My hunch is lawyers are involved. There's no longer a link about the bulbs on Ushio's web site (has been taken down for some time)... so I'd bet these are done. But that doesn't mean Kino - or someone else - might be about to drop a similar product.
 
In hindsight I guess it wasn't such a good idea for me to buy the only set of 3-ft 4-bank Kinos in existence.
 
I bought one of those battered $200 Divas (plus pelican case) about 5 months ago as well... also retrofitted with Ushios.

Since my Diva has the dimmer on the ballast, I just drew a "red line" around 60%+, which (I think) modulates the wattage driving them enough to prevent any problems... the globes don't seem to get any brighter above that point anyway.

Weekly use on locations. Only noted problem is that I have to make sure to strike them at max intensity (~60%), otherwise two of the globes don't light. Could just be a problem with my fixture though, since it was quite heavily used.

Company I bought them from is IQLighting
 
mcbob said:
I bought one of those battered $200 Divas (plus pelican case) about 5 months ago as well... also retrofitted with Ushios.

Since my Diva has the dimmer on the ballast, I just drew a "red line" around 60%+, which (I think) modulates the wattage driving them enough to prevent any problems... the globes don't seem to get any brighter above that point anyway.

Weekly use on locations. Only noted problem is that I have to make sure to strike them at max intensity (~60%), otherwise two of the globes don't light. Could just be a problem with my fixture though, since it was quite heavily used.

Company I bought them from is IQLighting
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I purchased my 56k versions from IQ as well... guessing about 6 or 8 months ago. They have worked just fine in my Diva 400 - tho haven't used it as much as you. I don't have the problem of mine striking - does so at any intensity. But have noticed that they do reach max output well before the knob gets to the far right side... so had essentially the same idea... don't turn up past the point they quit getting brighter... just to be safe.
 
@thekreative
I really want to mod my parabeams for these bulbs. Can you send me some info about what you did? Thanks so much!
 
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kupchenpo said:
@thekreative
I really want to mod my parabeams for these bulbs. Can you send me some info about what you did? Thanks so much!
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The USHIO bulbs are too long for the ParaBeam fixtures.

As for others, I'm sorry this has become such a PITA. When I reported about them they were still being sold as replacements. For whatever it's worth I have five Divas that I still use without any issues. Even at full power.
 
the parabeams take about 10 min to fit. You have to trim the tabs that hold the gel frames on one side. Then you can only use the tabs on one side but I have no problem with that. Parabeams seem to be even cheaper than divas now secondhand and are much better in my opinion.
 
Modded parabeam success

Modded parabeam success

I was able to mod my Parabeams by trimming some of the plastic etc in the unit. They work marvelously with these lamps. Just wrapped a 6 week shoot using them, mostly at around 70%. They’re brighter, cleaner, and more durable bulbs than the natives. It’s a shame they’ve had the issues with a few units that have prevented them from being more readily available or marketed as replacements. For me, it’s been well worth the time and money to mod and it’s probably going to buy an extra 3-4 years for fixtures I was considering replacing.


Erik Naso said:
The USHIO bulbs are too long for the ParaBeam fixtures.

As for others, I'm sorry this has become such a PITA. When I reported about them they were still being sold as replacements. For whatever it's worth I have five Divas that I still use without any issues. Even at full power.
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Thanks so much for your help with this! It took me a little longer than you to mod, like close to an hour, but we’ll worth it and nothing too difficult. Cheers, I don’t think i would have had the balls to try this if I hadn’t heard about your process.
 
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