What's the brightest light ~$1.5k can get?

I have some grubby old net curtains that I tend to chuck over my shiny boards in full sun.

Yes low budget cinematography is confusing! A typical error is to buy more and heavier kit than small crews can manage. Another error is knowing when (and failure to) rent or hire the proper kit when it is really needed.
 
I used a silver reflector recently on a shoot in Utah. One man band, camera on tripod, two subjects on wireless, sitting in a covered 4 wheel ATV. I used the silver side of a 4 in 1 to light them, had to curve it to light them both, and the light breeze did jiggle the source. So I told the client “so we filmed that shot next to a river, lol”. Better news was the buried under clothing OST lavs didn’t pick up wind at all (I monitored on headphones however ATV engine noise was pretty loud). That’s how they wanted it shot... On playback their voices sounded fine.

Reflectors can work and Charles’ points are valid too. I agree with Morgan re: HMIs and renting vs. buying at this point.
 
Appreciate all the insight about HMI. I'm not lighting an outside scene, just an inside scene with 2 subjects, a large coffee table (3'x2'), and some of the surrounding area. Maybe what I'll do is see what I can manage with an Intellytech LC-160 and 2x80watt CFL bulbs in a 36" diameter china ball first, and then decide if I need to buy something extra. Looking into HMIs on ebay, some come with all the necessary components, some don't, and it's hard to know how to build out a working fixture w/o trial and error.
 
I was just getting ready to add that HMI can be very helpful indoors - as well as out. I invested in a Joker2 800 last year. And my reasons were I often shoot small crew and wanted / needed punchy light to keep from blowing out windows shooting large interiors. (can't do that with shiny boards) Many LED's that come close in output like AAdynTech Punch are huge, heavy and do have that green spike in them - though as someone has said - we do keep getting closer with LED. An 800watt Joker can easily be plugged in household AC, is small, comparably light weight, can be dimmed (about a stop) and puts out really nice daylight.
It's out of your $1500 budget but my advice would be to save up and rent until you can buy something you'll use for many years.
 
jcs said:
How many of those suggesting HMIs personally own them and use them, and how do you like using them compared to LEDs (regardless of price)? Meaning, if you could afford the equivalent LED, would you switch?
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Well I have retired from full time shooting, but I still own a boatload of gear including a set of smaller HMI's. A pair of 575w PAR's, 400w, and a pair of 200w, which I use on interiors all the time. I also own LED, Fluorescent, Tungsten. It's not about one over the other. It's about choosing the right tool for the job.
 
markfpv said:
I was just getting ready to add that HMI can be very helpful indoors - as well as out. I invested in a Joker2 800 last year. And my reasons were I often shoot small crew and wanted / needed punchy light to keep from blowing out windows shooting large interiors. (can't do that with shiny boards) Many LED's that come close in output like AAdynTech Punch are huge, heavy and do have that green spike in them - though as someone has said - we do keep getting closer with LED. An 800watt Joker can easily be plugged in household AC, is small, comparably light weight, can be dimmed (about a stop) and puts out really nice daylight.
It's out of your $1500 budget but my advice would be to save up and rent until you can buy something you'll use for many years.
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Correct. I’ve used HMI’s of various sizes indoors, plenty of times, and not just when it was a situation of having hot windows in the background.
 
I’ve used HMI’s by-myself or just as a two-man crew for a lot of my career. Totally manageable yourself up to about 1.2k. As Sam alluded to, 2.5k, no, not so much. Especially considering you’re going to be going off of a genny and not house power in most of those situations.
 
From what I can tell and from my own experience, equivalent light output from LED's and HMI's requires equivalent sized fixtures. LED's offer built in color control, cooler running temperatures, and quicker operation. HMI's offer better light control due to the bulb being closer to a point source, and they don't require a fan onboard. Right now, HMI use is in decline so you can pick up used HMI's at prices that are quite a bit less than equivalent LED lights. I've used this opportunity to acquire a full set of HMI lights and I don't really see how LED lights will ever to get to the point where they will compete with HMI's when you are trying to get a powerful directional light source.
 
cpreston said:
From what I can tell and from my own experience, equivalent light output from LED's and HMI's requires equivalent sized fixtures. LED's offer built in color control, cooler running temperatures, and quicker operation. HMI's offer better light control due to the bulb being closer to a point source, and they don't require a fan onboard. Right now, HMI use is in decline so you can pick up used HMI's at prices that are quite a bit less than equivalent LED lights. I've used this opportunity to acquire a full set of HMI lights and I don't really see how LED lights will ever to get to the point where they will compete with HMI's when you are trying to get a powerful directional light source.
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Perhaps big breakthroughs will come in the form of white-light lasers: https://www.laserfocusworld.com/las...nge-leds-in-directional-lighting-applications
Engineers at SoraaLaser (Goleta, CA) have found a solution by developing the first commercial solid-state, highly directional, and efficient white-light laser source with a luminance up to 100X better than LED luminaire devices.

Diode-pumped phosphor
To produce these white-light laser SMDs and luminaires, a high-power blue indium gallium nitride (InGaN) semipolar laser diode excites a very small remote phosphor target (<300 μm diameter) that converts the laser light to eye-safe, broad-spectrum, incoherent white light (see figure). Highly directional light with less than 2° of divergence from a 1-in.-diameter optic is possible.
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EDIT: yeah, lasers are 100X more efficient than LEDs and the directionality and distance, even after de-coherence (coherence is part of what makes lasers dangerous), the beam angle is tiny. Very impressive! https://www.sldlaser.com/bright-solutions/lighting
5bd7d6911cab6c0ed8305665_Lighting-luminance.jpg

Curious how much they can tune the phosphor for a high CRI/TLCI.

Tungsten/HMI etc. won't be around much longer. Get 'em while they're hot lol.
 
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cpreston said:
That's a bold prediction.
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Look at the price drop on the used market for HMIs, combined with the continual improvement of LEDs where HMIs aren't getting better. HMIs still have the edge for certain uses, so they still have great value: use what works today. Looking at the future, lasers are 100X more efficient than LEDs! Coherent light is what makes lasers so efficient, and also eye/camera-sensor dangerous. Recent advances with white light lasers, using phosphors and lenses provides eye-safe incoherent light with an amazingly tight beam angle of 2 degrees. Think about that. HMIs can be better than LEDs due to cost, smaller size, etc. However lasers are 100 times more efficient than LEDs. That's the end of HMI and similar once they get the laser phosphors worked out to provide decent CRI/TLCI (currently 6000K- too blue). Might take a few years, however what's already working is seriously impressive: https://www.sldlaser.com/why-laserlight
 
David W. Jones said:
It would be nice to see some real world specs.

Who measures their photometrics from 3 feet away?
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Yeah, it's certainly a challenge, most vendors using different measurements- lumens, foot candles, lux, etc. This can be helpful: http://www.theledlight.com/lumens.html .
However when people test e.g. on YouTube the results don't match the typically exaggerated manufacturer numbers.

The Genaray is a 330W COB with 95 CRI/TLCI rating- I'd expected it to perform similarly to other devices with similar specs.

Seems OK color wise, not sure what fan noise I'm hearing:

More videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=genaray+powerhouse
 
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