rob spence Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Hi, Is there any 12 volt lighting systems available. We're shooting in the middle of no where, with no electricity and no genny it is a very sunny location. We need light for interiors and fill for outdoors. many thanks rob spence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Lewis Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Hi,Is there any 12 volt lighting systems available. We're shooting in the middle of no where, with no electricity and no genny it is a very sunny location. We need light for interiors and fill for outdoors. many thanks rob spence http://www.bhphotovideo.com/3results/contr...=ps&sq=desc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Hal Smith Posted July 21, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted July 21, 2007 it is a very sunny location. We need light for interiors and fill for outdoors. Reflectors work very nicely outside in the sun for fill. It is now possible to buy 12VDC Compact Fluorescent lamps. They have the equivalent of a flickerfree ballast and to my eye are close to 3200K. Search around on the web, I got mine from West Marine but they've stopped stocking them. The ones I bought screw into a standard Edison socket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Alessandro Machi Posted July 22, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted July 22, 2007 Reflectors work very nicely outside in the sun for fill. It is now possible to buy 12VDC Compact Fluorescent lamps. They have the equivalent of a flickerfree ballast and to my eye are close to 3200K. Search around on the web, I got mine from West Marine but they've stopped stocking them. The ones I bought screw into a standard Edison socket. When it comes to 12VDC lights, non focusable lights, unless they have a built in throw, are somewhat worthless if one is trying to mix them into a daylight setting, unless it's just being used for E.N.G. stand up interviews. The reason being is to get a powerful enough light will use a lot of battery power whereas a focused light can light up sections of the scene from a distance, allowing one to actually selectively light specfic portions of a day time set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob spence Posted July 23, 2007 Author Share Posted July 23, 2007 When it comes to 12VDC lights, non focusable lights, unless they have a built in throw, are somewhat worthless if one is trying to mix them into a daylight setting, unless it's just being used for E.N.G. stand up interviews. The reason being is to get a powerful enough light will use a lot of battery power whereas a focused light can light up sections of the scene from a distance, allowing one to actually selectively light specfic portions of a day time set. are focussable 12 volt units available? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Drysdale Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Reflectors would be much more useful for daylight fill than 12 volt lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Alessandro Machi Posted July 23, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted July 23, 2007 are focussable 12 volt units available? The dedo lights might offer that but I've never used them so I don't know. Portable HMI units of the 18W, 24W & 50W variety might prove effective for indoor situations where some ambient sunlight is coming in as well. Don't be fooled by the wattage however, their effective throw is something like 4X the same wattage of a comparable 12V tungsten. I compared a 24W HMI on set with a 100W tungsten with a dichroic filter on it and the 24W had a better throw to it. However, the HMI also is a less "elegant", harsher light source because the light is a rather narrow beam coming from a small bulb. The portable HMI's probably work better with film than video because film seems to soften hard light throws better than video. However, if you keep your actors away from white walls the portable HMI's can be pretty useful. Your best bet might be to rent a bunch of the portable HMI lights of the 24 W variety. Buying them might prove cost prohibitive as they cost around a thousand dollars per light. Plus you then have to have adequate battery power, probably of the deep cycle lead acid rechargeable variety. And figure on a minimum of a 12-18 hour recharge time per lead acid battery. So for every light in your kit figure on at least two lead acid batteries plus a bunch of chargers as well. The good thing about the HMI's is they should just turn off when the voltage of the lead acid's drops to around 11 volts, which then saves the lead acid batteries from being ruined because of too deep of a discharge. The tungsten lights will just keep turning more and more yellow and orange as the voltage drops and so the likelihood of ruining the lead acid's due to too deep of a discharge is very likely to happen with tungstens. The digital non lead batteries also will work fine but they will keep the light lit for 1/2 to 1/4 the time of a lead acid deep discharge battery, but they are a heck of a lot lighter if you go with the dionics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Alessandro Machi Posted July 23, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted July 23, 2007 Reflectors would be much more useful for daylight fill than 12 volt lights. For exteriors, most of the time yes, for interiors, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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