HMI to light bulb price difference

[Donald Riley]

Why is there a huge price difference between HMI lights and bulbs that burn at 5200 Kelvin?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

HMIs are in lower demand and a lot more complicated to build and filled with rare elements and also last for longer than 4 hours (as a photoflood does). Among other reasons.

 

Here's an idea of how much more complicated an HMI bulb is : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrargyrum_medium-arc_iodide

[Brian Drysdale]

HMIs are often a much larger wattage if you're talking about the small metal halide 5200 bulbs that you can buy for domestic or industrial use.

Edited July 18, 2010 by Brian Drysdale

[Donald Riley]

Would something like this make as good of picture as an HMI light?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

It'd make an image nowhere near an HMI light..... HMIs are point sources, like the sun, normally in fresnel lighting instruments, but also PARs-- point being they are a strong and controllable beam with a good throw on it which one can later modulate. A Floro fixture, such as that or a Kino, while it can by 5600K or so is by default a soft-ish light with very little throw, though with the low power consumption quite useful very often.

[JD Hartman]

Spiral compact flouro bulbs (Falcon Eye, others..) typically have a low CRI. If you want something that can compete with an HMI, these come close: http://bmlighting.com/site/products/mac-tech-hpl/mac-tech-hpl-12-mini-dino/