(noob) Purchased my first film light (lowel omni) and it came with an xlr power cord, what type of power source do I use?

[Brett Moyer]

Hello, everyone,

 

The title pretty much sums my issue up— I purchased this light off ebay but have no idea how to power the source with its 5 pin xlr power cord.

 

thanks!

[Brian Drysdale]

The power source will depend on the lamp fitted. Your light may possibly have been used as a battery light, so could have a 30 volt lamp fitted, I suggest this since 12 volt power supplies are commonly 4 pin XLR. You can check this by removing the bulb, if one is currently fitted, to check its voltage - don't touch the glass envelope.

 

These lights are rated 500 Watts maximum, 120-240VAC, 12-30VDC. You should be able to run it from the mains by fitting an appropriate power plug and using a lamp with the correct voltage.

[JB Earl]

you just need the regular Lowel AC cord (a printer/typewriter cord will do, but has no switch). And as Brian said switch out the lamp for a 120v one.

 

http://lowel.tiffen.com/omni/

 

download Omni-light Instructions (PDF)

[David Landau]

5 pin? That is usually a DMX control cable. Most battery powered units use 4-pin cables.

 

Long time ago I worked a lot with lowel lights as they were the first inexpensive compact location kits around (we're talking the late 70s early 80s). Lowel lights have a long history of melting their own cords and switches. The rifa and the Pro lights are very good useful units, but that's really about it for lowel. We've all used them when shooting documentaries, but they get very hot and self destruct. If you really want to start off with a lowel kit, I would recommend the Slimlight 1-rifa 2-pro kit. That will work for most interviews and docs - but still limiting as you won't have enough units to light your backgrounds.