Matthew Parnell

Also before one of the moderators ask, as per the rules of the forum could you please change your display name to your full name.

Hi Tobi, I would be considering investing in a completely different direction. The package you are talking about isn't exactly flexible and has a limited range of applications. I would be more looking at a more diverse kit of smaller gear to handle day-to-day run and gun and smaller jobs, then if you need a couple bigger things, just hire specifically what you need for the day. Outside of that if you have a larger job come in just hire an experienced gaffer with a van/truck to take all the worry out of things. The problem with going HMI is there is really quite high ongoing costs in terms of maintenance, repairs and globes. We have had repair bills for HMI gear running into the thousands. The problem with investing in LED is that your gear will be obsolete significantly before you make it's value back. I'm based in Sydney, Id be happy to chat with you in more detail, just PM me.

I would be just replacing the globe. The breakdown of the cement is generally a sign of the globe being moisture affected at some point in its life, or can signify some other problems in the globe or in the manufacturing process. The last thing you want is an exploding globe on your hands.

Have had this happen with 5ks before smashing the lens and damaging the reflector. Usually its either oil on the globe, or a faulty globe(not uncommon). As for the rental house perhaps they should look at the manuals before pointing fingers. Would love to know the exact model of Stand, but in their manuals their 5k models can have a tilt angle of +90 -0- -90 degrees. PM me and I will email the manual I have if you want.

Blondies and redheads blowing an excessive number of globes tends to be a pretty convincing symptom of problems with the lampholder. While they are pretty robust heads overall, and tend to last in service for years with little more than a dust off and a little dry lubrication of the flood-spot worm gear and runners. Over time the lampholders tend to be affected by heat, handling in transit, the incorrect installation of the globe and the continual changing of globes amongst over things. I would be giving the lampholders a quick inspection everytime you change the globe. Check for corrosion on the conducting nipple, check for discoloration and cracks in the ceramic. When you install the globe make sure it is neither too tight or too loose in the head.

Just to check what you mean by 'spotlight' do you just mean a beam of light, or a theatrical styled spotlight? If its a theatrical style you are after Most larger lighting hire companies carry a range of these, from short to long throw, ranging from 1.2k - 4k HMI.

It is a UV blocking safety glass. I would get in contact with other dealers, perhaps Barbizon in Australia to see if they can't do something for you. Should only be looking at arround US$70 for the glass.

Its a ground lift switch. Basically it disconnects the ground/earth. HMIs, particularly magnetic HMIs by nature tend to leak a fair bit of current to earth which can be rather problematic as it can trip a sensitive or fatigued earth leakage breaker, or cause problems with other equipment. Only ever use the ground lift when it is required because equipment is bonded to earth for very good safety reasons. Also if you are in a situation where it has caused a trip. Be mindful that the trip may have been caused by a more serious problems.

Shooting with non-safe frame rates and shutter angles, with lamps that have older style induction drive gear, like fluros, metal halides, hmi with old magnetic ballasts, etc, that flicker at the mains frequency. The camera when not at the safe speed will read the lamps flickering.

Could be the paint baking, could be dust burning off. If there is no sign of obvious burning inside,. Take it outside to a well ventilated area and burn it for a few hours and see if stops. Sometimes the paint needs to bake, or the dust needs to be burnt off.

I wouldn't put it past the china balls to have some involvement in the flicker. I've seen tungsten flicker like this on the red before(long story) abeit almost to the point of it only being visible on the waveform. By all rights the M18 should have been right provided it was definitely in flicker free mode. I'd let the rental house know however. They should be able to get their tech to run a scope over the output side of the ballast just to check it out for their own sake.

The creamsource is a good piece of gear. Incredibly punchy lamp, not the widest of throws, but still pretty cool. Also very handy to do strobe work with CMOS cameras. Has the ability to be synced with Genlock and tuned into phase so you don't get half frames.

In LEDs you should be looking at the spectral power distribution of a lamp over the output level. There is no point gaining two stops of light if you loose whole chunks of spectrum. If there is no light of a particular wavelength lighting a scene, then there is no information on your neg (be it digital or film) of that wavelength, then there is nothing you can do to fix it in the grade.

Personally I would keep away from the LTMs. Have had quite a few issues with them. The ArriSun 12 is a proven workhorse, particularly the current version which now caters for both the much mire user freindy drop in lenses and the oldschool recessed par lenses. The new Daylite Par Series from Mole are really good units as well, and apparently a little more punchier than the Arrisun. If your not stuck on a 1.2, the M18 from Arri is brilliant.

As for the flicker it depends on the fittings. Some have the older style induction ballasts that operate at mains frequency, whereas others have high frequency electronic ballasts that are much more friendly. Given that it can be quite difficult to tell the two types apart, It's wise to just stick to the old Flicker Free Safe Speed charts. Some CMOS chip camera's rolling shutter issues can be painful, but that's the drawback of the tech.

If you are shooting in an office where there are 8 rows of 10 fluro fittings. Each fitting has two tubes. That's 160 fluro tubes you have to firstly acquire, secondly swap out and trouble shoot(there is always that one fitting with issues) then thirdly once you are done shooting you have to swap them back to the way they were. That's an awful lot of labour and cost. Or you could change the 12 tubes in your three 4'Quad kinos to the same tubes as the overheads to create a consistent colour bias across the whole image that can be corrected either using a filter on the camera, or in post.

Phillips make the Master TL-D 90 series that has CRI greater than 90. The 950 burns at 5000K @ 92 CRI The 930 burns at 3000K @ 91 CRI We use them quite often and find they match reasonably well to Kino tubes.

A computer monitor is possibly the worst method to try to check a meter. A monitor produces white light by blending narrow wavelengths of Red, Green and Blue, therefore you end up with a white light that has a completely discontinuous spectrum. Color meters are not designed to measure lights with a discontinuous spectrum, which is why they perform poorly with completely wacked out readings with Colour Mixing led lamps like the Gekko Kelvin Tile. These meters are designed for use with lamps that have a continuous or near continuous spectrum like Tungsten, HMI and Fluros. Even with that considered, the Color Meter IIIf is reported to have problems getting accurate readings from T8 tubes.

I start with wiping down the outside, getting rid of dust and bugs from inside the lamp and a general physical check of the chasis. I then check the wiring, lampholder and the base of the globe for any signs of arcing, burns and cracks or perishing in the ceramics etc. While the globe is out a quick wipe/polish of the reflector and then a wipe over of the fresnel. Keeping on top of loose screws is important Lamps and ballasts particularly in a truck, where even when strapped down they vibrate a lot. An occasional tightening up does the trick. Medium strength locktite can help as well in some cases. Don't forget to check your Par lenses as the screw that hold them into the ring can loosen off as well. Your flood-spot rails are pretty important to maintain. Particularly on Ianero/Strand/Quartzcolor lamps which are prone to having issues. From experience they aren't as heavily engineered as the Arri and Mole stuff and unless the rails are clean, can seize, jam and pull out of alignment, and then the worm gear can be easily bent without a huge amount of force on the flood and spot knob. I try not lubricate the flood and spot rails unless they are seized or really bad. Obviously if you are getting rust, lubrication with light oil might be your best option, but otherwise i find If you oil them, the oil acts like a dust magnet and you get more seizing and problems as the dust globs together and jams things up. I tend to use a small amount of graphite powder on the rails and then work that in using the flood and spot. Also electrically testing (PAT testing) you gear is important. Keep your testing current and up to date.

They both are good workhorses. Both are relatively inexpensive to maintain and have a great lifespan. Provided you do your research if buying used you can't go wrong. To be getting more output out of a Arri 5k than a Mole 10k the Tener must have have some serious issues. Rolling maintence on your gear is probably the best thing you can make sure you do to keep everything in check. You can spot and prevent problems before they happen on set and you can extend the lifespan of your equipment dramatically. If your going to own gear, expect to maintain it. Just on HMI, a lot of people focus on the lamps, and forget all about the ballasts. Most of the Arri Electronic ballasts are great pieces of engineering. Over time in heavy use, all ballasts need a bit of work done, but Just for an example We have four ballasts that were purchased back in 1994 that other than feeder cables needing replacement they have had all but one problem, where a control card was replaced. This compared to 5 powergems ballasts ranging from 9 years to 14 months old that are in the truck im currently working in. Every single one has had to go into the shop for repairs in the last two years, with problems ranging from needing firmware/software reinstalled to replacing cards to a complete rebuild, and in Australia getting PowerGems parts can take months. Which if we didn't have spares would mean costly cross-hiring of replacements.

I like the one with the light. Perhaps if had you knocked back the lamp with some nd or a smaller globe so it wasnt such a blown out highlight it would have been better, but I dont know the context of the story, so the other might work better in that respect, telling a story is more than just pretty pictures.

Both HMI lamps and Kino tubes change colour temperature depending on their age. A HMI globe when it's new is really quite cool, and in the first few hours of use gets warmer, and then continues to get warmer by about 1 kelvin per hour. Kino tubes also change temperature with age and also towards the end of there life significantly drop in output.

What shooting format do you currently have, and what is your post workflow? What is the workflow you currently use for archiving and library vision? What format do your journos use to preview the camera tapes as they write the story? Changing camera formats has a much larger effect on the post end than they do at the shooting end of things and is usually where the big headaches arise. I know it seems the wrong way arround, but with something as fast paced and high turnover as news You have to choose your format carefully.

If I was in the market for a 4k at the moment I wouldnt go past the Arri Max 4/2.5. I havnt had a chance to play with one yet, but going by what arri is saying, and there previous results with the M18 which I have had the pleasure if using it will be an impressive piece of gear.

There is a 220/240v unit. We have one in our truck and it comes out all the time for fire effects. Pretty good unit overall.