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k5600


Chris Cooke

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I'm looking at purchasing some smaller HMI's in the near future. I got looking a k5600's lights and was quite impressed untill I got a quote from a nearby dealer. The price on just their 400w is $7,449.00 CAD (a 1.2k Mole Richardson Par was quoted at $3557.00). I like the features listed on their website (http://www.k5600.com/index.html) and I like their sleek black look. Does anyone have experience with k5600 lights?

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I'm looking at purchasing some smaller HMI's in the near future. I got looking a k5600's lights and was quite impressed untill I got a quote from a nearby dealer. The price on just their 400w is $7,449.00 CAD (a 1.2k Mole Richardson Par was quoted at $3557.00). I like the features listed on their website (http://www.k5600.com/index.html) and I like their sleek black look. Does anyone have experience with k5600 lights?

 

Chris,

 

I've been using the Joker Bug 800 on a TV show for the last couple of months and it's been quite good. I haven't had the chance to use it in bug mode yet, but I used it last night to light up the side of a house. I had the wide lens on it and shot it through a 4x4 frame with 250 on it. It lit up a good 20'x20' area area. The Arri 1.2 is brighter, but the 800 comes pretty close and is half the size. I'm going to do a comparison at some point before the end of the show and see how close/far they are in output.

 

I know a lot of travelling news folks like the Joker Bug 200 and the 400. I'm curious about the Kobold Bron series, they are water resistant and can be out in the rain without any cover. According to user reports/pix, they've been used by news shooters covering hurricanes, with no problems at all.

 

With the K5600 Slimverter, you can use your A/B bricks to power the 200. There is a Slimverter for the 400 that runs off of battery belts. It has two, two pin screw in connectors, for DC operation.

 

The only thing I don't like is that the lenses make the beam into a long skinny rectangle. I'll probably get some brushed silk to spread it out a bit.

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I use the 800 Joker quite a bit. It's not a bad light for the smaller EPK/EFP shoots I do now. Light, portable, sets up quickly. Gets hot quick though. Outdoors, it's just barely enough to provide fill if I'm shooting into a shaded background. Forget it if you want to try to get close to shooting talent against a fully sunlit background. It just isn't enough. I honestly can't figure out the purpose of the smaller HMIs. The 800 is just barely enough to be useful.

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Wow. the day my news station can afford a few jokers, I would be a happy man. For now its omnis with CTB.

 

(a competing station uses dicroric filters maybe 1/20 of the time, uncorrected the rest. I don't know a whole lot about dicros, but I know if they are positioned wrong, they can give the wrong color. I have seen the 'fether' the edge of a light onto a subject, and I swear the light was purple to my eyes. I am sure it couldn't have been right, even after adjusting for whiteballance.)

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they are great lights

for interiors in 250 asa a 400 cimera is good enougth for a fil at T2.1

the 800 work good for a back light or to fill a larger space they have a lot of accesories like, chimera, soft tubes, chinese bowls... you can use them as open face or fresnel.

when i can i always choose K5600.

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The thing i like most about the Joker bug is the DC operation. Great for when your running around. Its light enought to mount onto a car with a suction. I've used it in driveing night ext with the soft tube mounted on top of a car coming over the front window key lighting actors. Gives a nice soft keno bulb feel but a lot brighter. You can also use it as a back light in the same situations.

 

With the bug-a-beam adapter it mounts in a leko caseing which i want to try on my next shoot... Im exicted to see how hard of a beam i can get with a Joker 800 mounted in one with a 19º barrel. They are super expencive and hard to get out here in vancouver. Almost every show in town has a few of them on the truck which sucks because its so hard to get them now.

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How hot does the 800 get compared to... lets say an Arri 1.2k HMI? They're ok to put in softboxes and chinaballs, so I'm guesing the heat is reasonable. I'd like to try it in one of my source four lekos. That'd be quite the output compared to a 750 HPL.

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How hot does the 800 get compared to... lets say an Arri 1.2k HMI? They're ok to put in softboxes and chinaballs, so I'm guesing the heat is reasonable. I'd like to try it in one of my source four lekos. That'd be quite the output compared to a 750 HPL.

 

Im almost tempted to say its a lot brighter if open face. The heat is not bad, someone with gloves could operate the lamp off the yoke. If I use it with the leko caseing soon I'll let you know how it looks.

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