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Why aren't the the lights we really need manufactured?


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The X-lights I've tried, but they're pretty much like a Goya-light. So if you use them on a butterfly, you're gonna get a very hot spot that's almost impossible to get rid off going directly, no matter how thick your rag is. And if you have to bounce first, then there are more powerful and cheaper units to use. Plus they're daylight, which is something I rarely use in a studio environment.

 

But I undertsand that covered wagons, boards with peanut-bulbs etc don't really fit in a production environment. I mean, how would a company like Arri make a covered wagon? These things almost have to be home made, by definition. I'm just sad that no one is doing it.

 

As for the Fresnels - it really ought to be the simplest thing in the world to take a T12 or T24 housing and make it adaptable so you could run any bulb in it, no?

 

 

 

Interesting comments and a nice pic, thanks. You're absolutely right - some home-made gadgets just would not be be compatible with German manufacturing methods.

 

For a 10k, the most sensible solution would seem to be a 'bridge' as you mentioned. To adjust the lampholder height from say a 1k to a 10K you'd be talking about a big chunk of mechanism adding weight and cost and reducing reliability.

 

The best we can do at present is offer a choice of two lens sizes between 1 and 5kW though inevitably rental companies and even some tv studios go for the smaller size. We used to make dual filament lampheads but these have fallen out of favour as the lamps were very expensive. Is it only the 10k size lens you're interested in or would say a 2/5kW lamphead be something useful?

 

One general point - if you want bigger lenses (or any other particular feature), yell at the rental houses and get them to yell at us. We're in a strange position that mostly our customers are not the end-users so the market has to be driven one step removed.

 

On the X Light question, it may not meet your needs, but just for the record, there is a 250W Ceramic X light which will give 3200K or by swapping the lamp, 5600K. 250W gives in the region of 1k tungsten equivalent. It doesn't dim but a 250W flood won't burn through your ND that quickly. A frosted glass is available which might help with the hot spot.

 

The main thing is to keep the comments coming so we (the manufacturers) know what the guys at the sharp end are missing.

 

Best regards

 

Andy Barnett

ARRI GB

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OK...so I have small rental house... and yes we have most of what your looking for including the small generators (1k & 2k honda ultra quiets). Not all of it is on our lists, but I've got coop lights, I've got large fixtures with adapter for lower wattage lamps. (and yes we also have chimera pancakes for David)

 

Sorry if you can't get the stuff in England, but I can say that Barnstormer has it. I am sometimes surprised by what houses don't have. I've had a call for a ringlight and called every other house in metro NY and nobody had it. We've also provide special fixture for places like available light which surprised me since they have some stuff that most people don't have. The lesson is some house probably has it, you just need to find out which one.

 

~Marque

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  • 6 years later...

The quality of light was determined by the shape of spectral. The disadvantage of RGB LED lights is the narrow spectrum which gives poor performance of color quality.

Well most cheap white LED was made using blue chip with yellow phosphor. This is the most simple way to get white light by mixing blue and yellow light. Better white LED use blue chip emission and covered by red and green LED phosphor to achieve wider spectrum and higher CRI value 95.

And there is also new LED technology using violet chip at 405 nm or 420 nm to activates blue, green and red three kinds of phosphors to get full spectrum that very close to natural daylight with CRI 98.

The question is duv ( distance from x,y CIE to black radiator line) should be strictly controlled to avoid reddish or greenish.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/high-cri-tlci-led-photography-film-television-lighting-kalvin-zhang?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish

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  • 4 weeks later...

David,

 

The light Kevin used I believes he calls a Whitey made by a guy named Whitey on Staten Island. They are just made out of sheet metal and could take a finger off if you weren't careful. They were kind of heavy and sometimes a bit unwieldy. It wasn't really a "covered wagon" and more like what some guys called a trough light because it almost looked like a watering trough for animals.

 

It basically was a sheet metal box with a batten strip with porcelain sockets inside.

 

Since it did not have the rounded shape of a covered wagon, the light would just come out straight out with a kino grid out in front.

 

One thing I have been using lately is Sourcemaker blanket lights. The have a 4x4 version on down. A light can't get any thinner than a bunch of rows of LED strips sewn into a "blanket". I can use screws, tape or push pins to hold them up on a ceiling or a wall. Pete also has a frame for them but that idea needs a little help. Otherwise it is a great idea from Pete at Sourcemaker.

 

Best

 

Tim

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Excepted from: https://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2008/Television/page1.php

 

In characters’ homes, Abraham used more traditional studio lighting but implemented practicals as much as possible. Draper’s house was a practical set, and some scenes required four or five rooms to be lit at once. “I love the color spectrum of the household bulb,” notes the cinematographer. “We used a lot of batten strips with 100-watt household bulbs. The bulbs are so close they’re almost touching, so they create a single source that doesn’t cast multiple shadows. Over time, we built housings for them with channels into which you can slide diffusion frames or egg crates. We call them ‘Whiteys’ because the guy who knocked these shells out of tin back in New York was named Whitey; I used them extensively on The Sopranos and felt they suited the homes in Mad Men as well.”

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Same gaffer, same light. Kevin was the gaffer from the first season onwards on Sopranos. He did not do the pilot. After the first season Kevin shared gaffing duties with John. Phil was the original camera operator who stepped up when Alex left the show during season one.

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