575 HMI/PAR or 1200 HMI PAR???

[KETCH ROSSi]

Hey guys,

I'm getting a couple of HMI's PAR, to compliment my Tungsten Kino's and LED's, I was thinking on getting 1 575 HMI PAR & 1 1200 HMI PAR.

I like your opinions and advise if this is good to start having a couple of HMI's on my light package or would you go with 2 575 or 2 1200?

Which in your opinions will get more flexible use?

Thanks in advance for your responses as all ways.

Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI
www.KETCHFRAME.com

[donatello b]

i prefer the 1200 .... i alway rent .. when i look at the price of 575 i find the extra $$ is worth stepping up to 1200 for the extra punch ( if needed)

[Greg M]

you can always scrim the 1200 to a lower level, but you cant increase the output of the 575. Go with the 1200

[KETCH ROSSi]

Okay I was already leaning towards the 1200,

now would you get a second 1200 or 6 4Bank Kino's w/both 2900/5500 lamps?

I already have 2 4Bank 4', one 4Bank 2' and a Parabeam 400.

Would my kit be complemented more by a second 1200 or by half a dozen or so Kino's?

Again thanks for your responses.

Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI

[Greg M]

I would get a second 1200, sounds like you have a nice kino kit

btw- you can rent a 1200 for around $100-$125...are you going to use it enough to offset rental cost

[KETCH ROSSi]

I want to get some more lights, I do not rent.

what I have so far:

Fresnel tungsten,

One 2K
Two 1K
Six 650's
Six 300's
Ten 150's

HMI PAR KIT,

One 1200

Kino's

One Parabeam 400
Two 4Bank 4'
One 4Bank 2'

LED's

One set of two.

Considering the arrival of my 3 RED's and extensive Photography use I would like to have a package of versatility and diverse solution solver as far as lighting situations.

I have never used HMI's before so I do not know if one good punch light will do, or better to have two of them or again one HMI and more Kino's.

Considering my actual kit still go for a second HMI 1200?

Thanks,
Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI
www.KETCHFRAME.com

[Greg M]

I rarely use just one 1200...get a second one.

might also look at a pocket par.

[Jim McKinney]

get the second 1200

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

hahaha, another guy who thinks like our company: "I do not rent."

But it's a luxury for us. If we had less money we'd rent, too. Our thinking is basically a lot different from the industry, and to me the industry's way of thinking makes perfect sense too. It's just two ways of going about things. There's 1) You get a project and you budget all of the rental fees into the project, then take your profits above the costs of the project, of which rental fees are one part. Then there's the way we figure it, which is 2) Buy whatever you can; sure, you may not use it enough to justify owning it, but that's why you start a small equipment rental company and then make your money back renting it to other people who go with option #1.

But for us, we won't be buying lights we don't think we'll use on almost every shoot or at least a lot of shoots. I bought a 2K tungsten light, which I don't think we'll need on every shoot, but I think we'll need enough to be worthwhile. I figure if we need more powerful lights, we can rent them. For now. But in general we like to own everything that we need for production.

[Curran Giddens]

http://www.reduser.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=982&d=1188680340

I guess you can't have too many lights....

[Jim Arthurs]

Considering my actual kit still go for a second HMI 1200?

KETCH ROSSI
www.KETCHFRAME.com

Ketch, while outfitting your truck, it might be worth looking into this...

http://www.coollights.biz/clmf0575-fresnel-p-64.html

Richard is a fellow Reduser and is coming out with a line of inexpensive HMI fresnels and small Pars...

I think there's a place in your truck for this light... 2.4K worth of tungsten lumens in wonderful daylight color temp for the amps/watts usage of a tungsten 650...

[KETCH ROSSi]

Hey guys,

this is one of the reasons why I love this Forum, it is full of great people ready to put there time at use for helping any one who asks.

Thanks very much for your opinions, advices and links.

Curran, I have no idea how to get attached links such as you did with my picture of the lights in my garage, I have to learn to do that.

JonathanlB, the reason for me not to rent is mostly because I'm building a 4k all in one production vehicle to take to Italy next year when I will be moving back home for good, sure I could rent there but I prefer to be the one to do the renting to others if I need the money, or I can do what I'm doing here, let people borrow them when they will have no way of renting them.

Jim, thanks for the link, Cool Lights USA has surely grab my attention and I will give them a visit before completing my truck.

Digitalfx, Jimarri and Donatello, thanks so much for your advices.

One of this babies in my garage and the second one in order.

P.S. As the link attachment posted by Curran showing my gear I continue to offer this to any of you guys, if you come to need them to shoot your RED's projects, this link comes from the "For Hire" thread entitled "free gear to help shoot your RED"

Again thank so much in helping me in this decision, I think I will benefit greatly from the addition of the two and so will my Photo shoots.

Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI
www.KETCHFRAME.com

[donatello b]

i also like to have 2- 1200 pars on the truck/van ...

[Billy Summers]

The ARRI 1200 pars are soo nice, pricey, but nice. Oh yeah, their ballast's rock as well. If you've got the budget I would look at the 800 joker bugs. They have an equal if not greater throw than the 1200 but they're much smaller for getting into peculiar places (ie. out of a fifth story window articulated inward playing as sunlight etc.).

Besides cool lights, which seem quite viable for the price.
There are also some ARRI look alikes, called bluline, available at: http://www.imagewest.tv/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=65

Best,

Billy-

[Richard Andrewski]

The old question, which is better a par or a fresnel? IMHO, given equal ballasts and same wattage and type of bulbs, the par will generally give more light output. They just have larger lenses in most cases and the spotlight configuration of the parabolic or in some cases ellipsoidal mirror with the bulb sticking horizontally through the back into the mirror is more efficient at intensifying the light. Then all this focusing through a (generally changeable with several choices) lens and you have one really flexible setup. No fresnel I know of lets you easily change lenses to get different effects but you do have the focusing mechanism which gives the wide or narrow beam. However, when you need the really hard light with sharp edges around shadows (like in cookie use for instance or framing a light with barndoors), the par may not work as well as the fresnel.

On choices of wattage of course it all depends upon the type and scope of work you're doing but myself, I would prefer two 575's as opposed to one 1200. In this way you have two instruments that can be focused on two different areas covering a wider space putting out about 98,000 lumens together. With a 1200 you have one instrument putting out about 110,000 lumens and covers whatever space its one beam can cover. They're not so far apart.

[KETCH ROSSi]

Very detailed explanation in deed, this two 1200 PAR's will serve well with the rest of my lights, I have check out your site and I will for sure keep you in mind on my next purchases.

Ciao,

KETCH ROSSI