The brightest light I have ever seen (except the sun, maybe...) at DVinfo.net

Heiko Saele · August 7th, 2007, 12:28 PM

On my way home from work I just walked by a commercial film production (16mm Arriflex camera). They were shooting inside a bakery, they had the whole front window/entrance covered with some tough white diffusion cloth and lit it from the outside with two ArriSun 12kW. Oh my god it was so bright I could hardly believe it. From what I could see on the inside the light must have been fabulous (they also shot another 5kW Arri hmi through the window on the side).
This is just... WOW! :)

Rob Evans · August 7th, 2007, 02:32 PM

I saw something similar the other day in London, a truck mounted beast that was 10m in the air and about 3m wide - on the back, a sign saying:

100,000W lighting

I was scared!!!

Charles Papert · August 7th, 2007, 02:50 PM

On a feature I was one once we were shooting interior green screen of a pitcher throwing a baseball with a Photosonics camera, at around 1000 frames per second. The amount of light needed to capture the shot was obviously massive because of the frame rate. We had a number of Lightning Strikes instruments, which are normally used to simulate the effect of lightning, however these were set up to strobe synchronized with the shutter so that they would photograph as continuous light. When they fired them up, the massive bundle of electrical cable powering them would literally clench and dance around like a muscle being tightened with all of that current. It was an awesome spectacle. Everyone was wearing sunglasses!

Ralph Keyser · August 7th, 2007, 03:45 PM

That's cool Charles! I've always wanted to see one of those shutter sync'd Lighting Strikes units in action.

The truck in London sounds a lot like a Musco light. A completely self-contained mobile lighting unit with 15 6K HMI heads at the end of a long hydraulic arm. If I recall correctly, you get 25 footcandles at 0.5 miles (or 250 lux at 0.8 km if I got the conversions correct). Just the thing for night shots over vast areas :)

Marcus Marchesseault · August 7th, 2007, 04:05 PM

I want one!

Unfortunately, it would blow the main breaker on about a dozen residential homes simultaneously. I'll need lots of stingers...

Mark Sasahara · August 7th, 2007, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

I want one!

Unfortunately, it would blow the main breaker on about a dozen residential homes simultaneously. I'll need lots of stingers...

Hee, hee!

Marcus, be sure to give a candy bar to everyone whose home you plug into. That's about 4,500 candy bars and the same number of stingers. You may also want to get a couple of candy bars for yourself, while you're at it. I'll take a Zagnut, if you can spare one.

I think the brightest light I ever saw was when I was a student at RIT, back in the 80's. The Broncolor (flash) rep was demonstrating a new 3200Ws Hazylight. It was pretty neat 'cuz it was a large, 1 meter square, remote controlled softlight, on a Flamingo Stand (similar to a studio stand for a large format camera).

So this guy was making it go up and down, tilting and rotating and going side to side. And we were all "oohing" and "ahhing". So he gets the light right over our young, admiring, upturned faces and lowers the light very close to us. See kids, it's very nice. Notice how evenly lit the front face is. Look at how soft it is. "Oh yes," we say, "it's very even and very soft." Right then, the idiot lets us have it: 3200 Watt Seconds, right in the kisser, from a foot away. Suddenly, there are twenty blind students and faculty, grimacing and covering our eyes. A few swore.

If we could have found the little weasel, we would have killed him. But all we could see, as we stumbled around the studio, like zombies with our arms outstretched, was a very evenly lit, very soft, blinding white square, burned into out retinas.

The following year, we got new Broncolor flash gear in every studio.

Bill Davis · August 7th, 2007, 10:10 PM

If you want the "personal" version, I ran across this story on ars technica the other day.

I guess there's a whole community of flashlight geeks who are always pushing for bigger and brighter in personal transportable lighting

Not very useful for video - unless you're trying to simulate a bat signal on a cloud - but pretty interesting none the less.

http://tinyurl.com/dqpnc

Marcus Marchesseault · August 8th, 2007, 02:27 AM

That light actually would be useful. It could be aimed at a lightweight reflector up high to simulate the moon. Have you seen the flashlight that can set newspaper on fire just from the light it produces? Those people are a bit nutty, but it's still fascinating.

Richard Andrewski · August 8th, 2007, 05:31 PM

The price is not bad for what it is. The really interesting thing there that I'd like to know more about is that power supply. 28v / 60amp. A DC generator?

Nate Weaver · August 9th, 2007, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

When they fired them up, the massive bundle of electrical cable powering them would literally clench and dance around like a muscle being tightened with all of that current. It was an awesome spectacle. Everyone was wearing sunglasses!

And I thought 150fps on a 435 is kind of an intense experience...hearing the whir and knowing what would happen if it jammed.

I don't even know what a Photosonics sounds like, but I know what the Lightning Strikes units sound like, and with all the commotion that would have to come to life for only 3 or 4 seconds at a time, I bet it freaked the s**t out of the talent on that first take!

Yow.

Heiko Saele · August 10th, 2007, 12:17 PM

Quote:

I saw something similar the other day in London, a truck mounted beast that was 10m in the air and about 3m wide - on the back, a sign saying:

100,000W lighting

I was scared!!!

Maybe that was one of the Musco light trucks? I read about them in a cinematography magazine recently.
http://www.musco.com/temporary/muscolight.html
Fifteen 6kW hmi lamps (= 90kW) on a truck with hydraulic boom.

August 7th, 2007, 12:28 PM	#1
Heiko Saele Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Wurzburg, Germany Posts: 316	The brightest light I have ever seen (except the sun, maybe...) On my way home from work I just walked by a commercial film production (16mm Arriflex camera). They were shooting inside a bakery, they had the whole front window/entrance covered with some tough white diffusion cloth and lit it from the outside with two ArriSun 12kW. Oh my god it was so bright I could hardly believe it. From what I could see on the inside the light must have been fabulous (they also shot another 5kW Arri hmi through the window on the side). This is just... WOW! :)

August 7th, 2007, 02:50 PM	#3
Charles Papert Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 6,810	On a feature I was one once we were shooting interior green screen of a pitcher throwing a baseball with a Photosonics camera, at around 1000 frames per second. The amount of light needed to capture the shot was obviously massive because of the frame rate. We had a number of Lightning Strikes instruments, which are normally used to simulate the effect of lightning, however these were set up to strobe synchronized with the shutter so that they would photograph as continuous light. When they fired them up, the massive bundle of electrical cable powering them would literally clench and dance around like a muscle being tightened with all of that current. It was an awesome spectacle. Everyone was wearing sunglasses! __________________ Charles Papert www.charlespapert.com

August 8th, 2007, 05:31 PM	#9
Richard Andrewski Major Player Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Shenzhen, China Posts: 781	The price is not bad for what it is. The really interesting thing there that I'd like to know more about is that power supply. 28v / 60amp. A DC generator? __________________ Richard Andrewski - Cool Lights USA - RED #114 http://www.coollights.biz

August 7th, 2007, 02:32 PM	#2
Rob Evans Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Berkshire, UK Posts: 390	I saw something similar the other day in London, a truck mounted beast that was 10m in the air and about 3m wide - on the back, a sign saying: 100,000W lighting I was scared!!!

August 7th, 2007, 03:45 PM	#4
Ralph Keyser Major Player Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico USA Posts: 287	That's cool Charles! I've always wanted to see one of those shutter sync'd Lighting Strikes units in action. The truck in London sounds a lot like a Musco light. A completely self-contained mobile lighting unit with 15 6K HMI heads at the end of a long hydraulic arm. If I recall correctly, you get 25 footcandles at 0.5 miles (or 250 lux at 0.8 km if I got the conversions correct). Just the thing for night shots over vast areas :)

August 7th, 2007, 04:05 PM	#5
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	I want one! Unfortunately, it would blow the main breaker on about a dozen residential homes simultaneously. I'll need lots of stingers...

August 7th, 2007, 10:10 PM	#7
Bill Davis Trustee Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Posts: 1,538	If you want the "personal" version, I ran across this story on ars technica the other day. I guess there's a whole community of flashlight geeks who are always pushing for bigger and brighter in personal transportable lighting Not very useful for video - unless you're trying to simulate a bat signal on a cloud - but pretty interesting none the less. http://tinyurl.com/dqpnc

August 8th, 2007, 02:27 AM	#8
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	That light actually would be useful. It could be aimed at a lightweight reflector up high to simulate the moon. Have you seen the flashlight that can set newspaper on fire just from the light it produces? Those people are a bit nutty, but it's still fascinating.