Strictly DIY fluorescent

[Carlos E. Martinez]

<<<-- Originally posted by Pete Wilie :

Would you mind posting the brand/model# of the parts you have bought so far, and who you bought them from.

-->>>


I am glad you are interested, Pete.

The only brands I can mention that you could find locally are the Osram 55W lamps. They are called Dulux L, 55W/840 types. Made in Italy.

The boxes are made here in Brazil, and you should find probably other types, perhaps better ones, close to you.

Home Depot might be the best place to start. Ask for boxes for 55W T5 luminaires, and they should show you what they have. Look for non-recessed types, with a box holding it all.

You might find interior design types that are expensive, which may not what you need.

Sorry I can't help further on that.


Carlos

[Graham Bernard]

Hiyah Carlos!

Here are some more ideas ..

These are the sunken ceiling boxes:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MD418.html


These will be at NAB 05 - $499 ? They also have decided to go with ganging the lamps in various cmbinations. The dimmable ballasts - at least here in the UK are very "expensive" !
http://flolight.com/flo1400.htm


Dimmable ballasts here:
http://www.arlen-efa.co.uk/pages/all_detail_print.asp?ProductID=211


Lots of ideas!

Grazie

[Carlos E. Martinez]

<<<-- Originally posted by Graham Bernard : Hiyah Carlos!

Here are some more ideas ..

These are the sunken ceiling boxes:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MD418.html


These will be at NAB 05 - $499 ? They also have decided to go with ganging the lamps in various cmbinations. The dimmable ballasts - at least here in the UK are very "expensive" !
http://flolight.com/flo1400.htm


Dimmable ballasts here:
http://www.arlen-efa.co.uk/pages/all_detail_print.asp?ProductID=211

-->>>

Great, Grazie!

The Flolight looks very good and quite reasonably priced. Even if I believe we can DIY an 8-lamp setup for half that price, their craftmanship seems excellent.

Those specific ceiling boxes are not for U-shaped lamps, but there should be a model for them.

The problem with sunken boxes is that they do not have an external box, if you want to do a modular project.

But if anyone wants to do a multi-lamp project, using a different approach might be better, perhaps with something like this:

http://ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm

These people also sell some aquarium wooden enclosures, but they shouldn't hold too many lamps.

If anyone can find a metal box, open on one side and preferably aluminium, that is about 20" x 25" x 5" to hold eight 55W lamps, that might be a way to go too. But I think that might be too much luck.


Carlos

[Daniel Patton]

FYI... Anyone who has visited the site listed above:

http://www.apv-photo.com/

may want to run a virus scan on your system. My VCOM (Trend Micro) alerted me that I had recieved a virus from the server.

Until this is either varified as true or false, proceed with caution.

[Graham Bernard]

Thanks Daniel - My set of virus checkers have drawn a blank. Have you details of the virus?

Grazie

[Daniel Patton]

Here is a screen-shot from when I hit the site each time.

http://www.danielpatton.com/dv/trend...irus-pic01.jpg

If I clean the infected file/folder and then re-visit the site... BAM I get the same virus warning.

I called the owner of the site and told him he should look into it, we'll see I guess.

[Boyd Ostroff]

FYI: At Graham's request I have edited out the URL in question.

[Daniel Patton]

Good idea, sorry to have re-posted it that way.

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Sorry to have been away so long, but I was shooting a doc for about two months now.

The Biax 4-pin fluo-heads project had an unexpected turn about two weeks ago.
My documentary was mostly interviews, first in Rio de Janeiro and then in Buenos Aires. Shooting with a Sony PD170 and very small crew.

The question for me was how far could I force this minimum crew/simple equipment formula without going down in quality.

I couldn't test the two-lamp boxes I had found in Rio, which I didn't take to Buenos Aires because I expected to find something similar there. Not really, as the fixtures using 55w lamps I found there were far from portable or practical.

The only one I found that looked promising used one 36w lamp, but was not in stock at the store. No luck for that same type on other stores, so I kept calling to see when the fixture arrived. When it did I went get two.

It's a plastic and metal long box, all self contained with a small lateral switch. Made in China. Price: $20! Lamp included!

The thing is great. It's so light weighted that I used my Manfrotto monopod, which has three small retractable legs down below, to tape it to. And it throws lots of diffused light, which should need some control perhaps, but it's great for portraits. The light is so cold that I used cheap paper tape to hold it to the monopod.

Brand is probably a fake one, so don't ask me. There should be something like that in the US: look for it. It's great for doc work.


Carlos

[Matt Gettemeier]

Carlos, are you talking about something like the GE Bright Stick? Does this light appear to use one 24" tube? If that's the light then those are readily available at any Lowe's or Home Depot here in the US.

If that's not it then it would be very helpful to post pics or something... I back-tracked through your posts and there's no way to get a handle on what you're describing.

Pics, links, or brand and model names would be very helpful...

[Aaron Koolen]

Hey Matt, how's your stuff coming along?

Aza

[Graham Bernard]

Carlos? So WHAT did you use in the end? . and picture too please?

Grazie

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Originally Posted by Graham Bernard

Carlos? So WHAT did you use in the end? . and picture too please?

Sorry, no picture. My fault, as I left the units in Buenos Aires. I will look for similar or same units here, which probably exist, and will include a photo here.

The fluorescents I have used till now were a 32w "compact" unit (even if it's not too compact) and this 36w unit.

The 36w unit I bought is a box about 50cm long by 12cm wide and 6cm deep, mostly plastic but with the core in sheet metal, all white painted. It has a removable transclucid plastic front which adds further diffusing to the light. There's a reflector inside.

There's a small on-off switch on the side and the ballast is inside, close to the switch. The ballast is a 2.5cm x 2.5cm x 12cm box, secured to the metal sheet.

The plastic ends are removable to change the 36w bulb, and might probably hold the longer 55w bulb, but I didn't try that. The ballast would have to be changed for that.

One reason I didn't feel too much compelled to bring the units to Rio is that the ballasts were 220v only, due to Argentine regulations which limit multi-voltage electrical products. That would require me using a transformer or change the ballasts for Brazilian 110v types, which cost almost half what I paid for the whole fixture

I also had a lot of over-weight on my luggage, which I had to pay for on my flight, and bringing the lights would add-up to their price.

This week I will look for a similar unit here and will let you know.

A related comment: on one occasion I had to shoot a tango orchestra rehearsal, where the light was mostly regular fluorescents. As I was shooting with an NTSC camera and Argentina has 50Hz AC, I anticipated some flickering, which I had on some close-ups. I let the camera decide on the shutter, and it did pick 160 instead of my standard 60. Flickering was solved. So in case you find yourselves on such a situation do go for that shutter opening.


Carlos

[Graham Bernard]

Carlos .. thanks for the explanation .. understood. I liked the tip on the flicker thing too! Grazie

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Today I was navigating looking for a 36w Dulux fixture like the one I had bought, and look what I found:

http://www.atlantasolar.com/product_...oducts_id/1708

If this is a portable 12v DC unit it can be powered from batteries, needing about 3A per hour. It might become a very interesting portable light to take around.

I wonder if the box holds a DC-AC or DC-DC booster inside, which would justify the price. As you know these fluo lamps are fed with high frequency AC, in the order of several tens of thousands. That might irradiate RFI, which might be a problem with video cameras or wireless mics, but the problem may not be necessarily a serious one. The ballasts probably irradiate that RFI too, and I was very close to the ones I bought, also using wireless mics.


Carlos