Cheapo HMI's - Anyone tried them?

[Graybeard]

Has anyone tried these lights?

www.alzovideo.com

I might be able to live with 5200K at this price. Are they junk?

[Stoney]

I am shooting a science program right now and we are testing a HID bulb (not for shooting purposes but for actually testing the longevity of different bulbs). The second I saw this bulb, I thought it would make for a good fixture. They require a ballast, and are not as bright as HMI bulbs. However, they are pretty damn bright and don't require the big ballasts. The bulb itself looks pretty robust. It takes several minutes to warm, like an HMI.

I might buy one of the Alzovideo lights just to test the dang thing out... they are cheap enough... maybe too cheap?

I own a cycling light that has a small HID. It is a 10watt bulb. It is pretty bright and very durable. In a pinch, I used it in a car during the day for extra face fill light. Did the job ok.

[Run&Gun]

To paraphrase, "Color Temp. does not an HMI make". Just because a light is putting out a color temp of 56K or thereabouts doesn't mean it's an HMI.

I don't know if these guys know exactly what they're talking about, have you ever put your hand on an HMI when it was on? Or even in front of one? A quote from their website: "HMI lights are the preferred video lights for professionals because they are very dependable and produce very little heat." "Very little heat"? Also : "EVEN MORE SAVINGS
ALZO HMI video lights save you big bucks on costly bulb replacement." Um, no. Lamps for my 800 are about $200 each.

"In addition, as HMI lights age, they do not have the color shifting issue as with Tungsten. "

Once again, no.

I don't think these guys are selling HMI's

[Stoney]

To paraphrase, "Color Temp. does not an HMI make". Just because a light is putting out a color temp of 56K or thereabouts doesn't mean it's an HMI.

I don't know if these guys know exactly what they're talking about

I don't think these guys are selling HMI's

I think they are looking to sell to the Ebay set...

They are a little confused as to what an HMI is... they seem to interchange HMI with HID. These bulbs are not HMI bulbs. However, I think the bulbs are suitable for a professional grade fixture. Whether these fixtures are any good, I don't know. They are inexpensive enough to try out, I think.

[Run&Gun]

Also, did you see the disclaimer: "NOTE: ALZO HMI/HID bulbs have a 5 minute warm up time and require a 10 minute cool down before they can be powered again. When lights are powered off a red status light will indicate when the bulb is cool enough and available."

That's enough to scare me away right there. Try explaining that to a producer or someone else if one gets accidentaly turned off or they decide they need to re-shoot after you power it down(and that's all happened to us before), "We have to wait to minutes before we can re-strike the lights"

I'm not completly knocking these lights, I'm all for less expensive and more efficient gear, I just think these guys are misrepresenting the product and it has draw-backs that could be costly under the wrong circumstances in the field.

[freedom]

10 minute cool down is an absolute deal killer. How many times has a cable been kicked out accidently or you pop a circuit breaker or you need to move the lamp across the room and the cord doesn't reach. No F'ing way...

[Star Video]

I have the Alzo 800, it works well, and i've used it quite a bit for interviews. In indoor settings or for setups for live shots, where you're set up for a long time, they work great. For run and gun, I would say, not as good as say, my DeSisti Sun Gun, which runs off of bricks and I can get going in a jiffy. Both however, make a killer kit for a certain type of shooting.

[Stoney]

Do you cool them for ten minutes or have you had any bulb-cooling issues?

[Star Video]

Sometimes, not that often, but yes, they do occasionally have to cool down before striking again. but, if I need to wrap instead, I just let them cool along with my tungsten lamps. That's why I mostly use it for interviews, or when i'm with a Sat truck, where I have the lamp on for a while. All in all, I think that it's worth to have them in your kit.

[Flaca Productions]

would it even come close to matching up with 'conventional' hmi's? (say...use their 800 as a key with a bron 400 for fill...)

[Canonman]

They are a little confused as to what an HMI is... they seem to interchange HMI with HID. These bulbs are not HMI bulbs.

Apparently not that confused. From their website... http://www.alzovideo.com/why_alzo_hmi.htm

ABOUT HMI and HID: Many are confused by the terms HMI and HID. Here is our clarification.
Both Metal Halide and HMI lights are HID or "High Intensity Discharge" light technology. The difference between the ALZO Metal Halide lights and HMI is that HMI lights contain additional mercury to raise the color temperature to 5600K. This is a requirement to closely match the color temperature of film at 5500K. ALZO Metal Halide lights are essentially HMI lights with a lower color temperature of 5200K. ALZO Metal Halide lights are more efficient than HMI lights, which means more light with lower energy.

They acknowledge that they are not selling true HMI lights.

cm

[Stoney]

Apparently not that confused. From their website... http://www.alzovideo.com/why_alzo_hmi.htm



They acknowledge that they are not selling true HMI lights.

cm

Yep, I found that page too... after I posted. However, on their main pages, they seem to be less than clear about what is what.

Interesting, though, that an HMI is a HID bulb with additional mercury. I suspect there are additional differences. After all, what HMI bulb (that we normally use, anyways) looks like the ones they are selling?

[Baltimore Shooter]

Interesting. Anyone besides Star Video using them? They certainly have a great price.

HID bulbs are commonly used in automotive headlights these days. Those are the very bright blue looking headlights. They also have a ballast.

Warren

[SF Camera]

I agree that the 10 min. cool down period is a deal killer. How many times during a live shot has the generator of the sat truck "hickuped" and your HMI's turn off moments before your hit? For my K5600's I just kick them back on and I'm good to go.

[tubecamera-or-bust]

For what it's worth....

I met this Alzo fellow last year in New York at a video expo. His office happens to be in my home state, Connecticut, so we got to talking. Basically, he has these lights made up for him in China and he sells direct so no dealer cut is involved.

For what they are they cannot be beat, price-wise. They reminded me of the Smith-Victor lights of old. Nothing fancy but they got the job done for little money.

They would seem perfect for standups or all day on a sat shoot.

[Shootblue]

I would be very curious to see a color rendering index of the bulbs...they may be cheap but have terrible color spread.

[Baltimore Shooter]

They would seem perfect for standups or all day on a sat shoot.

Interesting. How about for formal sit-down interviews, magazine style with the subject sitting infront of a window? Have you tried something these lights in a situation like that?

Warren

[Flaca Productions]

their site says the CRI of the lamp is "near 85"......
interesting.

[Shootblue]

I read or was told somewhere that the CRI of an HMI was normally 90-95. I looked into using trying to retrofit some metal halides normally used for saltwater aquariums to be used as a cheap HMI subsitute...but even some of the best MH bulbs struggle to get much above 90. I'm sure it could work if they could get a high enough CRI bulb. MH does have the drawback of slow startup and restart times. I am honestly suprised that someone hasn't come along and made an economy version of HMI's...I am by no means an electrical engineer...hell it's hard enough to find out what makes HMI's different from other discharge bulbs...but surely someone would be able to make a line in china that is to UL standards...just the basic 200w, 400w, and 1200w fixtures. For instance...why is the head of an HMI as expensive as a ballast? What makes it SO different from a comparable tungsten? I guarantee you that if someone would make a reliable, somewhat versatile 200w with an electronic ballast for $1k, a 400w for $1500 and a 1200w for $2k they would sell them like hotcakes. Local news would be great customers, even the DV crowd.