Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

CAME HMI GROUP BUY

Status
Not open for further replies.
My 1200 landed yesterday. It seems like the receiver is damaged and won't accept the globe. I trust that CAME will pay for shipping both ways, but I still dread having to deal with sending it back.

Meh...

HMI2.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
They will cover shipping both ways, but still... Not cool.

I wonder if these people even see their products before they are shipped let alone, test them first.

Agreed.... meh
 
Sorry to hear about the problems people are having. My 575W unit arrived a couple of days ago. Have fired it up a few times now without any problems. Love the quality of the actual light being produced (mainly due to the Osram globe itself I guess), but it's definitely lower-end gear.

The only minor issues I've had so far have been with the two random slabs of styro-foam packaging used to secure the lamp-head inside its case when transported (the stuff shredded and took about an hour to clean out of the case and from in and around the light itself), and with the brackets on the front of the light that hold the barn-doors on, which had to be bent into a useable position with a pair of pliers (I don't think they were knocked out of shape, it looks like they were just made and assembled that way).

Should say too, the lamp does still buzz even with an Osram globe, and the fan on the ballast is noticeably loud (similar to the muffled sound of fans in a loud computer enclosure).

At the moment, the high CRI and at least reasonably high (daylight balanced) Lumen output of these units make them worthwhile to me. But my secondary priorities, of high build quality, cool and quiet running, small and lightweight from factor, low power draw, and affordability, will probably keep me looking for alternatives in the future.

Just want to say too that this is the fourth lighting purchase I've made from Joey/photolight/CAME over the years and despite some communication and quality control issues that I've seen, I think they're a reputable distributor of lower-end gear. I wouldn't tell people not to deal with them, but just be aware of the nature of their business and remember that there's a reason why what they sell is more affordable than most.

Here's a video of the 575Watt unit some might be interested in - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC169PJaD98

It's recorded with a Scarlet and a Sennheiser 416. For reference levels I kept the slate marks in, and you can also hear the Scarlet's fans running at 75% at the start and end of a couple of the takes (even though the screen doesn't go blank when the camera is switched off). I guess it would depend on what you were filming, but I think the sound from the lamp head and ballast could be avoided or removed in post in a lot of cases.

And thanks again Jay for arranging the group buy, these lights weren't really on my radar and I'm glad to have been able to check them out.
 
Joey from CAME emailed me promptly and said that my lamp must have been damaged during shipping, as they check all units before they go out. They are sending me a new lamp socket right away.

I look forward to striking that baby up. I am happy with their customer service thusfar.
 
I just received my 1.2K and I'm having the same issue as above. I just emailed Joey about it.

The bulb won't fit in the socket. This is the socket in the open position:

oZbi5ig.jpg





There also seems to be some haze and yellow spots inside the bulb. There is also handwriting on the back of the ceramic. Is this normal ?

FLTb2fx.jpg

M1tydOy.jpg




Finally, the handle assembly is a bit confusing for me. Anybody has instructions or advice ?

Cheers,
 
Last edited:
I just got one of these in the mail yesterday. Turned it on, looked good. Went to turn it off, loud popping and fizzling sound from the head, wouldn't strike anymore. bulb just flickers weakly when trying to strike. I wasn't expecting arri quality, but I was expecting it to actually work.


Nick
 
I had the same pencil marks and cloudy capsules on 3 out of 4 bulbs sent to me. Presently, I am working out a far greater issue with Joey and CAME over 3 defective/short circuiting ballasts. I am giving CAME the opportunity to correct this issue before I post evaluation videos of these HMI's (working or not) and my experience with CAME. Suffice it to say, all expendables will be sourced domestically. More to follow on this issue as it develops.
With respect to the handle assembly, are you referring to the mounting yoke and the baggie of nuts bolts bearings and washers? I assembled in this order:
Nut (in lamp housing)
Friction washer
Bearing assy (bearings, bearing races, enclosure, for one side of yoke only)
Metal washer (only on bearing side of yoke, skip on other side)
Yoke
Metal washer
Bolt

If anyone has alternative methods, feel free to share.
 
And FWI, for you guys with the misadjusted lamp sockets, mine was the other way. When I was checking to see if a loose lead had shorted on my light I adjusted mine.

Take off the two side panels on the side of the light without the head cable. At the back of the lamp socket is a threaded post with two nuts on it. It holds down a clamp that keeps the brass nut the locking lever goes into from rotating. UNdo the two nuts (don't fully remove, just loose until you can rotate the brass nut by hand. Adjust the nut till the pin contacts are the right distance apart, and retighten the two nuts.

This of course assumes that the socket isn't broken, just adjusted improperly as mine was.

Nick
 
And spots and discoloration on HMI glode like that is pretty common, they move, come and go, get different when you burn the bulbs. If forinstance a bulb won't strike on a hot restrike, it may be dark and crappy looking, but once it cools down and you burn it for a while it will go back to being nice and clear.

Nick
 
This thread isn't inspiring confidence. Does anyone care to write in with GOOD reports?!
 
Jake Wilganowski said:
This thread isn't inspiring confidence. Does anyone care to write in with GOOD reports?!
Click to expand...

Trust me, with over 4K already invested, I really would love to write a good report, lol. We all know the two most obvious pitfalls with buying overseas:
1-Quality (kinda self evident, given the pricing) Good for those who tinker and can make improvements on less than "ideal" equipment. Assuming at a bare minimum the equipment works in the first place, which leads to the second pitfall. . .
2-Support- There are 2 kind of friends in this world, those that are a blast to be around when things are great but couldn't give two shits about you during times of need, and those you trust to have your back whenever things go sideways. This is my favorite analogy when it comes to finding a great dealer, overseas or domestic. This is CAME's opportunity to show us what type of "friend" they are. So far, it seems the writing is "on the wall" or in this case, on the bulbs. Lol But more to come . . .they still have an opportunity to make things right.
 
I wrote Joey after I read this and basically said "you have too much broken stuff going to customers. Fix this NOW." She wrote back saying she'll take care of it.

Either way, I am very disappointed. Now we know why companies like K5600 exist.

Jay
 
Nick Gardner said:
And FWI, for you guys with the misadjusted lamp sockets, mine was the other way. When I was checking to see if a loose lead had shorted on my light I adjusted mine.

Take off the two side panels on the side of the light without the head cable. At the back of the lamp socket is a threaded post with two nuts on it. It holds down a clamp that keeps the brass nut the locking lever goes into from rotating. UNdo the two nuts (don't fully remove, just loose until you can rotate the brass nut by hand. Adjust the nut till the pin contacts are the right distance apart, and retighten the two nuts.

This of course assumes that the socket isn't broken, just adjusted improperly as mine was.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the advice, I will check this out tomorrow and see if it works. The socket does not seem cracked or broken, just misaligned or over tighten. Could have been caused by transportation/handling, I don't know.



Nick Gardner said:
And spots and discoloration on HMI glode like that is pretty common, they move, come and go, get different when you burn the bulbs. If forinstance a bulb won't strike on a hot restrike, it may be dark and crappy looking, but once it cools down and you burn it for a while it will go back to being nice and clear.
Click to expand...


Joey told me they test the bulbs, so this would explain the discoloration and haze. The handwriting would be the date of the QC check.

I haven't been able to test the ballast yet. Crossing my fingers. I also hope it can last at least a few years.

 
I was able to adjust my lamp socket, based on Nick's advice. The light has been working since then...and it does throw some big, beautiful light.
 
Does the lamp yoke hardware appear strong enough to support a medium Chimera? My biggest issue with the various clone lights is the yoke does not lock very well, or at all. Just yesterday I was working with 1k clone fresnels, it was impossible to lock the lamp in a fixed tilt postion (no softbox). We had to wrap the head feeder around the stand to hold it in place.
 
steven moreno said:
I was able to adjust my lamp socket, based on Nick's advice. The light has been working since then...and it does throw some big, beautiful light.
Click to expand...

Yes me too, than you Nick. It was even easier for me, has I had to remove the panels and move the back part of the socket up a bit and it locked itself into position with some small "click" without the need to unscrew anything on the ceramic socket.

The light colour and output is good. The only issue I encounter now is the ballast sound, which I was already aware of. There is some fan noise, but also a very high frequency tone coming out of it.

Does anyone know if it's possible to order a leader extension somewhere to put the ballast further away ? Joey told me he was only able to sell longer head cable, but no actual extension that I can add or remove as I see fit.
I guess it should be fairly easy to make a custom extension with the same connectors and cable...
 
As an update - I have found the customer support to actually be very good. First they sent me not one but two spare ignighters. I swapped one of those out and determined it was not the problem. I recommended that they ship me a new ballast (just the electronics, not the housing to save on shipping). They did, and the light is now working. I will runn it at work to day and see if it holds up. They didn't ask me to ship any parts back, and sent the new ones in a timely manner.

I am almost certain that a screw came loose in shipping and fried the board when I struck the light. The new ballast I got had 3 screws loose floating around inside the housing. I strongly recommend disassembling and visually inspecting these things before you turn them on. The problem seems to be two fold. One, they are using screw guns to put in small machine screws and they get stripped and fall out, and two, they do not use lock tight on anything. I think the reliability would go up 90% if they were assembled by hand with the correct torque applied to the machine screws. failing that, a screw gun class and some lock tight would help.

Nick
 
Aaaaaaand I ran the light for at least 6 hours today in triple digit temps and it performed great. The first time I used it it blew the circuit about 10 mins after I first struck it (100 + year old house, dodgy wiring, mostly 15 amp circuits). Hot restuck very nicely. Was running a GE bulb. I need to put some high temp grease on the flood/spot helicoid, but other than that it's a winner all day loong.
 
So how do you you think is it appropriate to buy Came HMI or is it no quality light?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top