575w De Sisti Piccolo HMI with magnetic ballast

[Tyrel Stumpff]

Anyone have any experince with De Sisti HMI lights. Found a 575w De Sisti Piccolo HMI with magnetic ballast on ebay and was wondering if it's worth buying?

 

[Michael Notar]

Ya I have a 2.4k Desisti Fresnel. Its good. No issues. When buying an HMI i usually throughly check them out and perhaps have a pro do it as well. makes it pretty much like new.

 

[Alfonso Cammarano]

I recommend with electronic ballast, have less flicker problems and weighs less, plus you can use it to a greater frame rate:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Desisti-Qua...431?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a26c7007f

 

[Jeff Zueger]

I have owned many in the past. Pretty reliable. I'm guessing it's older if it's a magnetic ballast, so you never know. Anytime you buy used hmis they can be problematic. Electronics are electronics and can go south at any time.

 

[Matt W.]

I think I've had okay luck with the Desisti I used (it might have blown up at some point, actually, on second thought) but one of their lines of HMIs has a lot of failures that are expensive or impossible to fix, at least according to a gaffer who told me never to buy anything but Arri and Mole. (He wasn't trying to sell me on anything and he absolutely knows his stuff; he owns a big, big outfit.)

Just get an Arri or, alternately, something so cheap it's disposable if it breaks. Also, I wouldn't worry as much if you're using it just for yourself and not to rent. But all HMIs are intermittently unreliable, particularly ones with electronic ballasts.

 

[Chris Henze]

I own a De Sisti 575 Fresnel with the electronic ballast and use it all the time. Yes it's broken down but since I live in NJ close to the US headquarters it hasn't been a big deal to bring it over and get it repaired. The repairs haven't been that expensive and the techs are very good. I'd recommend holding out for electronic over magnetic mostly because the magnetic is going to be older.

The 575 plugs into a regular edison socket and puts out a lot of beautiful light, really handy to have around. I hope this helps.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Desisti makes great lights and If it as a magnetic ballest it is almost certainly made by Irem who makes ballasts for arri and others. It will be bullet proof. Mag ballests are much, much more reliable than electronic. You just have to play by the rules.

Nick