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  • 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 :)

ARE POWERGEM BALLASTS ANY GOOD?

NOSA OBAYIUWANA

NOSA OBAYIUWANA

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About to buy a few HMI lights.... are Powergem ballasts any good? Thier high speed ballasts are cheaper than Arris flicker free ballasts.... are they noisy.... is there a fly in the ointment I should be seeing?


Any advice will be appreciated...thanks
 
NOSA OBAYIUWANA said:
About to buy a few HMI lights.... are Powergem ballasts any good? Thier high speed ballasts are cheaper than Arris flicker free ballasts.... are they noisy.... is there a fly in the ointment I should be seeing?


Any advice will be appreciated...thanks
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I've used them for a 5 week highly demanding feature shoot, and they preformed great, I was the dop not the gaffer, but was curious about them and as far as I could see they preform as any ARRI ballast will and from production I know they where much cheaper. As far as I know there are UK made so more popular in UK then overseas. I don't think you can go wrong with them, very well made high quality stuff.
 
Powergems are making the ballast for K5600. Did not hear a lot of complaints so far. What power range are you looking at? High speed frequency of Arris 1200/1800W high speed ballast for example can be adjusted to a minimum resonance / noise level. It varies from bulb to bulb so it completely makes sense. It also has modes for low noise operation if not in need of high speed or flicker free. You always get what you pay for...

Cheers
Ulf
 
They seem to be a reputable company..... just spoke to another DoP friend and he said they are quite well regarded.
 
NOSA OBAYIUWANA said:
Wow.... so you did not notice it being noisier?
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Not that I could tell, it felt comparable to the ARRI's noise level, having said that, I didn't have any ARRI's ballast to compare to.
Sound man didn't complain about it either, and in any case, usually 1.8/2.5/4K HMI's are not that close to the actors and the scene. seemed to me like pretty solid choice, if I had to buy HMI's I wouldn't think twice about saving the money, the finish quality looked very solid as well. sometimes ARRI just charge you extra for the ARRI logo, their HMI products are the best, but with this one, the difference is almost not there as far as I could see.
 
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Oron Cohen said:
Not that I could tell, it felt comparable to the ARRI's noise level, having said that, I didn't have any ARRI's ballast to compare to... sound is not my department but sound man didn't complain about it either, and in any case, usually 1.8/2.5/4K HMI's are not that close to the actors and the scene.
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..... I'm getting good reports about the Powergems .... seems they are well built but without the Arri price tag.


Thanks everyone for giving me your experiences and opinions.
 
Nosa, as you´re in the UK completely makes sense to choose a local company. I love my Arri ballast but I´m sure you will be happy with the powergems. Arri also offers a kit to modify the M version to AS (the true PAR reflector) Takes a few minutes to change and adds a more spotted option when needed.
 
my partner has a couple powergems that we used paired with M40s. I use them quite often on Phantom camera shoots and they do a great job w/ no flicker.
 
Karl Kim said:
Yes, Power Gems are well regarded- the HMI repair technician I use likes them a lot.
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What service technicians like about the Power Gems is that the IGBTs are contained in a swappable module. The one draw back to all electronic ballasts is that if you hot restrike them and the globe doesn't ignite, the extemely high voltage striking current can return to the ballast on the grounding conductor and fry the IGBTs. For that reason Power Gems make theirs field swappable so that you can repair them on set if that happens.

Paul Dean
 
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