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China Ball

Ben Roper

Ben Roper

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I've been using consumer paper lantern light shades with some success (minus the fire risk) and so I'm trying to avoid dropping £250 on a Chimera china ball... Is anyone aware of a 'paper lantern' made of something a lot more fire resistant? I can't find any mention of this but it seems like the kind of thing that must be available somewhere!

Thanks!
 
The lantern lock is the way to go - keeps the ball spread out with little to no chance of the lamp coming in contact with the paper. I have a bunch in the equipment room, and use them all the time.
 
Funny Story..

I went out into the woods to do a little lighting test.. Flying a few 24'' China Ball lantern locks up High on Cstands..with 500w Bulbs..

One of the stands didn't have a sand bag.. thing tipped over.. Bulb Blew up.. FIRE!
big ass fire.. luckily I had safety measures in place and put it out.. But holy shit.. Smokey the bear would have murdered me
 
That's one reason that LEDs are becoming more popular....
 
Todd T said:
That's one reason that LEDs are becoming more popular....
Click to expand...

Sure is. I built this the other day using a Lantern Lock rig:

Brandon J.F. said:
I needed a portable china ball the other day and quickly made this:


K9b4fJC.jpg



1 part Lantern Lock rig, 1 part plastic water bottle, and a little tape. Worked fantastic!
Click to expand...
 
You know they sell actual LED lightbulbs now?.... I jest... :w00t:

That's rad! I love a good home-made solution!

How have you found consumer LED bulbs/strips for flicker/colour temperature?
 
That's what I thought - However there's a lot of change going on as the 2nd gen consumer tech comes through. I was thinking about doing some testing on a few brands.

For this China Ball proposition cheap LED bulbs would solve a lot of issues, but it's only worth it if I don't get another bag of issues from them! If I test I'll let you know...
 
Quick question for lantern lock users: how are you storing yours? I had one of my large lantern locks porcelin break from being bumped around with gear and want to ensure my other one does not. I was thinking perhaps a large document tube? Anyone have a better answer?
 
Any chance to reopen that group buy? Keeps popping up and is such a tease! I've been using and loving the LiteGear LED kit but damn it's expensive
 

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For a film I did last year, I rigged dual temp literibbon into a chimera pancake and put it on a norms two riser aluminum stand. Super flexible and great light with nice, soft wrap-around. Used it as both a key and a backlight at different times. Plus the pancake has the curtains to control spill.

Not a super cheap setup, but I think you could mimic it with a paper china ball and christmas lights, cfl's or even consumer LEDs that don't flicker / band at your shutter speed. You'd want to test, but green / magenta spike can be gel'd out with a sheet inside the ball. And as for CRI, people use HMI's all day long and they have horrible CRI. imho.

For rigging, I'm also a fan of the matthews 'mini mathh boom arm':
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...rG9mMkCFYmCfgodVncN0g&is=REG&m=Y&Q=&A=details

It'll hold a china ball or two and get you cantilevered out a reasonable way. Or rig a menace arm setup and kill a couple of people on set.
 

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