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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 :)

Light size for high frame rate

I have always understood that I need a tungsten 4k or higher to shoot high speed (over 120fps). Can anyone help me out on what light I would get to shoot some 300fps? I should stay tungsten apposed to shooting with some HMI's correct? Thanks!

There are two questions wrapped up in one. The first question, answered in other threads, is that you need a certain amount of tungsten mass to avoid the appearance of flickering from the instrument when shooting at high speeds. Once the tungsten is massive enough to stay hot across the power cycle (basically 4KW and up), it doesn't matter if you shoot 120 fps or 300 fps. However, a recent posting about Hive plasma lighting shows that these instruments have no flicker at all compared to HMI, and they are efficient like HMI, so very interesting. The second question is answered by your light meter, as well as in other threads: how much actual intensity do you need to get enough illumination to shoot at high frame rates? If you shoot with hot lights, most of the energy comes out in the IR spectrum, which means you likely need to shoot through IR-blocking heat shields, lest you melt, boil, or burn away whatever it is you are trying to shoot. There's a lighting diagram of a high-speed shoot using a pair of 12KW main lights, plus another pair of 6KW lights, all focused on a confined area. That's a lot of heat to shed!
 
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