Not really, but I'd be interested in knowing!

@kronstadt, do you have links to the other more powerful model.

@danyyyel

I don't know anything about HMI lights. Don't even know what bulbs to buy for them. Never used them before - I've used Redheads. These ones seem to have the ballast built into the unit (hmm, potentially great for portability). I was just searching for lights (or spotlights) to use as a kicker (back-light) and wanted them to be very directional and very strong, like theater stage lights fresnels or maybe like PAR38 bulbs, when I bumped into these by accident. I've read that HMI give x4 or x5 the output, so, theoretically 70W should be a 250W-350W equivalent, and 400W should be equivalent of 1500W-2000W. Noise would be a show-stopper for me, as my shotgun mic is pretty sensitive. But still, these HMI lights could be useful if someone wants to inject more sunshine into INT. scenes or counter the sunlight in EXT. scenes or create artificial Sunlight on a gloomy British summer day, like we have these days.

that it will flicker if you don't use 50 or 60 for your shutter speed

That's okey. I've set my shutter speed to 50 about 2 years ago and never changed it since. If you're shooting film (24fps) 50 is recommended.

From what I heard is that it is quite noisy

Where did you hear this? I'd love to read some reviews.

do you have links to the other more powerful model.

Just search eBay for "hmi light" and sort by Lowest first. The interesting thing is that these come from Meking and the stock is in UK. I once ordered an 800W Redhead for £29.80 (free shipping) from them and it was delivered to my doorstep 4 days later. Here's the list that you asked:

70W/220v 5600K Photographic Continuous Lighting Lamp Light http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140751914421 £88

150w/220v 5600K Photographic Continuous Lighting Lamp Light M-150 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120912932090 £118

250w/220v 5600K http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110878536015 £208

400w/220v 5600K http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120912932206 £288

Are you sure that they have magnetic ballast?

As not very costly electronic ballasts exist.

It looks like it is made by one of major China manufacturers. I ask and tell you more delais soon.

The description from the links that were provided say: "HMI lights require a ballast, an electronic or magnetic ( This is a bulid-in magnetic one)". Pretty sure that means they have a magnetic ballast.. :)

A little more information would be great, thanks VK.

@Kronstadt, They don't get nearly as hot as tungsten. After hours of use, I can still put my hand on the fresnel housing. It's hot, but won't burn the skin off my hand in a nanosecond.

The bulbs last a LOT longer but are just a little more expensive. You can also get 5500K AND 3200K HMI lamps, especially for the lower power (70-150W) lights. The UV and the green push aren't that big of a deal. You can get UV gel if you want but most of the name brand bulbs (GE, Philips, etc) have UV coating on them already and once you know how much green is in your bulbs, you can use minus green gels, balance the camera to them or just subtract green in post.

The weight of the ballast is about the same as the head of an ARRI fresnel, so count on one of the Ebay HMI being twice as heavy as a tungsten fresnel.

Being more efficient, means you can plug more of them in using fewer power circuits and extensions. I was on a shoot where we used nothing but tungsten and we had to rent huge/long extensions and run them to just about every circuit in the building to keep from blowing fuses and breakers. It was a total pain and probably cost us more time and money than it should have. If we had the HMI available at that time, we could have simply used the circuits local to the area. Other than that, there isn't really anything else that is different.

If they're 4X as efficient as incandescents, that's about the same as fluorescents. Since you can get lightweight flourescents with high-frequency ballasts at both 3200K and 5500K, I'm not seeing much advantage to HMI's?

A 500W HMI might be good when you need to edge something outdoors. You could alternatively carry a blonde or possibly better a 2K frezzie. (I have 1 Blonde) Fill can be done with bounce and flouros.

A 4K HMI can be good if you need to control time of day .. stick it outside a window and then hang blacks to block the sun .. turns midnight into midday. For me this will always be a hire job.

With todays cameras and blacks you could pull it off with blondes focussed outside the windows. Personally I wouldn't bother owning HMI.

@LPowell: @kavadni and @svart summed it up nicely. The other big thing is that there is not really any "big" flourescents, with the biggest still being just above 500W, while with HMIs you can get up to 18KW and 1,2KW is rather standard. While our cameras can do a lot, sometimes you need BIG floodlights (that are daylight balanced) and then HMI is the way to go. Plus flourescents are soft, but for daylight you sometimes want a harder source. That 400 could be great to shine in through a window in a shot to create depth of the sun outside for example. Each kind of light is a different instrument and as such, it works in different situations.

@danyyyel can you please post links to reviews of these?

Good thing to notice is that both guys in this topic (Cool Lights reseller and Barry) are not really very objective.

Plus, it is good idea to notice that multiple factories make "like-Arri" lights, so this is mostly pointless note.

I was just going to give the 70W a try and order it but the shipping is as much as the damn light!!