Alzo HMI soft box

[Todd Terry]

Well… I can’t speak to the quality of the instruments, although they LOOK ok. They are virtually identical to those also sold by another company.

I just have an issue with the VERY deceptive descriptions they give. They are taking advantage of the fact that most people are unable to use HMIs as they are generally large and very expensive… so the “masses” don’t know many technical (or financial) details about them.

The thing is, they throw up deceptive numbers, for example calling one unit the “ALZO 800.” Now, anywhere ELSE in the lighting world, and istrument with an “800” in the model number would likely mean 800 watts, and that’s what they would like for you to believe. But it’s NOT an 800 watt HMI. If you COULD buy and 800 HMI head for $234, well, I’ll take a truck full. It’s actually a 140 watt instrument. I’m thinking they hope you don’t notice (or that many people won’t know better) that it is actually the EQUIVALENT of 800 watts of TUNGSTEN light.

I’m not saying it’s a bad instrument, just saying that I think they would have you believe that it is five times as powerful as it actually is.

Their “2000,” is actually 420w. Pretty big difference if you were to compare it to an actual 2K HMI.

I think they are counting on the fact that people who are not used to buying and using HMIs don’t realize that a 2000w HMI is going to be at least a few thousand dollars, not a few hundred.

T2

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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Nick Lammers]

Hi Todd. Thanks for the input. I did notice the 800/140 issue – I agree it is a little deceptive. I thought that if it truly did output the equivalent of an 800w tungsten (I’m currently using an Arri 650 with a chimera) that I could get by with it. I was hoping to come up with a kit that would travel better. I think I’ll do a little more research and try to find someone who has actually used the light.