off camera battery powered lighting?

[John Sharaf]

Riley,

There are many kinds and types of portable lighting; not just on-camera models. These are convenient for the power reason you mention, you simply “hitch-hike” off the cameras’ power supply, and Anton Bauer has made this easy with their “power tap” connector. But if you have the luxury of having an additional lighting technician to hand hold or move the portable light on a stand that’s great, and can be a real benefit in making a beautiful source light.

But to get the portable light off-axis and off-camera, you’ll need another power source; of course to minimze extra gear you could use an AB receptical that provides the power tap and another camera battery, but a much more useful power source is a lighting battery belt (usually 7AH capacity). These are usually dual voltage; 12-14v plus 28-30v allowing a wide variety of lights to be powered either by 4 pin XLR or 30v Amphenol connectors. You could even use a 200w HMI (like a Joker or Arri Pocket Par) with the proper ballast and/or invertor. With the inverter you can even use a Kino
Flo, but what I most often use os a Mole Teenie-Weenie Mole with a 30v globe. This unit is powerful enough to even add a dichroic or Macbeth Blue Glass for daylight balanced applications.

If you rent such a belt, it’s a good idea to cycle it with a light before your shoot to find out exactly how long it will last, and then give it a full 14 hour charge.

JS

[Rileym]

John-
thanks for your time and advice. i really appreciate it.

its looking like a battery pack will be the best option, because we will be able to place the light where we want, and take the time to make it look good – off axis.

looking in the B and H catalog, it seems like the bescor slm-10atm might be a good choice (8.6AH) with 1 hour of run time at 100w.
it would be great to use the mole teenie weenie to add filters, etc. but i fear that the 600w light would burn through our battery pack too fast?

[John Sharaf]

Riley,

The Teenie-Weenie is a very versatile light; it uses 220v, 120v and 30v globes. For the portable lighting application you describe you’d use the 30v globes which are designed for use with battery packs such as the one you mention in the B&H catalog. I believe that the Lowell Omni light also takes similar globes!

JS

[Rileym]

thanks, John-
i’ve already got an omni. and you are right. on the back, it says a 30v globe can burn at 250w at 8.4 amps. so that means, i guess, that it would run an hour.

then all i’d need would be

1) that 30v globe
2) that battery pack
3) an adapter cable that will go from the back of the omni to the cigarrette adapter of the battery pack?
the current adapter that i have for the omni is for standard 3 prong 120
(i really need to learn more about electricity…)

thanks

riley

[John Sharaf]

Riley,

That’s basicly correct, although I’m not a fan of useing cigarette lighter connectors (especially for 30v source as you’d expect it to be 12v like in a car and surely will fry some 12v device in the future). A more professional choice is the screw-in Amphenal, and Mole actually makes a little household to Amphenol adapter for use with 30v batteries having this connector. You could try Victory Cinevideo Battery in Los Angeles at 818-840-2766 (ask for Jerry); they have such a unit at probably the same price, and he could also probably provide the pigtail adapter.

Also, be careful to de-lamp your 30v globe after battery use, because if you plug it into the 120v mains it’ll blowup!!!

JS

[John Sharaf]

Riley,

Victory Battery recently moved; new number is 818-576-9600.

JS

[Rileym]

great John-
i guess that i’ll just call Jerry and talk through it with him.
thanks again!

riley