05Jan 650W Fresnel as Arri with dimmer – First impressions
I just received a couple of those Arri knock off Fresnel lights this morning, one 650 watt model and one 300 watt model
. Close up there are scuff marks on the aluminum and the blue pot metal cast on the front and back have a few minor imperfections, but over all the build feels solid.
The barn doors as well as the mesh protector gird seem solid enough. Shutters open and close without much problem and stay in place without drifting downward. The Fresnel lens looks well mounted and over all the front hardware feels pretty good.
There were reports that some of the first models on the market had wiring issues. I’ve inspected the wiring on both the 650 watt model and 300 watt model
and both seem to be well protected with high temp pet braided sleeves as well as ceramic termination blocks. It also looks like there is plenty of extra wire for focusing movements. If there are any wiring issues it looks like it should be pretty easy to fix.
In line with the power cable is a combo power switch and dimmer box. I’ve only tested this out for about an hour, but it appears to work well. The dimmer has smooth travel and feels responsive however the case itself is made out of plastic so it probably wont stand up to a lot of abuse.
The light stand mount isn’t amazing and I had to clean up a few of the threads to get thing to work properly. Once I taped and cleaned out a few of the parts everything seems to work a lot better. Over all the hardware seems to be what you would expect from a lower price knock off. It works fine but they aren’t as well made as the lights being copied.
The next issue will be finding an affordable source of bulbs for these guys. Most of the ebay sellers want $12 to $15 a bulb for the 650 watt models but I’ve found them in a 24 pack for $68.60 which works out to about $2.85 a bulb. Now I need to find an affordable source for the 300 watt models. If you have any recommendations let me know. I’ll post more info on these once I’ve had a chance to take them on a few shoots.
January 5th, 2013 at 11:09 pm
Try http://www.barbizon.com for lamp purchasing. With these unless you’re really rough with the gear you want need more than 4 lamps a year.
January 6th, 2013 at 9:52 am
Here’s the exact links on that site 650 watt 120v $16.95 plus shipping and 300 watt 120v $16.95 plus shipping. Base type is GY9.5 by the way.
January 5th, 2013 at 11:52 pm
I am glad to hear these knock offs are as good as they are, I might need to buy one someday. However, I suspect part of the low price is also the small fresnel lens. Arri did start to make their HMI PAR lamps smaller and smaller, but, I didn’t think they shrunk the size of the 650 or 1k more or less into the housing of their 300 watt lamps (which is what it looks like is going on here. Any size comparison 300 vs. 650 photos possible?
The bigger the lens the more even the spread of light was what I learned 20 years ago. Not sure how these would hold up to that old standard…
January 6th, 2013 at 9:43 am
The 650 watt model’s lens is about twice the size of the 300 watt model. I’ll post some more pictures today.
January 6th, 2013 at 12:03 am
I just checked on B&H and the new Arris do have equivalent sized fresnels. Yikes.
Deejay, it might be worth pointing them at a white wall in a dark room and looking from full spot to full flood to see if you have got a fairly even spread (they were never perfect). You shouldn’t have any color fringing from the bulb lens combo either, just beautiful, full spectrum, clean, white light.
January 6th, 2013 at 9:40 am
I’ll give that a try when I start testing them and post the results. Right now I’m behind on a few things (been sick for almost 2 weeks) so it might be a little while before I get to it.
January 6th, 2013 at 4:20 am
divine_lighting on eBay seems to have some cheap ones:
300W – http://goo.gl/W9qaH
Unfortunately no 650W, just 600W – http://goo.gl/0mcV1
January 6th, 2013 at 9:38 am
Just a heads up, it Looks like both of those have the wrong type of base.
January 6th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
You’re right, I’ve posted the wrong link. He does have some GY9.5’s though. 🙂
January 7th, 2013 at 9:47 am
I have a set of the As Arri lights and a set of the real Arri lights, fresnel lens is the same size on both, scrims work across both as well. Big difference is the focus on the As Arri is no where near as responsive or useful as the real deal. The larger the lamp the more noticeable this issue is, I find the 650w to only be useful when shooting through something on when set to full wide. Once spotted in there becomes a hotspot line in the middle of the light and really doesn’t spot more than a few precent. Smaller lamps smaller the issue. I suggest getting get bulbs as I have gone though a 2x650w bulbs in under a few months, they just get to hot and blow. With a good bulb I haven’t had any issue for the past few months and that is with more use also.