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Tungsten and halogen query


Lozza

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Hi guys and gals, sorry for the stupidity but ive never picked this up.

 

In the new Martin TW1 moving head - (a 'tungsten' wash mover) the demo video confused me..

 

I appreciate whats special about the fixture, its colour blending gives rich, pastol like colours etc in an amazing wash, twin lense, cmy blar blar BUT

 

in the video a guy pulls open bulb access panel an shows a bulb which looks exactly like a halogen, not a discharge or a tungsten etc

 

Why is it called the tungsten wash?! is it something to do with the bulb or the element or the manufactor?

 

Sorry again im just curious

(and a little confused)

 

also sorry - I havent done any research

 

cheers - Loz

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According to the specs, it accepts a 1200W tungsten-halogen lamp. Tungsten is the metal used for the filament and halogen is the gas surrounding it. These days it is quite rare to only have tunsten lamps. The halogen allows the lamp to run at higher temperatures without the filament evaporating - ie. brighter!

 

The important part is that it uses a tungsten source rather than discharge giving much lower colour temperature which is perfect for 'warmer' colours. Discharge lamps have high colour temperature and lend themselves better to cold colours.

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The important part is that it uses a tungsten source rather than discharge giving much lower colour temperature which is perfect for 'warmer' colours. Discharge lamps have high colour temperature and lend themselves better to cold colours.

 

The other important factor is that it is often easier to blend a tungsten moving light with a rig of conventionals (ie other 'tungsten' lamps). When you're designing for theatre and wanting to avoid the strong, saturate, colours that are often a hallmark of discharge lamps this can be an important factor. Whilst many discharge moving lights offer 'CTO' filter options to convert their discharge output to a tungsten equivalent, these are usually far from satisfactory.

 

Simon.

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So would you say Martin are going 'back a step' in the theory of tungsten vs discharge?

I think it's great that they have brought a fixture out that where in today's world of moving lights, the discharge is seen as the main advantage lamp, yet the TW1 shows that tungsten-halogen always has its place.

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Because you can actually *dim* a tungsten (halogen) filiament lamp, which is something you can't do with a discharge lamp. These instead rely on a mechanical shutter.

 

This means the moving light behaves and looks more like the rest of the rig when it comes to colour temperature & dimming. Its potentially more energy efficient as the lamp actually goes out (rather than running at full tilt all the time with the shutter closed).

 

No problems with hot-restrike either...

 

M

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So would you say Martin are going 'back a step' in the theory of tungsten vs discharge?

I think it's great that they have brought a fixture out that where in today's world of moving lights, the discharge is seen as the main advantage lamp, yet the TW1 shows that tungsten-halogen always has its place.

 

yeah I agree, well said. The fixtures look quite nice too. Laurence

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So would you say Martin are going 'back a step' in the theory of tungsten vs discharge?

 

I don't think that its really a step backwards, nor do I see a battle of 'tungsten vs discharge'. They're different tools, for different jobs. It's good to see that more moving light manufacturers are realising that theatre shows still have a need for lamps that can mix, and dim, alongside the rest of the rig.

 

Simon.

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