123'S

[torch1972]

I like strand 123's. I have a large amount of them here. The only thing wrong with some of them are the cables are starting to need replacing. While I am replacing the cable, should I upgrade the lampholders at the same time? What do people think?

[Don Allen]

I also like the 123, it is a very efficient lantern for its age. I used to replace the P28S lampbase with a GY9.5 when the P28S tungsten halogen lamps were much more expensive, but there usually about the same these days.

I cut off a section of square aluminium tubing as an adaptor to raise the lamp filament to the right height and the ceramic terminal block can be mounted on it as well to terminate the silicon cable onto.

[Neil Hampson]

unless you are having trouble sourcing the P28s lamps (T17?, used to be T1), or they are getting expensive, and the lamp holders are in good condition I don't think it's worth the hastle of upgrading to Gy9,5 I am not sure that you are going to get any more life or light out of them, the only thing I would change out would be any units that are still running with T1 lamps.

Just a thought, a T17 is about £12-13 (rated for 750 hours) a T18 is about £8 and a lamp holder is about £10 from 10 out of 10 so discounting your labour and the bit of stock for the mount, it will pay for itself after about 3 lamp changes. so it could be worth it in the long run.

[daifuse]

A good old Strand lantern!

Yes,I like 123's too, but I recently had an intermittent fault on one - it suddenly died during a show but shortly after, it came back on and repeated this performance several times. After the show I took it down (it's part of a permanent rig) to try to locate the problem. To cut a long story short, it was the T17 lamp. No, not the filament, but the wire connecting the filament to the outer part of the base had not been soldered properly during manufacture and as the lamp heated up the contact broke. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

Dave

[Big Jay]

If it aint broke, dont fix it. Do they shows signs of damage, if not dont waste your time on things that dont need it.

[church]

over in North America we now have a new lamp available for use in small Fresnesl - the BTH which is a 575W lamp with a P28 base that puts out 15000 lumens at a colour temp of 3250K and lasts 300 hours. This lamp was brought out to give an alternative to the 500 W BTL and is pecifically intended to match the colour temp of 6 inch Fresnels alongside S4s it has the same colour temp as the HPL575 lamp.

 

In a 123 it transforms the light output and also does the same for the patt 23. By way of comparison the BTL is only a 3000K colour temp that produces 10000 lumens but lasts 700 hours. The price of these two lamps is almost identical. I don't know if there is an equivalent over there but the light quality is great.