Are mac LED Bulbs?

[hypnotic_monkey]

My mate got told that you can get replacement bulbs for martin macs that are made from LEDs and have longer life than normal bulbs?

 

Is this true or were they just yanking his chain? if so does anybody know where to get them?

[Tom Baldwin]

At best, it's a muddle.

 

The thermal issues in high power LED sources make a drop-in LED replacement for discharge fixtures very unlikely.

 

However, Martin did recently release an LED-based fixture, the MAC 350 Entour, which Mike Wood reviewed recently in L&SI. The review doesn't seem to be on his website yet, but you can read L&SI online for free.

[Ynot]

I suspect your chain (or his) is being yanked...

[Matt Cowles]

There are no LED lamps that can go in the MAC range to replace the exisiting discharge lamp.

 

Tom is right, however, there are a couple LED based fixtures that Martin Sell now - The MAC 301, the MAC 401, the MAC 350 Entour and the shiny new MAC 101 - launched at PLASA. This is a great product, and sensibly priced.

[WiLL]

I suspect this is a game of chinese whispers involving confusion between discharge and led fixtures. They are different units, you can't yet put any form of LED into a mac designed to take a discharge lamp. But Martin have recently ( about a year ago I think) started to release LED units. Personally I don't think they compare very favourably to a discharge unit in terms of the quality of light. But they have their good sides.

[hypnotic_monkey]

yeh I have seen the new led macs. the martin show at plasa they did made them seem very effective.

I didnt think they existed but thought I would check. I know the idea is possible as various sized led bulbs are springing up all over the place at the moment.

 

cheers.

[adam2]

I very much doubt that an LED lamp to replace a compact relatively high wattage discharge lamp will EVER be available.

LEDs are more efficient than discharge lamps, but not by a huge margin, therefore an LED to replace say a 300 watt discharge lamp would probably be about 200 watts.

200 watt LED arrays do exist, but much too large to replace a compact discharge lamp, and require even larger heat sinks.

 

Purpose made LED fixtures are certainly possible, a few already exist and I expect that many more will be on the market in the next year or two.

A purpose designed fixture can use the shell of the lantern as a heatsink, and can have suitably designed fans if required.