pscandrett Posted November 9, 2004 Share Posted November 9, 2004 Hi all I lurk quite a lot (sorry) but thought I'd ask a quick question, if that's OK? I've got four Martin Mini Mac Profiles, which I purchased second hand, er, last year I think it was. All of them had different lamp-usage/strike stats and indeed still do, but they all get about the same usage from me (ie they're generally all used together). According to the manual/website they take: Lamp: 150W discharge Approved models: Martin Metal Halide, Osram HTI According to the manual, the Martin ones have a CT of 5000K and life of 2000hr, and the Osram a CT of 6500K and life of 750hr. The thing is... well, I don't know what to do! I also don't know what lamps I've got installed - I suppose it would be useful to know/check but I've just thought of posting here and don't have them to hand :-) I'm thinking of doing something with them because a couple of them - well, one in particular - is outputting a significantly 'browner'/dimmer light than the other three.If nothing else I'd like to have them matched. Would a 6500K amongst 5000Ks (or vice-versa) be noticeable? What's the advantage of one CT over another in this (gig and effect) context? (I put it like that because I don't tend to use them for 'illumination' directly - only effect.) Should I replace all four lamps together and keep the four I've currently got as spares? Should I dump the lamps I've already got? I think I read somewhere I should dispose of the discharge lamp even if it's not 'blown' - is this correct? I'm trying to balance price vs performance/value here; the macs are used on a regular, but not frequent basis - ie not a club every night, but for gigs here and there (perhaps once a fortnight on average). Any tips/thoughts for what I should go for? My disposable income isn't very high so the cheaper option would probably be the most desirable (which I presume is the Osram ones...) Many thanks for any tips and advice in advance! Peter (a newbie when it comes to dealing with discharge lamps, can you tell?!) <>< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slim_mcslim Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 spare lamps can be purchased from all over the place we use a company called sabre in reading, ask for paul bridgeman... in my opinion you should change all 4 at the same time (about £160), throw away the lamp that is yellowing, when you take the lamp out the unit you will see it is quite cloudy, and keep the other 3 as spares, they will do as a replacements if you lose one in a show. Paul... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ag_lx Posted November 10, 2004 Share Posted November 10, 2004 The people I used to work for bought a large number of Mini Macs to put on hire stock when they first came out. I remember me and my coleagues spending a few days trying to lamp match all the units. This was the first time they had been used, and we put new lamps (all the same make/type) in all of them. No matter what we did we could not get them all the same colour, intensity or shape. Ok, intensity and shape were subtle differences, but colour was very noticable - some were quite brown, others quite yellow and one was very blue. Depending on what you want to use them for (sounds like rock n' roll from your post), I wouldn't worry too much as you will probably have a hard time getting them even similar anyway. (Even Mac 600s are easier to match!) Things might have changed, and the lamps might have improved since my experiences (I have kind of avoided Mini Macs since then!), but they aren't really designed with that being a crucial thing. Aleksis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pscandrett Posted November 14, 2004 Author Share Posted November 14, 2004 Thanks to you both for the info. Peter <>< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 One of the criteria for Lamp Life is when the light output falls to half the original value Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pscandrett Posted December 9, 2004 Author Share Posted December 9, 2004 Right - can I have some more advice please? I rang my local dealer[1] and they said they had Osram 150HTIs in stock for £54exVAT. Fine, so I popped down to get them. When I got there I was told they didn't have any after all, but did have GE's equivalent lamp for 9 quid less. Great, I thought, because it's cheaper (for a start). The guy was polite about it all and seemed to know what he was talking about, even though by his admission he'd not been with the company for a long time. So, I came away with 4 150W GE lamps - with 'CSS 150/CAP/50' on the box labels and '150W 76 GE' on the lamps themselves. I thought I'd check on the web and found someone saying that CSS bulbs aren't as good (well, I'd expect that for 9 quid difference) but I'm just uneasy now because I thought I was buying an equivalent lamp except from a different manufacturer and it seems that I've not now. Can someone please explain to me what I have bought, how this differs from the Osram ones (150HTI GY9.5) and whether I should worry or not? What does HTI and CSS stand for (if anything)? I don't have the mini macs here so I can't check them - I'm assuming they're physically compatible, at the very least (else he wouldn't have sold them to me - I did specify what they were for beforehand). For reference, the mini mac page is here: http://www.martin.com/specification/specif...up=Moving+Heads Many thanks in advance Peter (slightly worrying because it's £200 of lamps...) <>< [1] I won't name them but they're within about 5 miles of my house, so it made sense to go with them as they were about teh same price as other places - save on postage, for one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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