400w UV Blacklight bulbs - best value for money ?
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Category: Other Chat
Forum Name: Lighting Talk
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URL: https://forum.speakerplans.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=78161
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Topic: 400w UV Blacklight bulbs - best value for money ?
Posted By: nineleaves
Subject: 400w UV Blacklight bulbs - best value for money ?
Date Posted: 19 April 2013 at 12:02pm
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Hi, Due to relamp 4x 400w UV canons, in experience which lamps have been found to give the best output with proper woods glass ? Looking at the Sylvania HSW 400 which i would assume to be decent, but havnt tried personally. I do have a Iwasaki eye MBW400 sitting around which held down a reputation for being rather good & is my yard stick so to speak, but not seen them on sale uk side in sometime. |
Replies:
Posted By: norty303
Date Posted: 19 April 2013 at 1:07pm
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I was going to suggest the Eye, but I see you've got it there already! I need a couple more so I'll be interested to see what people think too  ------------- My laser stuff: http://www.facebook.com/SubsonicSystems" rel="nofollow - Frikkin Lasers |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 19 April 2013 at 1:09pm
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well, all uv lamps on thomann are about £18 a pop, going to risk it on the sylvanias and see how they fare.. abit of a massive relamping session going on here; hopefully they pack them adiquately :) |
Posted By: kevinmcdonough
Date Posted: 19 April 2013 at 2:35pm
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just while we're on the subject of UV (lol sorry for hijack) what are peoples opinions of LED UV units against traditional ones? k |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 19 April 2013 at 2:44pm
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from what ive heard and seen, the proper uv leds are really expensive & typically not used in most units. most are the broader spectrum variety that seem to kick out more in the directly visible spectrum, which reduces contrast ratio of the enviroment vs objects that reactively glow. it is however the only way you can strobe uv that i know of. A decent mercury blacklight is a sure, cheap, bet for tons of dependable uv. just replace the lamps/clean lamps and fixtures often, the output on them drops drastically due to aging of the woods glass long before the bulb fails to strike (lamps are rated at 500-2000 hours, but may become effectively useless long before the latter). got a lamp in one unit received that when you look at it directly (not advised for extened periods) appears fine, but barely kicks out 20% of the uv that does the actual magic o.o Also, some of the cheaper uv bulbs appear brighter due to using shitty glass which doesnt filter out as narrowly as it should, resulting in an effect not unlike the leds.. too much visible spectrum emissions ..avoid. |
Posted By: JohnnyPyro
Date Posted: 20 April 2013 at 12:17am
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Sadly the Iwasaki is now discontinued .. i was after some for ages, no one has them in stock ------------- Pyrotechnics... its not rocket science, well.... actually it is !! :o) Powered by MC2 & XTA |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 20 April 2013 at 12:23am
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thats unfortunate, i shall take the one barely used Iwasaki i have and keep it in a "this is how they used to make them" box ;) :) ..so, next votes folks ? |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 2:14pm
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The Sylvainia UV bulbs (made in china according to bulb stamp) arrived today, they certainly appear to kick out as much uv as the Eye's, however they do leak a slightly broader spectrum, theres a shade more purple in the room and the bulbs look slightly bluer direct on, rather than deep purple. Which is a little dissapointing from them, but no less they work reasonably well. thomann also have afew more bulbs around the same price, im expecting they will all be roughly equivalent to the sylvainia, if not inferior. though, someone might get lucky and find someone else is making them closer to how the old Eye ones used to be made :) Tried photographing to show the difference, but it didnt show up too well. |
Posted By: norty303
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 5:35pm
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I remember I used to see a number of the fatter 4ft tubes which when on, you could only tell by looking at the ends where there was a little leakage. Apart from that they were almost completely dark of visible wavelengths. In the immortal words of Little Fluffy Clouds... "you don't see that anymore" ------------- My laser stuff: http://www.facebook.com/SubsonicSystems" rel="nofollow - Frikkin Lasers |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 7:30pm
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you know me too well ;) ..love the orb, particularly when they are on form :] ..theres been afew duff albums, surpisingly some of their finer stuff no one seems to have heard of these days ;) On bulbs, one of the Sylvanias arrived duff, thomann where quick to offer a replacement (presumably as i ordered a fair bit of stuff, so no quibbles) ..also asked them about bulbs with a deeper uv filter on them, they reccomended the Omnilux, so getting them to send one of them over too, will compare and take photos of results if i can get it to come out fine on camera :) |
Posted By: JohnnyPyro
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 7:31pm
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I thought about getting the sylvania .. they usualy produce a good lamp .. but think i'll give that a miss now ... i did find some eye's in the states, waiting for them to get back to me .. if i get a reply i'll let you guys know, might get a good deal Adam i remember the old 4ft tubes lol tons of those came up on ebay a short while ago.. i think 50 tubes went for 30 quid or something .. i remember my first UV's were 4ft .. cost something like 20 quid a tube from the local dj supplies ------------- Pyrotechnics... its not rocket science, well.... actually it is !! :o) Powered by MC2 & XTA |
Posted By: csg
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 10:28pm
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are you sure the iwasaki lamp is discontinued ? - its still a current product on their website. they still produce a full range of mercury vapour lamps as they are still very popular in Japan. luckily i still have a few spares on the shelf. ------------- “The fact is this is about identifying what we do best and finding more ways of doing less of it better” |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 24 April 2013 at 11:57pm
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be interested about that Iwasaki eye situ myself too.. i cant seem to see them on their site either, nor have i found any on sale in uk from suppliers that havnt clearly forgot to update websites ;) ..also, they tend to be the people with bank robber prices to boot. |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 25 April 2013 at 3:48pm
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thomann now sending over the two bulbs, more comparisons to come ..will feed back & take photos of results if they come out reliably :) On this note, if the Omnilux produce my preferred deep purple tinge & output levels, i may have 4x virtually unused sylvanias to sell at a reasonable discount if anyones interested :) Mostly it falls down to tastes & perfectionism, you get a slight bit more visable deep purple being emitted from the lamps, but they kick out just as much uv as the gold standard eye's... not going to notice at all with a ton of other lighting in use most of the time for many i guess :) |
Posted By: norty303
Date Posted: 25 April 2013 at 5:46pm
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I might take a couple, lets see how the testing goes. ------------- My laser stuff: http://www.facebook.com/SubsonicSystems" rel="nofollow - Frikkin Lasers |
Posted By: JohnnyPyro
Date Posted: 26 April 2013 at 12:45pm
Chris According to a couple of suppliers i've used over the years they are, can't find a single one in the UK, who knows, maybe suppliers are opting for a cheaper lamp with more profit margin .. sounds about right. ------------- Pyrotechnics... its not rocket science, well.... actually it is !! :o) Powered by MC2 & XTA |
csg wrote:Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 30 April 2013 at 10:59am
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Ta :) The new two bulbs arrived.. in a box as big as the first order i put in ;) at first glance the tone of light from the omnilux is very similar to the eye's & without side by sideing it seems to pack a similar or at least a decent punch ;) ...if its not pissing it down tonight will do proper side by side distance tests outside at night (and not in a bloody box room) .. more to come later :) |
Posted By: JohnnyPyro
Date Posted: 03 May 2013 at 6:40pm
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No joy from the states, the co wont ship to the UK ... bugger! .. but i'm still on the hunt ------------- Pyrotechnics... its not rocket science, well.... actually it is !! :o) Powered by MC2 & XTA |
Posted By: Forward Motion SS
Date Posted: 04 August 2013 at 2:14pm
| What was the outcome then nineleaves?? |
Posted By: nineleaves
Date Posted: 04 August 2013 at 2:29pm
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the omnilux for all intents and purposes seems to be very similar to the 'blue' branded Sylvania lamps (i expect sylvainia simply oem rebadges one of these generic makers bulbs), results from both of those acceptable enough, but not as narrow as the old eye lamps. still looking out for oldschool eye style filter envelopes, but i fully expect to find the classic woods glass is no longer manufactured by anyone. |