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This topic comprises 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Author
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Topic: Carbon Vs Xenon
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Bill Enos
Film God
Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 02-09-2002 12:30 AM
Fifteen years ago when I started I would say carbons were a better looking source, but today there are no decent carbons. We replace our arc lamps in October because the quality of ALL the carbons we could get was terrible, nothing but very yellow and dim from the Nationals, it was as though there was no core. Marble Double Eagles had fair light but they flickered constantly. The Nationals also burned inconsistently, sometimes you could watch a quarter to half inch of carbon disappear in a couple minutes, normal would be 5 to 8 minutes.The lamps & rectifiers are in good working condition. Last August when I inquired at National about continued availability if 8mm positives I was told they have none and didn't know when or IF there would ever be anymore. Marble's supply seems to be spotty at best. The xenons seem to produce more light and just as good light for a hell of a lot less money and without the aggravation, dust, ash, and smoke. Throw the damned carbon arcs in the dumpster where they should have been 10 years ago.
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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man
Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 02-09-2002 12:50 AM
OK, when I was with MTS, I was told never to demonstrate a Xenon against a carbon-arc. Especially the Peerless Magnarc. The Peerless with flat out-do it. The Ashcan that was spoken of was a very good lamp. I had Ashcans at the old Circus Drive-in, and BX-60 heads. I ran some RCA Wide-Arc's at the Skagit Drive in using 11 mm rotating positive carbons behind Super Simplex heads. While in training with MTS, a Star-Wars movie was run in a 70mm house in Minneapolis, and the lamps were Ashcans using 13.6mm rotating positive carbon. The projectionist was a union person, and he worked his equipment to the max. The end result was one of the most perfect presentations I have ever seen, and it was done manually. The light and picture quality (along with the sound) blew me away. Carbon Arcs rule!!!!
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 02-09-2002 01:26 AM
Carbons flicker? Oh, and like xenon never flickers, does it! Carbons more expensive $$/per watt a tad, but that's only until the first xenon bulb blows up and takes the mirror and half the electronics with it. You've gotta burn a LOT of carbons to make up for a blown bulb, to say nothing if someone wasn't handling it correctly while changing it. The damn things just want to explode by their very nature. The only thing can happen if you drop a box of carbons is a few might snap. As we say in Brooklyn, not for nuthin, but it's a lot easier to go into the accountant's office and say I need $300 to buy some carbons, than it is to go in and say, I need $1400 to buy a new bulb. That's why lots of xenons are burned way past their rated life. And as far as getting lousy light from a Peerless or especially an Ashcraft (or as Paul likes to call them, Ashcans), then something is way out of wack. Carbon light is SMOOTH....edge-to-edge and there is just something about it that the eye loves. Hey, they those carbon arc lamphouses were good enough to light some of the great classics in 70mm -- time hasn't somehow changed the technology. I use Marble carbons and they burn very evenly and with barely a touchup during a reel. If your feed is all over the place, then it's adjustment time. Only time we have trouble is when the power utility drops or kicks up voltage. Yeah, they are more work than xenon, but that's what you're in the booth for. And remember, from the first time you strike a brand new xenon bulb, it begins to deteriorate. You can't tweak it, cept maybe rotating the bulb once in a thousand hours. Carbon arc light can be tweaked on the fly and you can adjust the lamp so as to always give perfect light. Not much you can do for a xenon when that big black soot coating darkens half your xenon bulb. See the light....it's carbon arc.
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