Film & Digital Times Issues 36-38 - Imago

Kino Flo Spiral
Imara
Tegra
72 Dec 2010
Spiral
The most useful, simple and earth-friendly product we saw
at Cinec and IBC was the new Kino Flo compact fluorescent
(daylight and tungsten) bulb.
This is something cinematographers have been dreaming of for
a long time: to screw a Kino Flo color-correct Edison-based
fluorescent bulb into practical lamps and lighting fixtures
that perfectly match larger Kino Flo units. Up to now, there
have been limited choices for high-end practicals. Frieder
Hochheim, Kino Flo President, told me that development
of the bulbs, with their 3200 and 5600 formulations, were
accelerated by the European Union’s banning of filament bulbs.
(Try buying a traditional bulb at a European IKEA—you can’t.)
The new Kino Flo practicals deliver the equivalent of 100 watts,
while drawing only 27 watts of power.
At around $19 to $21 per bulb, you can be sure that I will
be changing every bulb in every lamp at home. On set or on
location, they will be helpful because their reduced heat will be
a welcome change for talent and set designers.
Imara
“Imara” is Swahili for “strong”, and Kino Flo for the new “10bulb
(or 6-bulb) powerful lighting fixture.” It has built-in
switching, dimming and DMX control. Kino Flo Imaras use 55
watt Kino Flo True Match CFL compact daylight or tungsten
fluorescent tubes. The Imara 10 puts out almost twice the light
as the Image 85, at only half the power draw, almost half the
size and weighing 8 pounds less. The beam structure sets it
apart from the Image 85: it is narrower, but the light is even on
both the horizontal and vertical axis. Imara also has blue and
green spiked lamps for blue and green screen lighting. Louvers,
gel frames, barndoors, and other accessories are available.
Tegra
Kino Flo’s Tegra was not named after the best restaurant in
Istanbul (Tugra), nor does it come from Teghra, India (25° 29'0"
North, 85° 57' 0" East). However, there are certain parallels.
The new Tegra 4-Bank is the latest reincarnation of Kino
Flo’s 4-bank 4-foot T12 portable fluorescent lighting system.
It has on-board controls like the Diva-Lite. The Tegra has
on-board dimming, on-board switching, and remote handheld
dimming. You can run it from 100 VAC to 240 VAC.
Proprietary solid state electronics operate the 75 watt lamps at
high output: flicker-free and quiet.
One Tegra outputs as much light as a 1,000 Watt tungsten
softlight, using 1/10th the power. Tegra takes 2900K, 3200K
and 5500K True Match Kino Flo T12 lamps—all with a full
range of high color rendering soft light.
So, when do you ask for Imara or Tegra?
Imara, the strong and powerful Kino Flo, is meant for studios
and rugged applications.
Think of Tegra as the reincarnated 4-bank: built-in barn
doors, lightweight, for locations, tight places, handheld,
quickly rigged, or mounted on a lightweight light stand.
(kinoflo.com)