What Are Plasma Lights and When Are They Better than HMIs? Hive Lighting Explains

Hive Lighting's 275w Wasp Plasma PAR bulb is the equivalent output of a 575w HMI. They can now be arranged into pods via frames, coming in 2-light, 4-light and 6-light configurations, creating a powerful light that can plug into a standard 20 amp circuit.


No Film School's complete coverage of NAB 2015 is brought to you by Color Grading Central, Shutterstock, Blackmagic Design, and Bigstock.

No Film School's coverage of NAB is brought to you by Color Grading Central, Shutterstock, Blackmagic Design, and Bigstock

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12 Comments

Since I do hate HMI lights and plasma bulbs will never burn. This seems like a great option for a small production company. I like how they thought in advance people might want to stack them together and built the frame for it.

April 14, 2015 at 9:12AM

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Isaac Alonzo
Photographer / Cinematographer
315

Just curious, what criteria bothers you about HMIs?

April 14, 2015 at 9:58AM

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Josh Paul
Most often DP, Direct or Gaff
1294

https://vimeo.com/124724589

Check this out to get an idea between HMI's and Plasma lights.

April 14, 2015 at 2:16PM

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Dominique Gilbert
Tech Fanatic/Educator/Musician
161

I live in a tiny little country where gas is expensive and so is everything else, just carrying power for big HMI complicates things up down here (Dominican Republic). I've tried LED's in the high power flavor but still looking for a bit more punch without using a gazillion tiny little LEDs to achieve the desired power. Hope this answers the question.

April 14, 2015 at 5:45PM

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Isaac Alonzo
Photographer / Cinematographer
315

Can't wait rent and try them out on a set on day. A "little" to expensive to own right now.

April 14, 2015 at 9:21AM

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David Sharp
Video Editor, Cinematographer, Teacher
377

But then for the 6 light combo you're talking about over 20K USD to output the equivalent of a 4K HMI. Not worth it but then as smaller individual lights then yes.

April 14, 2015 at 9:29AM

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Jonathon Sendall
Stories
1955

You're also talking about having a 4k hmi equivalent on location through an edison socket. No Generator, transformer, or hunting down three-phase or what have you. The price is definitely steep, but the setup adds a lot of flexibility for the production and might be worth the price for certain sets. It just depends on what the light quality is like.

April 14, 2015 at 11:53AM

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Chuck McDowell
1st AC
586

He is so well dressed

April 14, 2015 at 10:48AM

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Max Ciesynski
Gaffer
627

Awesome introduction to Plasma Lighting. I just did a video-blog on CRI and these lights prove to be a HMI Killer.

Check it out
https://vimeo.com/124724589

April 14, 2015 at 2:11PM

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Dominique Gilbert
Tech Fanatic/Educator/Musician
161

Hey Dominique, just wanted to say well done for all the videos on Vimeo, very bitesize, informative content. Keep it up!

April 15, 2015 at 1:11AM

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PJ Palomaki
Cinematographer | Motion Graphics
407

what happened with the female voice?

April 14, 2015 at 2:31PM

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If there was ever anyone more deserving of the nickname "Slick" I've yet to be made aware of their presence

April 14, 2015 at 11:00PM

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