I'm looking around online for commercial lighting bulbs (not OHP bulbs) for my OHP project. I know alot of people use Metal Halide lamps. But what are the specs of your lamp, and over all quality and satisfaction with it?

What is your:
-What kind do you have? (MH, incandescent, etc.)
-Wattage?
-Lumen output?
-CRI (Color Rendering Index)?
-Color temp?
-Where did you get it an how much was it?
-Over all quality? Pros, cons?

I think something like this could help out alot of DIY-ers who dont have alot of money to just "buy and try" parts.


Mine is a standard incandescent filament type from an old OHP (transparency type, you know the one teachers use). Dont know what more to say than it suck. I have no specs on it, however, i know it has a very yellow look to it, has a large hot spot in the center, and only works in dark areas. Heat is also a big issue (think i might have fried my LCD because of it). I do know that my Fresnel lens is warped to to extreme heat.

I have gone through a couple different bulbs in a couple different projectors.

The best two I've used at HQI bulbs.
#1 Sylvania 150w HQI that i purchased from sensibull on the trading post here. Off the top of my head it is roughly 13000-14000 lumens, 10000 hour life, CRI ~90. Pros: Great colours, Fast to warm up, and runs very cool. Cons: very hard to find a G12 base. If you were going to buy new, find a ceramic 150w bulb (even better colour, and even cooler running).

#2 Osram 400w HQI-T/S W/D - Purchased from DIY-beamer.com. Very nice bulb. Small for a 400w MH bulb (~6" by 1") Specs are 38 000lumens, CRI of 90+ (I have mine overdriven with a S51 HPS ballast as described by arizonavideo somewhere on here). I'm not sure of the life span of this but its probably in 20 000 hour range without the overdrive. Pros: Very bright, very good colour (abit better than the 150), smallest 400w I've seen. Cons: Needs a pulse start ballast, very very hot.

#3 is a 400w pulse start by venture - Decent bulb, was only 30-35 canadian off ebay. Pretty much a run of the mill 400w MH bulb. CRI ~70 i think I've never found the product sheet for this one. Small envelope to it works with all reflectors. Probably around 40 000 lumens, 20 000 hour life and will run without a pulse start ballast if you don't have one. Its a good starter bulb and you can find it cheap.

#4 GE multivapour 400w - Takes forever to ignite, bad colour and CRI and biggest bulbsize - can't recomend. Bought off the trading post a long time ago, included with a ballast.

#5 OSRAM POWERSTAR 400w - Very similar to the Venture bulb I have but the larger envelope size so it wouldn't work with any of my reflectors so I got the new one. Bought off Ebay.

say craigcav12, you dont live in the states and willing to unload one of those bulbs and ballast for a a nice price would ya

Type: HMI
Wattage: 575 watts
Lumen output: 49000
CRI: 91 (i think, i know it's in the 90's)
Color Temp: 6000K
Where I got it: tore it out of a Proxima DP9100
Overall Quality: Freaking awesome. Good color temp and CRI. One of, if not the, shortest arc bulbs I've seen used on LumenLab (it's arc is like 8 mm). Has hot-restrike. Though it's awesome, does have a few drawbacks. First, short life span. the official osram bulbs are 750 or 1000 hours. generic chinese bulbs are 500. they are hoootttttttttt. a lot of people have initially had insufficient cooling and get dark spots. I'm using 2 120mm fans without heat shield and it does the job. also, 575 watt HMI ballasts can be hard to find. the best place is to take them out of old commercial PJ's or some old high end OHPs. they can be had for $50 or less if you look well enough. however, the brightness increase and picture quality from the short arc has made it impossible for me to go back to the 400 watt bulbs.