Battery (offsite) for Arri 650
 

Hi I just got my Arri 650, and im thinking of shooting a scene at night for my engagement shoot, what battery would be a best fit for it.

I just want to get a reasonable priced one.

thanks for your help

The Arri 650 is AC powered only. In order to get a battery that worked, you would need an inverter and a HUGE battery to have any meaningful run times. Really not practical. You should trade it in for CoolLights LED600 if you need to run off of a battery.

Dan

If Coollights will be lit like the arri 650 then youre probably right.
I just want to find out if anyone here might have used a battery or lit the arri 650 outdoors.
Im actually thinking of usnig an inverter, then running my car, but that might drain the car : (

A 650W light is on the edge of working with a car, but it really isn't the kind of light to use on a battery. A 220W fluorescent light will work on a battery for a while, but 650W is a lot of strain. The faster a battery is discharged, the less energy it puts out. If you put an LED light on a car battery, it will last for hours. A 650W will likely last less than half an hour and might damage the battery or strain the vehicle alternator. Hire a quiet generator or get more efficient light is my suggestion.

The Coollights LED 600 has similar output to a 650 Arri although the Arri will have a much longer fall off.

It seems as if you are forcing the issue, a fluorescent or LED is a much better solution to run off of battery. I shot a commercial with Edward James Olmos last week in a train station where I had no access to AC mains. Used my Coollights LED 600 spot through my small Chimera Quartz Pro as a key, my LED 600 flood bounced into a Flexfill as a fill source and my LED 256 as a hairlight. All ran off of batteries. Commercial looks great, agency is happy, Mr. Olmos was happy.

I could never have done this spot with my Arris. No generators allowed and no AC available in train station.

Dan

I assume you're discussing the Fresnel spot rather than the open faced Arri. However, there is a 30v lamp for the latter, but you'd need a 30 volt battery and I suspect it would run for about 1/2 hour depending on the battery's condition.

30 volt batteries aren't as common as they used to be and are expensive to buy. A lighting rental company is the best bet for a one off.

He must be discussing the fresnel as the open face is a 600, not a 650.

Dan

Just to add confusion, it's a 650 watt in 230v counties, but I assumed it was more likely to be the Fresnel.

Just a FYI, but five 6V batteries wired in series gives you a 30V battery... cheap!

Manufacturers like to mystify batteries because it makes them money, but they're really very simple.

It will take about 40AH of 30V battery to run a 650W light for an hour. At $60 each, the price of the batteries, charger, and 650W fresnel together would be far greater than just getting a 600-led fixture and a deep-cycle 12V battery. A 12V battery charger is also going to be cheaper and easier to find. The 12V battery will also be much easier to transport than a group of 5 6V batteries wired in series that weigh 80 pounds. A single 50-pound 55AH Optima (with built-in handle) will run a 600-led for about ten hours.

Indeed, the cases cost a fortune, which is what you come to realise come the re-cell. I was referring to Ni Cads, but lead acid can do the job, but perhaps not as portable.

To avoid possible confusion, 30V lamp is 250 watts, which is the standard for the traditional hand basher before the 12v lights took over.

You also have the issue of whether the terminals and wiring to the battery are beefy enough to handle a 650w load. You could melt a battery that way. Better to use a generator if you have to use higher wattage tungstens.

I didn't want to start a new thread for basically the same question.

I'm trying to power a Lowel DV55 kit, so that's almost 2000w I think. I probably won't need all of the lights powered at once, but it would be nice to know I COULD have them all powered. Can this be done with batteries or do I need a generator? Or something else? I need the cheapest solution, and only need power for maybe 6 hours.

Generator? Batteries? Dan, what kind of batteries did you use?

Same issue John, you are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. You would need either a generator like a Honda U2000 putt-putt (about $1,000.00 - I have two of them and they work well when you are in places you can use a generator) or you can wire up stacks of car batteries but that would be ridiculous.

If you need to run off of batteries, you need to buy LEDs. The Coollights are the right tool to do this, one of my LED 600s runs for five hours at full output off of a $100.00 lead acid Bescor battery.

Dan

Thanks Dan, looks like I will be renting a generator for this shoot. Good thing is the DV kit is borrowed. I will look into the Cool Lights for a personal setup, I'm all about versatility so running off battery is a selling point for me.

JS