? about Lowel Tota Light
 

Whats the biggest difference between the clear bulb and the frosted bulb? I'm assumeing that the frosted provides more diffuision? Any draw backs from using one over the other?

I tend to go with the clear bulb. My understanding is that the clear bulb will generally give harder shadows and more light output. There is a clear 650W bulb that has the photometrics of a 1000W frosted bulb and is brighter than the 750w bulb which is the maximum the fixture can take. As I see it the main uses I have for a tota are for pushing through big diffusion/bounce at close range in which case the most output seems ideal, or occasionally I might want to project a hard shadow. In either case, the clear bulb seems like it will perform a bit better for those uses.

you can put a 1K bulb into a tota light. thats how they originally shipped. problem is, people always seem to turn them on, and leave them on with the barndoors closed... which will melt the aluminum reflectors... ya thats very bad. if you operate the light correctly, its not a problem.

they are good for 2 things, dumping raw ugly light into big areas where you have limited power and just need max output, and behind large diffusers like a 6X6, 8X8, or space light.

also to be noted you HAVE to operate them horizontally. operating them with one end too high willl overheat the bulb, and cause it to explode... molten glass is REALLY bad.

I wasn't aware they originally shipped with 1k bulbs, though I imagine it could run just about any double ended halogen bulb that fits given the simplicity of the fixture. They also originally shipped without the mesh safety screen that they now include. However, nowadays lowel seems to list 750w (800w for 220v) as the highest bulb they recommend, in fact they list it as a 750w fixture. Given that, I would not recommend running the fixture with >750w bulb or without the mesh, in case of molten glass and whatnot...

On lowel's website, they specifically note that the 650w bulb has virtually the same output as a 1000w bulb, so I imagine there isnt much reason to run it with the 1000w bulb anyway.

I often run them in some very inexpensive umbrella softboxes I got on ebay, which probably are a bit of a hazard since they are intended for strobes rather than continuous lights, but they really work great so far as long as I am careful in setting them up, since you end up with a lightweight softbox that is a big very even source and only a few inches thick.

I'm always for more light output / w so if 650 can do the job I'd use it. they are pretty nasty lights to work with overall. of course I'm assuming they are comparing 650 clear to 1K frosted.

if buiying the 650 watt bulb make sure its the FCM/HIR not the FCM....you will know right away if you get a 650watt FCM for 8 bucks! LOL... The FCM/HIR should run u bout 20 bucks