Sony HVL-20DW2 20W Battery Operated Halogen Light
 

I have recentlyu purchased one of these lights from amazon but I'm finding that only one of those lights is working (i.e. I am only getting 10W of light rather than 20W) when the switch is flicked to 20W. What am I missing here? (I'm using an L Series InfoLITHIUM Battery to power the light)

Hi Tim,

Either one of your bulbs is burnt, it's defective, or you have the wrong battery. If it's brand new, it's probably the battery. Note the second line:

"10-watt operation with Sony® NP-F550 battery pack (sold separately)

Switchable 10-watt/20-watt operation requires NP-F750 or NP-F960 InfoLITHIUM L"

HVL-20DW2 | HVL-20DW2 10 Watt & 20 Watt Dual Video Light | Sony | SonyStyle USA

Thanks Vito, I will check this out

Yes, it appears the bigger battery was what was required. Seems odd to a layman like me and I would have thought that the smaller battery would work for both bulbs but simply last for a lesser time. Hey ho :)

The power draw of two bulbs is too high for the small cap batteries, that's why they do that.

The two lights are extremely powerful it has to be said and I would imagine that I would only want to use one bulb for most shots so can stick to a smaller battery which is a help because the larger battery puts a great deal of additional weight on the front of the camera

Tim, if you have any diffusion paper around, try this.

Cut a rectangle the same height as the light. You will tape each edge (electrical tape works great) alongside the light so that the paper curves out in front of the bulbs.

This is a great and nearly free way of adding diffusion to this light to make it less harsh, and lets you use both bulbs when you need to for extra reach.

Mine's looking a bit beat up cause I yanked it off to put it on a new light, but with care it looks nice and neat.

Thanks Vito, I'm currently using a Lumquist Mini-soft box for diffusion

Well, that's even better! I'm just cheap, hehe...

Speaking of this light...

1. I broke the square part of the plastic shoe attachment at the bottom of the light. (Can you blame me?) Does anyone know of a way to repair/replace this with something more sturdy?

2. I tried finding replacement bulbs through Sony but had no luck. From what I can tell, they only sell the complete unit. Where can I find some dependable bulbs? If something generic works well, that's fine by me, but please keep in mind that we all need something durable and long lasting. (It would be a real pain to have a bulb burn out mid-shot just because I was too cheap to buy something worthwhile instead.)

Thanks.

Alec Moreno
http://www.1Day1ShotProductions.com

This has been discussed before. Try this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/open-dv-d...t-problem.html

I haven't had to replace a bulb yet, so I'm not sure of a good source there.

Thanks Vito.