Lamp storage
 

How do most of you handle your lamps for your fresnel lights? Do you remove them each time and store them in their box, or just leave them in the fixture until they burn out, transporting the light with the bulb in place?

I've just gotten my first fresnel, and from all the warnings about how delicate these lights are, I'm suprised they don't suggest wearing bunny suits and using medical-precision robots to put them in place.

Hi John,

Since my kit travels a lot, I always de-bulb (after allowing the bulbs to cool down) at the end of a shoot as I am re-packing my kit. I store the bulbs in a tupperware container with foam padding - that way, when I am travelling with my kit, the bulbs are well protected. Also, make sure you turn off the fixture before you move it into a new position. The filaments inside the bulbs are even more sensitive when hot.

Works for me.

- don

P.S.: You can still wear the bunny suit if you insist.

It depends on the type of travel for me. If the trips are just local I leave the lamps in place, in the fixtures. If traveling long distances, I remove the lamp. The big key for me in lamp longevity is not moving the light until the lamp has completely cooled.

So your one of those Tupperware-types, eh Don? Then I guess me in my bunny suit and you with your Tupperware collection would make quite a pair.

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll make sure to let them cool completely before moving them, and will take the precautions you mention.

Never move when hot!
 

Don and Jeff are right on. Let your lamps cool completely before storing and packing.

If the lights are to reside in a studio or on a shelf, in the office, we leave the bulbs in the lamps. There is no real reason to remove the bulbs unless you expect to travel with them at which point, the Tupperware theory works very well.

Also, always remember to never handle the bulbs with your bare hands as the oils on you fingers will adhere to the bulb and cook off at high temperatures, thus shortenting the life of the bulb and possibly make for some dramatic, catastrophic failures, (explosions) of the same!

RB

P.S. The bunny suit, although kinky, has its own special allure, if I do say so myself!