American Cinematographer - September 1968 - 46

AN INTERIM REPORT
ON HIGH-WATTAGE
TUNGSTEN-HALOGEN

Part-way through a full-scale
shakedown test of new quartz
lamps under actual production
conditions, certain important
facts are noted and reported

The May, 1968 issue of AMERICAN
CINEMATOGRAPHER carried an article
entitled: "NEW TUNGSTEN-HALOGEN
HIGH-WATTAGE LAMPS" which de¬
tailed the progress of Sylvania Electric
Products, Inc. in producing a 5,000watt quartz lamp, plus the promise of
much higher wattage units.
This seeming breakthrough, it was
observed, would be of tremendous im¬
portance to cinematographers-pro¬
vided, of course, that the new lamps
performed under actual professional
filming conditions as the Sylvania en¬
gineers hoped and sincerely believed
they would.
In line with its long-established pol¬
icy of thoroughly testing new equip¬
ment of potentially great significance
to working cameramen, the American
Society of Cinematographers pledged
its whole-hearted cooperation in ar¬
ranging a test for the new high-wattage lamps that would duplicate the
exact working conditions under which,
hopefully, they would be used in ac¬
tual production.
Such an opportunity was made pos¬
sible through the kind auspices of Desi

ASCs firm policy of objective, nonbiased reportage on equipment.

Arnaz, President of Desilu Productions,
a producer known for his foresight and
active interest in the technological ad¬
vancement of the film industry. With
his full approval and encouragement.
Director of Photography Henry Freulich, ASC, was given free rein to rig
all of the sets for Desilu's "MOTHERSIN-LAW" television series with Sylvania
tungsten-halogen lamps, ranging from
1,000-watt to 7,500-watt units-with
the promise of 10,000-watt units to be
provided as soon as available.
This formal "acid test" began with
the new season of the "MOTHERS-INLAW" series on May 13 at General
Service Studios in Hollywood and con¬
tinued until the summer hiatus in midJuly. The following exchange of letters
between Henry Freulich, ASC, and Syl¬
vania Applications Engineer Thomas M.
Lemons constitutes an informal interim
report on the performance of the lamps
over a period amounting to less than
half of the time allotted for a com¬
plete shakedown of the equipment. It
reflects honest opinions and factual
statements on the part of both par¬
ties and is completely consistent with

On the set of the Desilu "MOTHERS-IN-LAW" television series at General Service Studios, Director
of Photography Henry Freulich, ASC, takes a light reading while discussing characteristics of the
new high wattage tungsten-halogen lamps with Sylvania Applications Engineer Thomas M.
Lemons. Full-scale test, in which almost all of the lighting units on the set have been fitted with
the new lamps, is being conducted impartially by ASC, with the aid of Producer Desi Arnaz.

As was expected, certain "bugs"
showed up during the early phases of
the test, but Mr. Lemons, with equal
honesty, states what is being done by
his company to eliminate these flaws
in performance.
The test will continue with the re¬
sumption of production for the series
early this month and will follow through
to a conclusive result.
In the meantime, in the interest of
keeping its readership up to date on
progress thus far, AMERICAN CINEMA¬
TOGRAPHER presents the following un¬
edited letters by way of an interim re¬
port on Sylvania's high-wattage tung¬
sten-halogen lamps:
July 23, 1 968
Mr. T. M. Lemons
Sylvania Lighting Center
Danvers, Mass.
Dear Tom.At the meeting with Herb Lightman
at the A.S.C. it was suggested that I
send you the following interim report.
On June 11th we completed the
first eight V2 -hour episodes of the
"MOTHERS-IN-LAW" series. We will
continue production September 3rd.
We kept a log and during that
period the lights had been burning
about one hundred hours.
Almost all the lamps used on our
sets were the Sylvania Tungsten-halo¬
gen lamps you supplied. Included were
1000W, 2000W, 5000W, and 7500W
lamps. The following is a breakdown
of the performance of these lamps:
1000W
After using these lamps only a few
hours we found they were burning out
at an abnormally fast rate. I realized
something was definitely wrong and
had them all removed and sent them
back to you. We replaced them with
GE 1000W lamps.
2000W
These were somewhat erratic. Sevveral burned out after only a few
minutes . . . some lasted up to fen
Continued on Page 710

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, SEPTEMBER 1968

American Cinematographer - September 1968

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