A CFL Fresnel?

[Mannie Bothans]

Would it be possible to take the lamp socket out of well-built variable focus fresnel fixture, and replace it with a standard 100W+ fixture that could house a 500W equivalent CFL

like this

or this

To draw less power, match other lights, run cooler on talent, but still have the benefits of fresnel?

 

[knightly]

I'm going to say no... because... the reflective physics count on the light being generated from a small point rather than a larger area like the CFL would present. Although, it may be possible to refine a reflector to work with that. The point of the fresnel is to take the light and align it all moving forward as much as possible by redirecting the light as it attempts to stray away in the spherical shape that light wants to do. This is so much easier to do if the light starts out from a smaller point.

 

[Mannie Bothans]

That would explain why you can find off the shelf halogen fresnels, and even LED fresnels, but not CFL fresnel units. (Though they do make off-the-shelf recessed shower-fixture cans with fresnel "lenses" apparently.)

 

[jax_rox]

I'm not a gaffer, so I'm not technically qualified to point you in a direction about the electronics of a fresnel.

That said, given you'd need to buy a fresnel and take it apart to make this work anyway, I don't see the point, not to mention that the light would not be 500w output as it's already diffused and a softer lighter than the hard point source that the inner head and lens of a fresnel is meant for.

You'd be better off building your own pseudo-fresnel that you can design to work with CFL bulbs, and build some kind of reflecting tube for it. Even then, I'm not sure you'd get the same light output..

Disassembling a fresnel would be more expensive than just the fresnel, take a lot more effort, take electrical skill and knowledge and likely will give you an average result.. for negligible benefits.

 

[2001 Productions]

Knightly is right. Technically, the fixture could be rigged to take the CFL bulb, but the laws of physics make it a pointless effort.

 

[darty]

why ? the whole point of a fresnel is to get a light with punch
if you want a soft light get a chimera.
fresnels are designed to take a particular globe and the whole light is
designed around maximising the output from that globe.
if you managed to mount it in the fresnel it would be lucky to light
the barn doors.

the prolume globe you showed is a bit suspect....
"277 volt design" not a voltage standard i have ever heard of.......
and $434.50 saved in energy costs.........compared to what...

the specs for this type of light should be taken with a grain of salt.

cheers