I'm so excited.  We sprung for a 400w black light and it is so awesome!  Everything is cleaner looking and we only need the one light.  No more hooking all those lights to extension cords and no more shadows!

I really hope we can get good video this year because of this light. Black light does not show up on video/camera very well.

This is the one we ordered in case anyone else is interested.
http://www.123dj.com/lighting/blacklight/ebk400.html

Congrats angel! its makes a big difference when you have good equipment to work with. Can't wait to see some video.

That's really great!  So happy for you.  I know it's always exciting to get new toys.  LOL

Julie

Angel

I am teaching a class on blacklight puppetry in a couple months.  Always looking for things to recommend. Curious as to why you chose this B/L over the LED or spotlight type?  Any other things you or anyone want to share, I'm all ears!

I have no experience of the spotlight type and I only have experience with the LED at the festivals and they seem to show up some of the black things, and don't seem to be as bright on the fluorescent.  I could be wrong, maybe it was only the venue we were at, but we could see the people moving around and such.  After I saw some videos of I think her name is Donna on the Christpup yahoo group, she used this light and I could see that even in video her props and puppets were very vibrant with no shadows.  Now that we have ours in and have played with it, we are EXTREMELY excited about it!  Everything shows up so well with this light.  And it seems to go for miles. LOL  I feel like we made a good investment and wish we'd had the money long ago.  But it takes time and we add new things every year. Oh, and I think this one was actually less expensive than either the LED or the spotlight.  We paid $149.99 free shipping.

That is very interesting! We have two of the LED lights and actually have added in the flourescent bulbs because of the problem you described. I may have to check out this light! Especially with the no shadows and the way you described the way the colors pop! Thanks!!
If you have things on the stage like black light props or drum sets etc, does the light get all of those in the beam too? Quite impressive that it will cover the whole stage!

LJ so far everything we have used, fabric, poster board props, spray painted props etc. glow beautifully!  I will let you know when we actually set up the stage area how it works/distances etc.
When we first got it we tried in the gym moving things farther and farther away and things glowed from one end of the gym to the other.  I don't know how long our gym is but it is 40' wide so farther than that!

Interesting. I may have to buy one to play with it before the class. LOL
I found our LED's for about $115 each and shipping was $15 for both.  We've had them about 2.5 years I think.  So far we love them. Two covers the platform in our church (actually more, but that is what we wanted them for).

We do not travel with them (if we fly, we take them if we drive) due to the way the airlines tend to throw things. LOL. Same reason we travel with a pvc stage - you can always find replacement parts for pvc.

I can see the advantage to the LED lights.  They are lighter, this one weighs over 20 lbs.  I would not want to send that through an airport baggage system! But we don't fly anyway, so not an issue for us. But if driving, we will carry it. 

I really hope we can get good video this year because of this light. Black light does not show up on video/camera very well.

When you video for blacklight, you MUST have your camera on manual focus. In regular light, zoom in to the area you will be filming, manually focus, then pull back to film in BL. With the camera on auto focus, it will keep trying to find something to focus on in the dark and the camera will continually go clear and blurry. Set the camera on a tripod and film from there. You can zoom in and out after manually focusing and it should work just fine. Practice before the actual event you want to film so you are confident in your ability to set up the shot. Just be aware that most consumer cameras will go to standby or turn off if not filming within 5 minutes or so. Do your focus just before you go live, or you will not get a good shot.