Another one bites the dust!
This is a picture of a burned-out DXR lamp I had been using in a paper lantern. There is one less in the world each time one burns out. Like many tungsten lamps, they are no longer manufactured.
DXRs were one of my favorite lamps for paper lanterns years ago when I was doing lots of period work on History Channel shows for Stephan David Entertainment.
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| A room full of china lanterns with skirts when I was the gaffer for American Speed. Each lantern is 1000 watts and connected to a dimmer pack. |
DXRs are 1000-watt photoflood lamps with a color temp of 3400 Kelvin. DXRs also have the designation of PH4. I liked that they were slighting bluer than the typical 3200 K since I generally had them dimmed and inside paper lanterns.
Like many photofloods, they have a short estimated life; only about 9 hours. It is a trade-off for greater brightness at the expense of the lamp's life.
In actual use, they always lasted much longer since they were almost always on dimmers. I would guess several times the estimated life of 9 hours.
It's a bit sad (for a gaffer!) each time one burns-out knowing there's one less DXR in the world.
The use of tungsten lighting has been gradually fading away being replaced by LEDs. Still, I prefer to use tungsten lights for superior skin tones and color reproduction, whenever possible.
Though I still use DXRs my preference is DKZs which are 1000 watt halogens at 3200K. They also have a much larger globe for a softer light. There are 2 different types of DKZs out there. Some have the oval-like envelope. Some have the large fish-bowl like envelope. I like these bigger globes for the softer light. DKZs, since they are halogens, have a long life.
One good thing about most of these old tungsten lamps; it is not too hard to find them new-old-stock. They have an indefinite shelf life. The boxes may be faded, but the lamps work good as new.
You can generally find cheap prices since there is not much demand anymore, but you do have to shop around. There are price gougers out there.
I love the artwork and directions on these old boxes. There's a bit of lighting history here.
PS: A 1940s film visits GE's huge Nela Park, in Cleveland, where they manufactured light bulbs (lamps which is the true technical term) on a massive scale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRxcJH7tKck
PPS: The best online catalog of tungsten lamps was Don's Bulbs. It had a vast universe of lamp information. Though the site is no longer running, you can access some of the info through the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130530022605/http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/t.pl
PPPS: LEDs vs. tungsten lamps; which is better?
https://electricgrip.blogspot.com/2021/01/science-friday-tungsten-lights.html
PPPPS: I don't know why, but slang in my work is to always call these type of lamps "tungsten" and not use the technical name, "incandescent". A DP and my crew would think I've lost it, if I start calling lamps "incandescent".