Gadgetory

plasma it's the most common form of matter in the universe yet many of us don't see it in consumer products unless it's in fluorescent lights neon signs or those little lightning ball knickknacks you can get in the mall but what exactly is this stuff well plasma is similar to ordinary gas but the difference is it's been ionized meaning that the individual atoms or molecules in the gas have been given an electrical charge by applying an outside energy source to it such as heat or electromagnetic radiation because plasmas are energized in this way their atoms can emit light by a similar process to lasers you can learn more about how energized atoms give off light in this video but unlike laser light which relies on additional equipment to form a narrow beam many plasma light sources are useful for illuminating large areas whether it's a warehouse filled with fluorescent lights a city lit by a lightning bolt or even the entire earth since the Sun also uses plasma to produce light but a new crop of plasma lamps has opened up a whole new use for plasma light and is stealing headlines in the photography world for someone like me proper lighting is extremely important whether I'm shooting an episode of Linus tech tips or still photos of our team members in the office and getting my lighting setup exactly right can be a bit tricky plasma lamps though are trying to mitigate problems that have faced photographers and cinematographers for years one big issue that we regularly contend with is flicker you see all artificial light sources flicker to some degree including popular HMI floodlights widely used in the film industry often due to the alternating current that powers them when you plug them into a wall and even though a typical flicker rate of a hundred and twenty times per second or 120 Hertz is imperceptible to the naked eye it can be a huge problem when shooting in slow motion or at a very high frame rate as the camera will easily make this flicker visible plasma lamps though attempt to solve this problem by converting argon gas into a plasma because of Argon's chemical properties it flickers at such a high rate hundreds of millions of times per second that the light it produces is flicker free for video shoots in absurb frame rates that can expose flickering and other light sources like LEDs plasma lamps are also more neutral in color than many other kinds of bulbs not unlike direct sunlight which tends to illuminate everything without giving any noticeable color shift although lights like CF LEDs often give objects a slightly green or magenta shift plasma lamps are full-spectrum so that the colors can be filmed very accurately and because plasma lamps use radio waves instead of heat to produce their light they're also very power efficient especially important since many kinds of professional lights are notorious energy hogs so if you are serious about shooting video or even stills plasma lapse might be a good idea for you especially if you don't want your boss to freak out about the power bill speaking of plasma lighting hive lighting there a leading plasma lighting manufacturer based out of the u.s. for all your production needs they have three different fixtures that can be used in many versatile ways from theater production onstage for the lighting we used for this video the loss which is our fixture of choice is one of the most low power draw lights I have ever used coming in at a mere 273 watts and giving me the output of an incandescent light that could easily draw six times more power which makes it nice on the office power ball when I accidentally leave lights on this thing on that's actually still not okay I don't care how any efficient it is so thank you guys for watching and if you didn't like this video you know what to do but if you liked it give a like and while you're at it check out the channel super fun video where Tim was pranked for nearly a year it's really funny comment down below if you have any other topics you want us to cover and do not forget to subscribe and follow