That is the old Broncolor HMI and has been discontinued for about 4 years now just as the Profoto has been.
The new units info can be found here .... http://www.bron.ch/kb_pd_ps_us/detail.php?nr=16038
The older Broncolors are fine, though a little sensitive and fragile. If the globe is not exactly in the right spot they won't strike. The upside is they will take most Broncolor modifiers, the downside is 575 watts is on the bare minimum with any diffusion for stills, even with a dslr, with medium format they are below the minimum.
I use a lot of continuous and flash, especially for projects that are mixed still and video. In fact that seems to be the norm to shoot both, even if it's with a separate crew and to do ti right and don't want to use flash, you really need 1000 watts of continuous for stills (that is if you use modifiers) , and you can get by with less for video, especially the 5d2 as on the video setting 2000 iso doesn't seems to change anything.
With so much emphasis put on video now, I am at a loss to understand why profoto and some of the other still light makers doesn't have a full range of hmis and tungsten. Profoto did but they discontinued them.
Our current project requires both video and stills, and the quality and sharpness of flash works well for the stills, and unless you have some very powerful modeling lights, shooting video on the same set requires two sets of lights. This can be a real pain.
Regardless HMI's are bloody expensive and unless your shooting almost daily it's cheaper to rent and if you fly, moving hmi arri's are expensive, so you much better off renting. One other upside to the brons is they are the same size as flash and move easily.
Probably the only thing that would move me to a large equipment purchase now would be if profoto came out with a 1000, to 800 watt hmi head and ballast.
I like continuous use it a lot even tungsten and never see any problem with the file breaking up with tungsten.
This screen grab straight out of a 5d2
[attachment=20302:screengrab.jpg]
(will go through a lot of post as the creative brief calls for a moving city scene behind the model and flashing into the reflection of the glass) was shot with tungsten as a key, an hmi and daylight as a back light.
Same with this screen grab from the still session shot with a 1ds3, which was shot tungsten as key, window light (daylight in the background) obviously with a retouched skyline.
[attachment=20303:screengrab2.jpg]
So, if your shooting in blacked out spaces and don't have to use daylight/window light for fill or background tungsten is pennies on the dollar compared to HMI's and work quite well.
BC
