A nice find at an abandoned theatre :)

Found this at an abandoned theatre :smiley:
2500W short-arc xenon lamp, brand new (I think) in a sealed box!


Had to rip the little orange warning sticker to open the box.


Exact model is Osram XBO 2500W/HS OFR (not as cool as the 500W/RC I was hoping for, but oh well, no complaints)


As far as I can tell, there are no markings on the metal ends to indicate it has been used.


The anode and cathode also look pristine.


Probably very unsafe to do this

They cost about $600-800 new. Problem is, I don’t have any way to use the lamp, since it requires a 2500W ballast :frowning: And my searches for 2500W ballasts indicates that they will cost several thousand dollars.

Not sure if I want to just flip it on ebay, or save it until maybe some day I find a way to power it up.

What do you guys think?

Really cool! I’d personally sell it since you can’t use it.

Now in order to use that, you have to find a theater projector reflector…. I remember when I was small, my family used to own a small cinema with carbon-arc projectors with very wide glass reflectors to view 35mm film movies into wide screen.

Are the ballast/electronics of these projectors still usable/compatible in your new find?

It seems very difficult to find a xenon ballast that does 2500W on google.

As for the reflector, any electroformed rhodium reflector from phoenix or optiforms can work.
Glass reflectors are more expensive and rare, not to mention delicate.

Nice find. I’d say best sell it if you cannot use it.

Without looking into it - I guess flip it.

BUT…. since I know you’re a man of ‘do it for the sake of breaking records’, I say keep it.

Sorry I’m no help. Good luck either way :slight_smile:

Haha thanks :slight_smile:
Would make a nice home decoration…a very dangerous one too!

800 bucks will get you a theatrically huge TV. :smiley:

Yeah, but not much throw compared to a $7 SK68 !

I had plenty of degraded Christie HD20KJ Xenon bulb (3000 watt) complete with the reflector cage. The price was USD600/piece. The most interesting part were the sliced sphere (parabolic I believe) quartz reflector. If you’re interested I can try to get some from my former company. It creates a tight spot before entering the: UV pass mirror - integrator rock (the round beam transformed to square) - DLP engine.
Setting the correct focus/tightest spot requires dangerous and tedious calibration on a specialized jig.
Will post some pictures later tonight

- Clemence

Agree, if there is one current BLF member who is willing to make a flashlight out of that lamp it would be you :slight_smile: , a bit heavy one that is, a quick search gave a ballast of 30kg.

edit: ^ yes nice, pics of heavy duty lighting stuff!


Is that two reflectors??
I think I remember seeing a few years ago pictures of some projector lamp and reflector setups in an osram datasheet.
The back reflector is ellipsoidal to concentrate the light from the lamp into a spot somewhere in front of the lamp (like the UV mirror you mentioned) and the front reflector is spherical, to recycle the light that the back reflector doesn’t capture, just like a wavien collar.

Now I’m trying to find these spherical reflectors for sale to use them as super large wavien collars!

Correct, a huge wavien collar + reflector in one piece! There were 20+ pcs of them. Each bulb last for only 400 hours (already 50% as bright as the new one). Christie rate it for 750 hours. There’s no way we would use up to 750 hours, it’s too dim already.
If you want it I can try to get some. You only need to pay the shipping and handling cost.

- Clemence

Wow, this is really weird, looking up pics of the Christie HD20KJ made me remember these pictures of projector lamp replacements many years ago…
And the front reflector is spherical…literally exactly like a wavien collar.


How did I not realize this earlier! These are just wavien collars but with a different name :open_mouth:

Is it a single piece of glass?
All the pictures I can find make it seem like two separate ones, I don’t know how it would be possible to manufacture it as a whole piece.
If the spherical part can be separated from the ellipsoidal part, I will definitely pay for the shipping costs :slight_smile:
Thanks for the offer!

And Wavien said it’s patented by their name huh? :stuck_out_tongue:

Sorry, it’s two piece. It’s been 4 years and I hate the job. Below is the bulb removed from the cage module

4000 watt input power, 3000 watt high pressure Xenon bulb, 20.000 center lumens, 16.000 average lumens.


After the first one exploded, everybody left me installing the bulb alone. The picture taken by a friend from my office window.

When exploded, most of the shrapnel turned to powdery glitters due to extremely high pressure.

- Clemence

Impressive equipment. 16.000 lumen is not far from what leds can do nowadays but I guess that the short arc emitting volume is much smaller than a high power led.

Meh the explosion couldn’t have been much of an event, your wearing shorts and sandals? Or is this all you had to change into after the explosion? :smiley:

A very nice find indeed! And yes, it’s very dangerous to handle these without proper protective clothing! Not all HID bulbs are under pressure when not in operation, but Xenon short-arcs are.

The power supplies are so heavy because Xenon short-arc bulbs are operated at very low voltages. The thus very high currents (hundreds of amps) leads to large component sizes and thus wheight.

I don’t think that it’s possible to use this in a portable, self-contained light. It also wouldn’t be cost effektive to design a light using this. Skybeamers with these kinds of wattages can be had for around 2K-5k$ from China.

I think you would be best advised to sell it. For 800$ you could easily find a Maxabeam! :wink: