For
two years our photography with a digital camera was often ruined
due to electrical surges
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Sola
Hevy duty power conditioner
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Even
if a laser printer is turned on nearby, that causes a fluctuation
in the electrical current in that entire part of the building. That
in turn causes a dark band for that pixel row that the camera is
scanning during the period of the fluctuation. So the photograph
here is totally ruined.
The
museum electricians felt it worthwhile to upgrade the wiring for
the photo studio to hold up to the 30 amp draw of this equipment.
As
a result all our pictures turn out beautifully. No more dark bands.
This is the Sola MCR Portable, 60 Hz, catalog # 63-13-230-6. To
answer your question, no, a normal uninterruptable power supply
unit from American Power Conversion will not keep your lights from
flickering. Those nice UPS units are to keep your computer from
being fried by lightning strikes. By the way, Soli heavy-duty also
makes UPS units that are really heavy-duty.
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is the equipment that stops the fluctuations from reaching the
lights. You hot-wire the unit into your room's electrical system
or else this particular model is portable (140 lb of weight
however). This unit handles 3000 watts. |
Now
we would like to try out the smaller units since they don't require
a special plug. Also the smaller units are really portable. This
is the 1000 watt unit pictured at the left. It uses a normal 3-pronged
electrical plug.
These
are intended to protect the studio lighting during digital photography
but in fact they are also useful for conditioning the power coming
to the computers.
You
can also use this handy Sola power conditioner if you have any kind
of digital equipment which is sensitive to power surges such as
a film
recorder (which also needs to be protected from power fluctuation).
Keep in mind, the $60 UPS units sold at Office Depot do not protect
digital lighting nor film recorders from fluctuations. The UPS units
only provide power when the main power source is disturbed. If a
nearby refrigerator kicks on, that fluctuation in the current will
ruin any digital photography underway at that moment.
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Sola
Hevy duty conditioner
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Contact:
Clyde Knoppe, Sola/heavy-duty,
7770 N. Frontage Road, Skokie, IL 60077, fax (847) 763 6033
Links:
www.sola-hevi-duty.com/products/powerconditioning/Index.htm
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UPS
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