History of HMI

[Barry Cheong]

I'm writing a paper on the advancement in lighting and certainly wanted to include HMI in there. Can anyone point me in the right direction of where to find any substantial info? I know HMI was started by OSRAM in Germany in the late 60's but that's about all.

Thanks

 

[Kim Welch]

I apologize for the delay in responding, and thank you for posting. HMI stands for hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide. The lamp was developed by Osram in the late 1960s, first for television, and HMI lights spread through film production in the 1970s because they produce daylight-balanced light far more efficiently than tungsten. For a paper, look at the American Cinematographer archive, the ASC's publications, and lighting manufacturers' histories such as ARRI's. Today LED fixtures are taking over many of the jobs HMIs once did, which would make a nice final section. I hope the paper went well!