Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « on: December 29, 2024, 12:31:02 AM » Author: Robotjulep
I just found this out today that Iwasaki is no longer making any HID lamp or ballast starting in January 2025. That means these whole lineup of lamp types will be discontinued: Ceramic Metal Halide Lamps, High color rendering metal halide lamp, Metal Halide Lamps, and High Pressure Sodium Lamps https://www.eye.co.jp/NEWS/lighting/EndOfHID.html All good things must come to an end I guess.
		Logged

JDM lighting and car enthusiast.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #1 on: December 29, 2024, 12:35:07 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Here is the article in Japanese: https://www.iwasaki.co.jp/NEWS/info/revision/2024/06discontinue.html#:~:text=HID%E5%AE%89%E5%AE%9A%E5%99%A8%E3%81%AF%E3%80%812024,%E5%93%81%E3%81%A8%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E8%B2%A9%E5%A3%B2%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F%E3%81%97%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99%25E3%2580%2582
		Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #2 on: December 29, 2024, 12:37:07 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
So far, Panasonic had discontinued their HID lighting equipment earlier this year. I think that since Japan has a rather low number of lighting enthusiasts, Japanese HID lighting equipment will probably become rarer than HID lighting equipment in other countries.
		Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #3 on: December 29, 2024, 12:46:57 AM » Author: Robotjulep
We can't save them all! I have already built up a sizable JDM HID lighting collection but it is nowhere near the variety of Iwasaki Electric's lineup of HID lamps plus it is getting expensive too.
		Logged

JDM lighting and car enthusiast.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #4 on: December 29, 2024, 12:50:14 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Additionally, it also looks like GS-Yuasa is also phasibg out HID lighting equipment as well: https://gyls.gs-yuasa.jp/jp/newsrelease/post/20241101.php It seems like for those of us who can’t afford to travel to Japan, we might be best off sourcing Japanese HID lighting equipment from Mercari or Yahoo Japan Auctions once stock from Yahoo Japan Shopping and Rakuten runs out and would use forwarders like Buyee, Jauce, FromJapan, or ZenMarket.
		Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #5 on: December 29, 2024, 01:13:31 AM » Author: Robotjulep
Buyee seems to work excellent if you use the ECMS shipping option. The surface mail option takes way too long. The EMS shipping option is way overpriced. ECMS shipping is only eligible on items worth 500 yen or more.
		Logged

JDM lighting and car enthusiast.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #6 on: December 29, 2024, 01:16:23 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Over here in the LA area where I am from, I am getting somewhere around 20 HF100X mercury vapor lamps shipped for around $78. So far, the clear mercury vapor lamps made for the Japanese market are very hard to find nowadays and are extremely expensive. Much more so than the phosphor coated lamps.
		Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #7 on: December 29, 2024, 01:38:25 AM » Author: Silverliner
That sucks, like the worst news for us all.
		Logged

Administrator of Lighting-Gallery.net. Need help? PM me.

Member of L-G since 2005.

Collector of vintage bulbs, street lights and fluorescent fixtures.

Electrician.

Also a fan of cars, travelling, working out, food, hanging out.

Power company: Southern California Edison.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #8 on: December 29, 2024, 01:50:32 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
This is especially heartbreaking because Japan has had a good number of unique HID lamps, ballasts, and fixtures that could be found nowhere else in the world and have read that Japan seems to have very little lighting enthusiasts too. This makes me worried about Japanese HID lighting equipment becoming rare rather quickly. So far, it seems like some of the Japanese lighting enthusiasts that I have been watching on youtube have been saying that clear mercury vapor lamps seem to be extremely rare nowadays after being discontinued in 2014 and they are often sold at extremely high prices like $75 USD for a single Iwasaki H100 mercury vapor lamp that I recently purchased off of Mercari. Here is an example of a translation of a video description that describes the rarity of Japanese clear mercury vapor lamps: “This is a video of a transparent mercury lamp, which is rare these days, being turned on. It gives off a unique bluish flash and gradually brightens to a white color. Even though it is 80W, it feels quite bright. It is a lot brighter than the 40W fluorescent type I used last time. I thought that this was probably because there is no fluorescent paint, but it exceeded my expectations in a good way. When used in a quiet environment, there is a slight humming sound from the transformer, and the top part gets hot. There seems to be a capacitor at the bottom, but the built-in capacitor has a lifespan so it is necessary to have a spare on hand.” Here is the video where I found the above description in particular: https://youtu.be/H0Br9AzeJuA?si=sxsuRtjg0BGlLQ6M
		Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #9 on: December 29, 2024, 04:38:37 AM » Author: Lumex120
This really does feel like the worst timeline sometimes.
		Logged

Unofficial LG Discord

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #10 on: December 29, 2024, 05:12:44 AM » Author: Baked bagel 11
I think that (and correct me if I'm wrong) 2024 has been a pretty bad year for hid lighting with cooper ending manufacture of their hid streetlighting and Panasonic discontinuing hid lamps too.
		Logged

Long live the Cobra Heads of America!

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #13 on: December 31, 2024, 03:47:06 AM » Author: Robotjulep
Quote from: Baked bagel 11 on December 29, 2024, 05:12:44 AM I think that (and correct me if I'm wrong) 2024 has been a pretty bad year for hid lighting with cooper ending manufacture of their hid streetlighting and Panasonic discontinuing hid lamps too. With 2024 bringing an end to HID lighting, I can imagine what it will look like by 2030. Maybe fluorescents might outlast the HIDs but LED will be the main source of light and that's inevitable. I don't mean to be too pessimistic about the situation but it is what it is unfortunately. On positive note, HIDs will probably still be available "under the carpet" instead of "in the wild" for a decent amount of time. Who knows? They might be even cheaper to buy because everyone wants LEDs.
		Logged

JDM lighting and car enthusiast.

	Re: Iwasaki ends production on all their HID lamps « Reply #14 on: January 01, 2025, 06:08:07 PM » Author: Baked bagel 11
That would certainly be nice, I can also see idiot ebay sellers selling them for hundreds because they're big, 'vintage' and 'rare'. Really annoys me when they do that to fixtures too.
		Logged

Long live the Cobra Heads of America!