Easy way to check your ballast/lumen output?

I have a strong feeling that my ballast is not pumping out the energy/lighting that it should be. Its a HPS SunSystem2 1k watt, got it on craigslist. I have a brand-new bulb to use, but I don't want to buy a light meter just to check one time to see if i need to new ballast or not . Taking it to the hydro store is not an option, due to the fact that the only one in my proximity has a dickhead cock snorting owner, so i choose to give him no business of any kind. what do you suggest? I have a Nikon D40x SLR camera, is there a way to somehow check through that?? just a thought..

mcinnc said:

I have a strong feeling that my ballast is not pumping out the energy/lighting that it should be. Its a HPS SunSystem2 1k watt, got it on craigslist. I have a brand-new bulb to use, but I don't want to buy a light meter just to check one time to see if i need to new ballast or not . Taking it to the hydro store is not an option, due to the fact that the only one in my proximity has a dickhead cock snorting owner, so i choose to give him no business of any kind. what do you suggest? I have a Nikon D40x SLR camera, is there a way to somehow check through that?? just a thought..

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You could use your camera to compare the two. Just meter at the same distance. For reference, the "sunny 16 rule" states that in direct sunlight if you set your aperture to f16, then your shutter speed will equal 1/ your iso. So Iso200 @ f16 @ 1/200th of a second would be the same as true sunlight which is the same as iso 4oo @ f16 @ 1/400th.

Just make sure when you compare you are the same distance. A slight change in distance will make a substantial difference. I would set the iso at about 400 and shoot aperture priority at f16 and then compare shutter speeds. I'm not sure if there is a break-in for hps lights but if so you should run the new bulb long enough to get past that for acuracy.

this of course will check bulb performance unless you have a 2nd ballast to compare too.

jed