Hudson Redback Spider

Being based in a series of railway arches in Hoxton I guess we should expect the odd creepy crawly to pay us a visit, but today I found the biggest spider I’ve seen since leaving Australia in our operations department.

Before I go on I should point out that arachnophobia sufferers should probably not read much more of this particular blog as I fully intend to fill it with un-necessary images and references to spiders of all shapes and sizes. To be fair Hudson started this and I’m only joining in.

To start the ball rolling here is an image I took of “Harry” a huntsman spider that I shared my shed with for a few years in Melbourne, we had an understanding and he ruled the shed until I came in then would retire from my workbench to the celling where he would watch me with all eight eyes and pass me the occasional tool as required. Ok so he didn’t really pass me the tools but he did do a great job of keeping the other Australian bugs out of the shed. For this I tolerated him and even had some fun taking his portrait, as far as I know he is probably still there.

Now by Australian standards Harry the huntsman was quite a small specimen, only about the size of my hand, he had a bigger sibling living in the letterbox out the front who I really didn’t like but he did keep the junk mail from building up however even this one would be dwarfed by the Hudson Redback we now have living under the tracks with us here.

Like its namesake the Redback is small but packs a powerful punch weighing in at just 8 pounds (3.6 Kg) with a diameter of 3 ft (91 cm) that’s when open, it can produce 400 watts of light.

The Redback is a led fixture adorned with no less than 3456 LEDs distributed across its 8 hairy legs (sorry back to arachnids, the Hudson guys didn’t give it hairy legs really, and that’s a bit of a shame) As we would expect it has a colour temperature range from 2900 – 6300K with a CRI of 95 and is fully dimmable.

The whole unit can be used “naked” (that’s the light not you, but I didn’t say you couldn’t be) or can be fitted with a fabric reflector to make this the first parabolic led fixture that I am aware of. A snap grid is also provided before you ask.

Now Redback spiders have a nasty habit of squeezing themselves into tiny cracks and holes round the house and waiting for something to happen by that they can bite, they are able to fold themselves into a tiny ball of legs and fangs that belays their true size until its dinner time, the Hudson mimics this for travel with double jointed legs that allow it to be packed down to a diminutive 1 foot by 9 inch package. Thankfully the Redback spider’s habit of hanging round the Australian dunny seat is un lightly to be something the Hudson version becomes renowned for (well I hope so anyway)

So to sum up this is a new take on the LED lighting revolution we are experiencing taking the best of this brave new world of LED lights and mixing it with the good old parabolic reflector, I’m tipping its going to be much more popular than its venomous little namesake from down under and I give it a 10 out of 10 for my Brucie coolness rating. I presume if this one is the Redback then when Hudson make the next size up it may be called the Huntsman. The Hudson Huntsman has a nice ring to it I think and you heard it here first.

Just for the record the Huntsman is one of the largest species of spider in the world and as its name suggests actively hunts its prey, its mostly harmless to humans but is partial to the odd Redback spider hence my acceptance of Harry.

Now if I haven’t put you off yet pop in for a demo or hire it for your next shoot, we are the first in London to have one as far as I know and its already making a hit with our less arachnophobic customers. So come and give it a go.

Oh and if you happen to see a real Redback my suggestion is to STAMP on it.