I think you mean ANSI M80.
The M80 ballast will likely give you better results for most of the bulbs as it is the closest to the specs needed by the European bulbs we seem to use mostly.
18 months lifespan though? I don't think you'll find that with any bulb except for maybe the Iwasaki's. The bulb will fire, of course, but the spectral drift or whatever it is would be noticeable far sooner than that.
If I could choose any ballast I wanted to run my 250's, mogul or not, I'd choose the M80. The M58 is an older design, most bulbs we use in the hobby these days have difficulty starting on the M58's. I would definitely not go out of my way to buy an M58 if I had the M80 already.
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-- Tony
My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
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