El-cheapo moving head advice

[Mr Steve]

Hello again,

 

I'm considering purchasing some kind of moving light out of my own pocket. They will be used in a school by myself, for a variety of events including nasty fashion shows, band nights, talent contests, orchestral receitals (sp?) etc. I'm just interested to know if anyone on here has used, or could recommend cheap moving heads/scans for such as use? I'd be after four units and would quite like rotating gobos (indexing not neccessary) and ideally a dimmer. I reckon I'd be looking at offerings from Futurelight / Abstract etc (yes, horrible disco tat). I'm after something with separate colour and gobo wheels, and that could cut through 650W-1kW tungsten.

 

Also, what el-cheapo desk would be good to use whith the disco tat suggested above?

 

Thanks in advance, if you have any ideas. Alternatively, if you want to give me some nice StudioSpots for the price of disco tat, get in touch :)

[Jivemaster]

You can do a lot with moving mirror lights for a lot less money. Ask the school if they will allow you to use your own kit, Their PLI may not cover it, their property insurance won't cover it. They will need to see that it is PATested even when new

[ChrisD]

I've been thinking of getting some dirt cheap scans too. Try Mojo Scan 2 or 3s, they were discussed recently in this forum iirc. and I think JB Leisure do them quite cheap (£200-£300ish), either with a discharge or otherwise bulb. My mate has got some Mojo Scan 1s and they look OK with a rig of 1k pars. They do struggle a little to look quite as impressive next to mac 500s but are great with a rig of Par 56s or such like. I'm guessing power isn't an issue for you, but these scans draw very little and aren't too heavy.

[robloxley]

Not an answer, but does it not make financial sense to hire rather than buy?

[ChrisD]

Scans are about £20-30 a week - nice ones, not scabby ones - and most hire companies only have non scabby scans. If you are going to hire 4 scans for 5 evens a year, you're looking at spending £600 and, you could buy 2 or 3 cheapy nasty scans for that. Admitidly, the scans you hire are going to be nicer and PAT-ted etc AND will come with bells on AND you don't have to maintain them so if you're only going to do 5 events a year where you need scans, then rob's right, hire probably is a better option.

[Jamtastic3]

I've got Mojo scan 1's as well - 4 of them. Used them in my last dance show upstage. They are good but I wanted to get Mojo 2's cos they have seperate gobo colour wheels, and also the pan is great but not as fast as the bigger scans on the market. Oh and are 250W.

I've also used Coemar e250 (???) moving heads. They were brill yet I'm not sure about the price, but I know they aren't expensive. About £500 I got them for.

[ian kirby]

Jamtastik

 

You got a bargain with your Coemar's the list price on a new Prospot 250lx thats our cheapest model is £1550

 

As well as being the importer for coemar I should inform the forum that we are the importer for Geni as well. Some guys here will probably know that some geni products are available through maplins high street stores. Maplin only sell the halogen version and only sell the model range up to the mojo series.

 

Geni have an excellent scanner series called Shiva's which retail for £400 and use MAST 200 lamps.

 

Ian kirby

Managing Director

LED-lites.co.uk

Ive put these details on in case anyone wants to call for a chat

01233 636688

[paulears]

Main snag with moving mirrors is the fact they 650-1Kare quite narrow beams - light output is compromised by low lamp output. - so widening it makes it even dimmer, hence why no low power scans have wide angle lenses. In fairness, even a 250 watt discharge fixture finds it difficult to punch through general stage lighting from a few 650-1K fresnels. For effect, more is best, but then a decent controller is required. The club style units do flashy flashy well, but lack the usefulness of a proper control - but they are hugely cheaper.

 

You are going to have to spend quite a bit, for (in my opinion) not a lot. And, what will you buy that will be good for everything? Maybe washes would be good for one show, profiles for another - too much compromise - hiring seems a better that will save money in the long run.