Karel Bata

You've just made me add a wire brush to the equipment list. Place needs a good swep anyway!

I'll PM you.

Such a range of prices to be found on the net. SAB, aka Working At Height Solutions, seem the cheapest by far. But are they any good? https://www.working-...olutions.co.uk/. I was going with Flints, but they stopped stocking scaff towers. . While I'm here, Flints only rent out 3m and 6m lengths of aluminium scaff. I'd have to buy the shorter lengths I need cut to size for me. Not ideal. Anywhere else to go to rent aluminium scaff? I'm in London.

Well that put me off. Thanks guys! Though... I could always buy it on the Amazon site and send it back if it really is that bad.

Stumbled across the 'Sol Custom Image Gobo Logo Projector Light by Gear4music' https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Sol-Custom-Image-Gobo-Logo-Projector-Light-by-Gear4music/2ITK Anyone tried this? Only £45. Probably too dim for stage work, but it could have its uses, and I am curious...

Interesting stuff. It's fun to experiment isn't it? I think the mirrorball is a very underrated piece of lighting kit. I'm still discovering it's potential. (Geddit?) Gonna try out my star idea soon. I wonder how much it would cost to get a front-silvered mirror ball made?

Not really. If you stand where the mirror ball is (or hang from a lighting bar next to it, but I recommend standing ) you will see all of the light source, not just a portion. This is what the mirrorball 'sees' and reflects. The optics of this is quite complex and counterintuitive. I have a mirrorball next to window right here, and it's sunny. On the wall next to the window the images are rhomboids, distorted squares: But on the wall opposite (behind the camera) they are circular - where the little mirrors act as pinhole cameras and create a blurred image of the sun. You can see the transformation as they turn into circles beginning in the pic on the right hand side. So if your lamp has a circular exit for the light, as most do, you would see circular dots on the stage floor. If it's rectangular you should see squares. In theory, if you put a large star shaped cutout into the gel frame holder you should see stars. Anyone ever tried that? It would be like that trick for creating heart-shaped bokeh in a camera - You should be able to do that with a mirrorball. I might give this a try. Someone could write a book on this!

And (following on from adam) lights placed closer to the ball produce patches (rhomboids even!) that are out of focus. Sharp edged shapes are much more distinct. Try using a laser beam - the effect is awesome! You'll need a lens to defocus the beam slightly.

I rather like the Chauvet pinspot https://www.amazon.co.uk/CHAUVET-DJ-LED-Pinspot-Light/dp/B003N7BCFE/ref=sr_1_5 A surprisingly punchy little light. You can buy additional lenses on eBay to change the focal length to get a really tight beam. I'd be curious to know how well this performs next to the higher powered LEDJ fixture from prolight.

Thanks!

I'm only going by the spec sheet the OP posted - see up top. I've no idea how reliable Ledj fixtures are, but if the spec says 400Hz and it turns out not to be I'd send it back.

OK, it's drapes. But it's also got lights! And starcloths are in the LX dept. aren't they? So I've got a 3 - 3.4m drop. One is 8 - 10m width, and possibly another of 5m. Can be constant or (preferably) flickering. Hire period of a month. Any suggestions? Many thanks.

You're in the UK with a 50Hz mains source? But actually that shouldn't really make any difference as the unit gives the LEDs a 400Hz refresh rate. So is your camera perhaps set to 30fps, or (a bit fancy) 24fps? Try 25 or something that divides into 400, and the shutter set to 180 degrees. The lamp could be faulty. It happens.

Sorry for delay. Seemed polite to come back and follow-up. Good questions Ray. I've got eight(!) of these projectors - though two are now dead. They used to go for $2k, but that's plunged since because they're pre-HDMI. I was gifted two and then bought more on eBay. They're compact, light, trouble-free, and they allow you to take out the color wheel thus increasing their rated 3k Lm to monochrome 4k, which is perfect for a lot of what I do. Why put the vents on the bottom? So, upside-down... Your post worried me. I have used these several times upside-down for a few hours with no probs. And the top is flat - it just invites you to flip it over. However I looked in the manual, and there's no mention of flipping it. Nor anything saying not to. Nada. A bit of an oversight methinks. I searched on the web for the lamp specs (which I couldn't find - lamp is U5-200 if anyone's a genius at this!) but the lamp doesn't look the type where it make any difference. And I'll be running in eco mode so it won't be at max heat anyway. And I'll keep spares on tap. Cheers!

Thanks for the input. The projector will be secured on top of the ply, which will be U-bolted to the scaff. The scaff will protrude by 1m, and the projector weighs 2kg.