Colin Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 I used the old mac 300 and mac 250 (I think) a while ago I was not as impressed by them as I was by the Robe 250s spots and washes. The Robes seemed to run faster, quieter and most importantly CHEAPER with the macs definitely not worth the money. However after a recent demo of the new 250s, 550s and 700 I was rather impressed. It looks like they have broken apart a robe, nicked the faster and quieter motor, nicked a high performance cooling system from a gaming PC, modularised everything so it can easily be pulled out (excellent for changing gobos and cleaning) and each of them seemed a little more solid inside (despite the fairly plastically outer shell). Now just waiting for an event to come along that has the money to hire them yet wouldn't have a problem with us pissing around an extra few hours trying to get them to work (a rather rare thing) NB: gobos isn't in the dictionary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted July 24, 2006 Share Posted July 24, 2006 This seems an appropriate place to add this question: We're intending to buy 8 new 250W moving heads this summer, and have more or less settled on three options: - Martin Mac250 Krypton - Robe ColorSpot 250 AT - Robe ClubSpot 250 CT The are being installed into our students union, and would be used for a mix of live music, club work (djs), theatrical & corporate type events. We have quotes for all of the above, all coming in at more or less the same price, so we can't differentiate on price. Any thoughts on which to choose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healeydave Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 We have quotes for all of the above, all coming in at more or less the same price, so we can't differentiate on price. I would think you have either got someone selling you the Kryptons cheap (to match the Robes) or they are overcharging for the Robes. As mentioned above, we had a bad experience with the Kryptons and ended up selling at a big loss just to get shot of them. The Robes which we got in place were a good £400 cheaper than the original Kryptons we purchased. This was a rare case of "you DONT get what you pay for", the cheaper units being the more reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GridGirl Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 We're intending to buy 8 new 250W moving heads this summer, and have more or less settled on three options: - Martin Mac250 Krypton - Robe ColorSpot 250 AT - Robe ClubSpot 250 CT To throw a bit of a spanner in the works, have you thought about the Mac250 Entour? They've got a second gobo wheel which gives you a lot more options. We've got a couple and I've been really impressed - I wasn't a fan of the original 250s but these Entours are pretty good. I know they're a bit more expensive than the Kryptons, but that extra gobo wheel is worth it, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 I'd agree with that - I've used the Entours, and they're great. Bright, fast, good features, apparently well-built (although I haven't used them in a situation where they have to stand up to a lot of abuse, e.g. on a tour where they're getting thrown in and out of a truck daily). If you can live without the iris, a MAC250 Entour can give a MAC500 a serious run for its money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Yeah, we had 4 entours on a long term hire for 6 months, and we were really impressed with them too, sadly they're a little bit too expensive for our budget. We also had 2 washes on the hire - all 6 of them were brand new when we got them, and we didn't have one fault with them in the time we had them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhaynes199 Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I haven't even used a Robe fixture yet but cannot help but get frustrated with them. The 250 washes aren't in WYSIWYG and Robe have not created a colour chart with which you can create Lee colours by keying in the various percentages of CMY. I am not looking forward to using them next week. Give me a Mac any day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trotboy Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I was very impressed with the Optima Matrix 300w Moving Head - basically a small Giotto Spot rebadged and very reasonably priced. A lot of great features including Prism effects, 3 pin & 5 Pin DMX in & out, etc, and a good punch for a small fixture. Only drawback is it's difficult to change Gobos quickly & easily, unlike on the Giotto - though I understand they are redesigning this aspect. Problem with all the budget units is support. When Martins go wrong, they will be sorted out - not so sure about many of the budget units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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