Clay Paky followspots

[Ollie]

Once again another followspot enquiry!

 

Was looking around, at various manufacturers and as the clay paky moving heads are supposed to be the best in the market I was wondering what the spots are supposed to be like?

 

http://www.claypaky.it/english/fr_products.htm

 

I have more experience of the RJ range and was wondering if the Clay Paky spots are any competition?

 

any help would be cool

 

thanks

[gareth]

Absolutely no contest - anything from the RJ followspot range will £$%& all over any Clay Paky followspot. Chalk and cheese. Robert Juliat are, in my experience, the best followspots that money can buy.

[Neil Frazer]

Absolutely no contest - anything from the RJ followspot range will £$%& all over any Clay Paky followspot. Chalk and cheese. Robert Juliat are, in my experience, the best followspots that money can buy.

 

Ill Second that. I have seen the shadows in use and they have a colour wheel instead of a magazine. Pretty useless for theatrical work. They were talking about a CMY version but I don't know if anything came of it. R&J offer, in my opinion, the best range of spots available for all but the large scale stadium applications. Wouldn't use anything else unless I had too.

 

(And who says Clay Paky heads are the best on the market?)

[Ollie]

There was a post on a topic here a while back saying that the clay paky moving heads are at the top and a number of people I have spoken to have agreed. Why do you not agree?

[gareth]

I didn't say I didn't agree with the suggestion that CP make very good moving heads (with the exception of the StageColor 300, which is a pile of pants). If you were asking about moving heads, I might agree (they're good, but I wouldn't say they're the best right across the board). But you're not - you're asking about follow spots, which are a different beast. And RJ ones are better than CP ones. Any further questions?

[Liam FitzG]

I would definatly go with RJ in terms of output and optics; however the only thing I don't like about them is the strerength of the outer shell. I have found the mid range spots (Buxie / Foxie etc.) to dent very easely. Even in a padded case they can dent. We have had several instances of the lens mounts denting out the pannels when the weight of the spot presses against the padding of the case.

 

Liam

[paulears]

Colour wise, we haven't had any serious problems - bearing in mind that our old Strands had old fashioned drop in colours, not a proper colour changer, so that despite having to go through colours to get to the one you want (which does look dreadful), being able to sit at the back and prod the yellow button during a blackout is quite good. The colour cycle also might, one day, get used - maybe?

 

The major problem, as we see it is hysteresis on the iris, it has a very small time lag, making adjustements more difficult than on a mechanical iris. The same thing applies to the blackout/dimmer. Snaps are not quite instant. They balance quite well, and are fairly easy for ne wops to get used to. They are not as good, optically, as the old strands, and if we could have kept them going, we would have.

 

We chose the things because of cost, AND because one op was left handed and had major problems operating a normal right hand spot. On the old strands we used a high tec stick to let the shutter be worked from the rear. The RJs appear to have dimples where it might be possible toswap r/h components to - but I'm not sure.

 

ironically, he left just after we got them, and everybody now is right handed!

[Pete]

Just because I remembered,Lycian spots are reversible for leftys!