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Robe, Clay Paky or Martin


ChazHS

Robe, Clay Paky or Martin?  

95 members have voted

  1. 1. Which is better?

    • Robe
      31
    • Martin
      47
    • Clay Paky
      17


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What do you guys think?

 

Personally I prefer Robe having seen their stand at PLASA this year, they made a much better effort in my opinon. I also find their products harder wearing and better built than Martin and CP.

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I don't really see how this is a valid poll?

 

Each company have products on par with each other. But then on the flip side they don't. I think it would depend upon application more than anything. Maybe if you were to have said specific products by each manufacturer I may have been able to vote properly.

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Personally I think Robe's stand at plasa this year was horrible, everywhere you looked there was a fixture doing some thing, there was way too much there you couldn't get an idea of what each fixture was doing. It was like someone had thrown up robe fixtures onto the stand space and gone "there you go that looks great". Too much "look how big our stand is and how many fixtures we've crammed onto it, aren't we great" and not enough actuall thought applied to telling potential customers what your fixtures will do for them.

 

I'd go with Martin, they are the market leaders for a reason, they're the best at what they do.

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Although Vari-Lite are also very good, very fast colour and gobo changes in the vl2000 spots, even though this wasn't part of the discussion.

 

companies like AFM, PRG, RML, and the other biggies, tend to have Martin, Varilite, Clay Paky and some Highend although ROBE is building up in some, since they have been used on a show a while back, which gave Robe great feedback.

 

just my thought of the day. BR alex

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I like Clay Paky - Their fixtures are legendary and built to the highest standards. I would say that it's a shame that their gobo wheels (with rotation) tend to be slower than with other fixtures of different brands. But apart from that, superior moving lights ever since the Golden Scan MK1 came out.
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We're using CP SuperScans from 1991 - they did a tour, then went to hire stock, we bought them in 1998. They still work fine.

 

We also have 2 M250s and 2 M300s new in 2003. One M300 is out of service with a broken fan, one 250 with a broken lens [heat damage] and the other 250 out with a tilt fault (not had time to investigate that fault yet).

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Hi,

 

Robe get my vote great fixtures and reliable as well. However I would also give a big thumbs up for Clay Paky gear as well, good build quality and again relaible I'm currently running a couple of super scan zooms and super scan mrg's both are early nineties fixtures and all of them still going strong.

 

Martin don't have a decent high spec high power moving mirror effect any more seem to concentrate on moving head fixtures, if only the Clay Paky Stage Scan was made by ROBE, then it would be at least half the price for what I consider an excellent fixture, just my £0.02 worth!

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Given that the first batches of Macs are nearly 10 years old and still working hard, then that is an indicator to the quantity sold and their longevity. In the same way there are Golden Scans and VL5's & 6's still touring and they've been about as long. Robe products have been about for about 3 years under they're own banner. There is no sensible way of comparing these products... Maybe in 10 years we'll see how many Macs and Robes are still going - or whether everyone is using half price copies from china!

 

Regards

 

Tim

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Currently very much in a robe phase, but only due to them being the main fixtures stocked by my local hire company.

 

Have liked the martin's in the past, but started going off of them when comparing the mac250s to the robe250at and likewise for the 575s, but now the 700 has impressed me. My main problem with the macs is that they do things differently to the robe's (bear with me a minute). If someone uses macs day in day out, and then has to use a robe, there will inevitably be certain things that they aren't happy with, likewise for the other way around.

 

Overall, they all (within a price bracket) do much the same as each other, I've never had major issues with the reliability of any, and so can only say based on current opinion. As such, and agreeing with many before, it seems a bit of a stupid topic. If you'd said which did we find better for a theatre environment, or quicker at pan/tilt, or brighter, and had narrowed the choices down a bit, then this could have been a useful and informative post, whereas with the poll as it is, it is very much someone's personal preference against someone else's.

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Horses for courses, surely?

 

The last time I saw a Clay Paky demo I was mightilly impressed. Last time I used them (quite a while ago, I admit), I was very impressed.

 

The last time I used Robe (all I could get at the time as all local hire companies were out of stock of anything else) they were completely wrong for the piece of drama I was lighting, appearing to be very much aimed at lighting bands.

 

The last time I used Martin (I've got 4 Mac 250 washes on a show this week - thanks MC!) I was very impressed with how much better they've become recently, from a high starting point.

 

The main point for me is that the Martin stuff is easily available, everyone knows it and if one fails it's easy enough to get another to replace it. Oh, and those Mac 250 washes do a wonderful Congo backlight wash! (if you don't believe me come and see Bat Boy in Maidstone!).

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I would have to say ClayPaky

 

Worked with all of the above makes for a couple of years and the ClayPaky fixtures seem to withstand more of a thrashing on big jobs.

 

They are also much more reliable than the Martin fixtures, and much easier to repair when things do eventually go wrong..

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perosnally I would always go with ROBE!

 

I have only been working with them for the last year or so but am personally finding them a lot more user friendly then Macs, cant comment on clay pakey as I have only had a play with them and never used them in a show enviroment.

 

I have found with Robe that they seem to be faster and smoother then Macs, especially the 575AT.

 

I am currently using a Robe 575XT in a show that I am lighting. unfortunaltly it came straite from a hire to me and because of that needs a little TLC. it is ex-hire so not mint condition but as far as I am concerned workes beautifly.

 

I am still waiting for the budget and oppertunity to have a go with the bigger Robes in the range that can compete with the Mac2k. has anyone used them before? what do you think?

 

also has anyone done much work with the 575AT? if so have you had any problems?

 

cheers

sam

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