CYM wash lights

[matt freeman]

for our school production of joseph, im considering hiring cym wash lights.

the colour mixing will be very useful, but I dont need them to move. ive found the highend colour command, which I like the look of and im wondering what other people use for cym washs, ive had a google and I havnt found much thats usefull.

the design is only in the "what if I did...." stage, nothing is final so im not really after replies that say "are you sure you need cym wash lights" because no im not sure at all. id jsut like to know whats out there and what people think of them.

 

thanks in advance

 

matt

[niclights]

I've also looked into the colour command before. Quite tempting. IIRC there is the option of running metal halide & mechanical dimmer or tunsten/halogen. Always useful to have the colour temp. options.

 

Other than the obvious options of scrollers/generic fixture attachments, have you considered LED for this - something along the lines of the SGM Palco?

[jimbo7744]

Hi Matt,

 

For school productions (and I don't mean that in a derogatory way) I think Mac 300's are the best option. Very cheap to hire (about 25/30 quid a day), decent light output, fairly light if they are being hung and low on DMX channels if your restricted on them. Clay Paky CP400's work well is you just want a non-mover colour changer with CMY. The High End colour comands might be expensive thou.

 

LED is the way to go if you don't have any heavy mains at all, but the cost may be prohibitive. I agree with niclights that the palco's are a good fixture, Gradav have some in stock. Also heavy frosted Pixlepars work a treat as long as you have a good throw distance.

[Matt Riley]

have you considered LED for this

I don't know about you guys, but I've struggled to make LED's work for lighting real people - I find that the light is a bit harsh, instead using it for cycs and architectural lighting.

 

I quite like the Martin Robo 400s, as they're quite a lot more ubiquitous than the other (non mover) alternatives - and thus heck of a lot cheaper. They are discharge sources though, and mechanically dimmed, but apart from those limitations they work well.

 

HTH,

 

Matt

[johnhuson]

Have you considered, if budget isn't great a three colour RGB wash with Fresnel's, if you rig the fixtures pretty tight to each other at each position then you can achieve basic colour mixing. Though not as good as having one source! Scrollers are certainly worth considering if you don't want the effect to move. Only issue with scrollers is if you want to achieve a smooth transition from one colour to another, can pretty much be done if the two colours are next to each other but not if they're several frames away!

[SceneMaster]

I think Mac 300's are the best option. Very cheap to hire (about 25/30 quid a day), decent light output, fairly light if they are being hung and low on DMX channels if your restricted on them.

 

I have always found Mac 300s to be unreliable and difficult to work with, is that just my experience or do other people have difficulty with them as well? Having tried the new Mac 250 wash I don’t think I will go back to the 300s. The 250 wash seems much more reliable and the light output seems far greater than the 300s (probably due to it be a new fixture design) but I would have still have expected a high level of reliability from the 300s.

 

Sorry to have taken things off topic... :)

[dbuckley]

In another thread hereabouts I've recommended the color merge, it's approximately(*) a 1K fresnel that changes colour and beam angle, with a normal lamp so it dims exactly as you expect. It's wired and controlled exactly like a scroller. I also mentioned the RoboColor, which is a discharge projector affair, and thus mechanically dims, but has optical properties quite diferent to a fresnel.

 

They are two different lights, but for wash, in my opinion, I'd give the color command the job every day of the week.

 

Edited to add: (*) I say approximately as the lamp isn't 1K, its 750W or 800W or something thereabouts.

[whitlock]

robe make some static cmy lights - the ColorMix series - they are discharge lamps

 

I haven't seen these in uses so can't comment on how well they perform

 

simon w

[StevieR]

I regularly use CMY wash for theatre now - mainly MAC250 Wash and MAC600's. However, as you are planning to hire you are probably going to be restricted with what you can hire from your local suppliers so it may be worth going round them first and find out what is available. They should also be able to offer demos of the equipment so you can guage its suitability.

[Tomo]

The Tourwash units are pretty good - they should be cheaper to hire than the MAC equivalents, if your local suppliers have them.

[niall]

High end Studio colours, we had two 275s in St andrews and they are great for washing. Really good spread on them.

[matt freeman]

we hired high end studio colours 2 years ago and they were very good. but at this stage I don't think I need them to move, so I thought it would probably be much cheaper to have wash lights that don't move.

I still like the look colour commands, but ill have to find out where I can hire them from.

 

more thinking required, which will have to wait two weeks. I have AS levels to suffer instead. what fun :)

[Sam_Lowers]

Matt

 

personally I really would recommend Robe to you. I am currently lighting a concert in college using:

2x 250XT wash

3x Mac 300 wash

 

the robes are very impressive and fast. they are smarter faster and more reliable units than the macs by far.

 

it all depends on budget. if you are looking to hire moving heads then viking lighting in Norfolk are very cheap and their kit is well looked after, it depends on where you are based - you could do delivery.

 

out of interest what desk are you running this all on? when I lit Joseph at the start of the year I used a 520i and you are right having CMY is very useful for this show but can take a lot of time to program!

 

sam

 

Ps. has anyone else worked with 250XT washs before? what do you think about the Manuel lens and how big the beam angle is (mainly compared to a mac 300)

[gareth]

what do you think about the Manuel lens

Is that the one that you have to get as an optional extra, which they ship over from Barcelona?

[J Pearce]

Have you considered a generic lantern with a ChromaQ Cascade on the front?

 

They work very well with S4 Pars, and will be a lot cheaper than a moving head.