dave singleton Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 We recently took delivery of the Martin smartMacs for hire. They are amazingly useful fixtures for hire, dispite this not being what they are intended for. I'm already spec'ing them for jobs where budgets are tight (only £45 a fixture, a week), wide angle projection is a must or where something very bright is required considering all aspects must be small. I have a funny feeling they will be making their money back very quickly on the whole. The interest in them has been amazing! How do other users rates them? Any major draw backs people have found? We have worked on a few aspects already to make them slightly more hire proof but I'm very interested in what others have to say. Is it something people are interested in using for design work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 They just look like slighty bigger mini mac's to me! £45 isn't that low. I would like to have a look at them though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Not seen the Mini Mac close up as yet, but on the price I'd agree that £45 is NOT particularly low a price. I can hire a Mac 250 Entour for only a fiver more..... So I doubt I'd be rushing to hire a smaller lantern for that price just yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave singleton Posted June 3, 2008 Author Share Posted June 3, 2008 Whilst I'm all to aware of prices people can get things for, this is our list price. Talking to someone goes a long way if you'd like something... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundiesam Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 having just watched the video on the martin proffesional website I have to say that the smartMAC looks amazing the whole design looks amazing. being able to change the gobos without having the dismantle the fixture is such an amazing idea. sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXbydesign Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 The SMARTmac , is just so good for coporate jobs , particually on-set. The advantage of having power/data coming in from the bottom makes for such a clean stage where u can have any number of the things sat on the floor with no cables anywhere. Of course you could end up with deck with lots of holes in it! - but we made some custom sheets with "hole-fillers". Once covered anyway - you woudnt know. Great for pillars and plinths etc as well. Optics are sharp and clear - good colours and standerd gobos. No fans as well makes them usefull for small theatre gigs. I think they are a great little unit, but will be nice to see the price drop a little once they have been around for a while Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 I'm wondering whether they'll be looking to extend the non-fan assisted heat management to larger lanterns in the Mac range. I doubt it will be easy, but if they can indeed improve the range to include at least the 250's then that would be a big step forward... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Lawrance Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Those heatsinks do get mighty hot though. (guess how I found out?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a917917 Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Not seen the Mini Mac close up as yet, but on the price I'd agree that £45 is NOT particularly low a price. I can hire a Mac 250 Entour for only a fiver more..... So I doubt I'd be rushing to hire a smaller lantern for that price just yet. where do you hire mac 250 entours for a fiver out of interest?thanksa917917 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete LD Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 where do you hire mac 250 entours for a fiver out of interest?thanksa917917agree that £45 is NOT particularly low a price. I can hire a Mac 250 Entour for only a fiver more..... Spot the extra word..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 where do you hire mac 250 entours for a fiver out of interest?thanksagree that £45 is NOT particularly low a price. I can hire a Mac 250 Entour for only a fiver more.....Spot the extra word.....<chuckles>My local supplier - CSR Lighting - though I may get a slightly better rate as a regular customer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frazer Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Can I ask how you have flight cased your Smart Macs? We have recently bought a few for install job after being demonstrated them by a Martin rep. However at the time he could not think of a cost-effective way of flightcasing them because the gobo hatch got in the way if stored in the usual way (head facing down, held in place by the base) I personally think they are fantastic - the only downside is that they don't have a variable dimmer (it has a crude variable shutter) which is disappointing for theatre LD's who want a small, silent moving head. Frazer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Re. Flightcase's for SmartMac's: Not been up close & personal with these fixtures yet, but from looking at the pictures I've seen, it looks like it shouldn't be hard at all to case them VL2000 style.. By that I mean, head in the horizontal position when in the case, similar to how VL2000 cases store the heads, or at least, the vast majority of VL2000 cases do. Or is there some old copyright stopping people from having flightcase's that store the heads in that position... TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if there were, I've heard funnier/more odd stories over the years! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave singleton Posted June 3, 2008 Author Share Posted June 3, 2008 Flightcases are currently available from 5 star for this product (much like any other - they like a challenge). Martin have been researching possible flightcase options but as far as I know have nothing in production yet. I believe this is due to them not realising the demand that the rental market would have for these fixtures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 If they didn't design them for rental it sounds like they might not of designed them to be moved much. I wonder how long they will last in a rental stock before then meet their end!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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