A narrow spot needed...

[david.elsbury]

personnaly I would avoid pinspots and profiles as I feel the effect looks very yellow...

could u not use colour temp correction filters to make a nice steel white beam?

[MattH]

Hi all,

 

I think the cheapest and possibly best solution (without golden scans etc - calm down lads) is the AR111 lamp. Anyone who has dined at pizza express will recognise them from the trademark table bounce they produce. 12V 50w @ 4 degs, very cheap, very bright, white light and easy to power from a birdie tx.

 

Prices around £4-6 for lamp + TX, you could probably retro fit an old pin spot.

 

HTH

 

Matt

[James]

I've had some of my best mirrorball results with 2 Solar 250's flown either side at short range. I appreciate you probably don't have these to hand but in case you do...

 

I ran them switched obviously as they are fan cooled...

 

James

[Mush]

Worth pointing out that Beamlights of all types are generally low voltage to keep the filament short and compact.

 

This keeps most of the light emitting bit in the focus of the parabola.

 

Bigger voltage/wattage PAR 36s lose the pinspot effect, you want a bigger reflector as well, and then a bigger mirrorball.

 

Projecting a gobo on to a mirrorball will give you lots of seperate mini gobo images flying around, can be quite cute.

[bruce]

Resurrecting a 16-year old thread :)

 

Lots of chat above about the best way to light mirrorballs.

 

16 years later, what’s the best option? Are there LEDs that can compete on effect (and price) with traditional PAR-type lights for this application?

 

Or do I stick with the crate of Par36 and ACLs (and dimmers) that I currently have?

 

I currently need to buy some new ACL lamps (those low voltage filaments are chunky enough to last for ages, but unfortunately someone dropped a couple of them recently and broke the glass...) - looking at what the alternatives might be.

[Ynot]

The answer can depend on whether you want a dedicated lantern to hit the mirror ball or if you can work a mover into the mix to hit it as needed.

The much higher power in a tight focussed mover is my preferred option when designing shows that want the MB effect and the most recent choices have been Mac Quantum (LED) profile that can depend on whether your design will allow a close enough hanging point to cater for the 12 degree minimum beam on the Quantum without too mush wall splash behind the ball. Or whilst not being LED, the still low-ish power Robe Pointe (insert whatever beam light you can get hold of) that one blows an ACL well out of the water when it comes to MB effect. And with the much tighter beam angle can do the job from quite some distance. :)

[bruce]

For my immediate needs, I’m looking at fixed lantern rather than a mover - although good to know what the options are. Ideally, I’m looking for something with the focussed intensity of a mover, but in a fixed compact chassis, ideally nearer the price point of a pinspot. But you can’t have everything, I suppose :)

[adam2]

The problem with ACLs is you'd have to run x amount of others (It's normally 8 together I think) in order to be working at 240v!

 

Stu

 

 

Or use a transformer.

 

 

 

 

 

For bright, narrow beam, and low cost, consider vehicle lighting equipment.

 

Look for inexpensive after market car spotlamps that use a 55 watt halogen bulb. Look for units with a plain parabolic reflector and a plain clear front lens. Headlights are not suitable, they give a carefully designed beam, spot lights or front fog lights are what you need.

 

Some types even come with a blue front lens to increase the colour temperature. The narrow beam angle means less light wasted and a 55 watt lamp may be bright enough. The low cost makes multiple units affordable.

 

For full brightness you will need a 14 volt transformer, not 12 volts. 15 volts will be brighter still. Avoid connecting them in series due to being earth return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kgallen]

Depending on quite how bright you need, I’ve taken to using 1 or 2 of these. Tight beam angle means you’ve some flexibility in hanging position. Might be too tight if you have a mirror ball over about 50cm.

 

https://m.thomann.de/gb/stairville_cb_100_led_color_beam.htm?o=0&search=1580028344

[musht]

Different optic, as suggested in different topic

 

https://prolight.co.uk/product/ledj233

[Karel Bata]

I rather like the Chauvet pinspot https://www.amazon.co.uk/CHAUVET-DJ-LED-Pinspot-Light/dp/B003N7BCFE/ref=sr_1_5 A surprisingly punchy little light. You can buy additional lenses on eBay to change the focal length to get a really tight beam. I'd be curious to know how well this performs next to the higher powered LEDJ fixture from prolight.

[sunray]

I've just remembered from my school days we had an additional lens which dropped into the colour frame [ or possibly the GoBo slot] in the patt 23 which gave a strange non-focusable spot.

 

Our mirror ball was about 2 ft diameter and the light bars about 15ft away and the beam created a shadow of the ball with a haze around it. The centre of the beam on the ball was incedibly bright but the intensity faded rapidly by the edges of the ball. Very much like focussing the sun with a magnifying glass.

 

[adam2]

I feel that a couple of posts are missing the point regarding beam angle. A very narrow beam is required in order to obtain bright moving spots of light reflected from the mirror ball. A wider beam lantern placed closer to the mirror ball will give very poor results.

 

The light from a wider beam lantern when reflected from the ball will continue to spread with the same beam angle. Instead of small bright spots of reflected light you will get large dim patches of light, that may be hardly noticed.

 

This I demonstrated to a sceptic by showing that a 3 watt LED maglight directed at a mirror ball gave far better results than the 50 watt GU10 lamp installed for the purpose.

Edited January 27, 2020 by adam2

[Karel Bata]

And (following on from adam) lights placed closer to the ball produce patches (rhomboids even!) that are out of focus. Sharp edged shapes are much more distinct. Try using a laser beam - the effect is awesome! You'll need a lens to defocus the beam slightly.

 

 

[sunray]

I feel that a couple of posts are missing the point regarding beam angle. A very narrow beam is required in order to obtain bright moving spots of light reflected from the mirror ball. A wider beam lantern placed closer to the mirror ball will give very poor results.

 

The light from a wider beam lantern when reflected from the ball will continue to spread with the same beam angle. Instead of small bright spots of reflected light you will get large dim patches of light, that may be hardly noticed.

 

This I demonstrated to a sceptic by showing that a 3 watt LED maglight directed at a mirror ball gave far better results than the 50 watt GU10 lamp installed for the purpose.

I've just remembered from my school days we had an additional lens which dropped into the colour frame [ or possibly the GoBo slot] in the patt 23 which gave a strange non-focusable spot.

 

Our mirror ball was about 2 ft diameter and the light bars about 15ft away and the beam created a shadow of the ball with a haze around it. The centre of the beam on the ball was incedibly bright but the intensity faded rapidly by the edges of the ball. Very much like focussing the sun with a magnifying glass.

 

Basically the mirrors spots will be portions of the original light source. So as you say a point source narrow beam will give the best small spots if that is the effect you desire.

Our school patt23's with the additional lens produced a small bright spot with a ring which faded away rather than stopped dead. Moving lights closer to the ball normally produces bigger reflected spots.