3W LED Zoom PARs

[jexjexjex]

Hi all.

 

This comes across as a bit of a product review, but it's not meant to be. These are just my thoughts on a product and I'm hoping some of you can throw your own experiences into the mix.

 

I've had one of these lovely newfangled LEDJ 3 Watt LED Zoom PARs on trial from Prolight for a couple of weeks. I believe Batmink are selling a similar unit (Identical bar the labels?).

 

Not exactly a "top end" product, but it seems solidly enough made, but the body seems to be upside down from the display/connection unit on the rear. Reason I say his is because with the gel frame retaining clip at the top of the body, the labels and display on the rear are the wrong way up.

 

Being a lower budget unit, there are no screw knobs to set the unit in position and the yoke is tightened up using wing nuts, but I suppose it would be easy enough to pick up some generic M8 knobs.

 

The cooler fan is fairly quiet, although how this would stand up to continual use would remain to be seen. The display on the rear of the unit seems easy enough to operate to set the unit to either one of the auto modes or to DMX, although setting the zoom function in auto mode is a bit wierd to do.

 

The green/blue LEDs are substantially brighter than my current 1 Watt LED PARs and I think we're almost at the PAR 56 level of brightness overall, although I don't have a light meter to check.

 

I'd describe the beam edge as being harder than a fresnel (More like a PC lens?) and what I have found is that there is a tricolour halo around the edge of the beam, although as with my other LED PARs, this can be removed and the beam edge softened slightly with a suitable piece of frost gel.

 

Although the unit claims to be "24 x 3Watt LEDs", I'm certain the reds are only 1 Watt, as the brightness almost exactly matches my current 1 Watt units. Although not a major issue for me, it makes trying to get orange/yellow colours a bit more difficult.

 

The zoom function, being motorised, doesn't 'snap' between spot and flood, but at about 1.5 seconds between the limits of each is still very useable. My only concern with this aspect of the unit is that the screw thead that is the zoom control sticks out of front of the body housing into the "fresh air" which would normally be occupied by a gel frame and could possibly get damaged. Rather than use gel to diffuse the beam, possibly a piece of suitably solid perspex would offer more protection.

 

These are just my thoughts and if anyone has actually used these items in anger, please give me your views as I'm thinking about buying some.

[James Remo]

A company I work for has a dozen of these, proving to be fairly robust units so far. 2 units currently in use on Underworld's floor package, as we ran out of Ipix satellites. I've had one failure, an easy fix, the lamp was airfreighted loose in a box, and a circlip came loose. Used to light a 2ft round by 20ft inflatable tube. Not as good as a pair of ipix, but good enough.

[prolightdesigner]

Hi.

 

I too have been considering adding a few of these units to my system. My concerns are the unit's brightness and the overall lifespan of the unit. I currently do not own any LED fixtures, but am seeing a nice oportunity to use these as a back fill. If I hung, say, 5 of these from an upstage truss 20ft high and pointed them to hit downstage, do you think they will be bright enough to produce a decently visible beam through haze?

 

Thanks,

-Jeff