tommulliner Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Oh, Stu reminds me of another niggle with the focusing knob. Whilst being quick to focus, it can mean that you can go from tight to full very quickly thus giving the lamp a jolt and popping the lamp. Some have been guilty of being a little heavy handed at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlin24 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 We own approximately 50 of the Source 4 Fresnels. Over all they are a very good unit. The beam of light is pretty flat, UNLESS they are zoomed fully out then the they turn into large donuts... In the rare occurrence this is required then pulling it back very slightly seems to fix this. The main bug bear though is the barn doors are a S**t design!! Ours frequently bend making it near on impossible to get into the runners on the fixture without forcing it which then causes further damage. We have also found that the nuts and used to hold the doors to the outer frame frequently come of leaving you on site with bits rather than functioning barndoors.. We have had to replace these ourselves with nylocks to prevent this. A very time consuming job that really could have been avoided with a little more thought. Finally and perhaps the most irritating "feature" of these barndoors is the weld points on the barndoor frames are really not very strong and on a couple of occasions now have snapped rendering the doors useful for the bin only.... For something that has quite a hefty price tag on it I would expect better. Especially from ETC. Keep in mind that Blitz mainly do high end corporate events and our kit is normally very well looked after and kept in excellent condition. Sub rental of these units is also not great, Hawthornes being one of the few other companies that stock in any great quantity. Not sure I will be buying into any more to be honest. Just my thoughts. I'm sure ETC reps read this forum and I'd be keen to hear their comments. RegardsAndy. Andy MahaffeyHead of Lighting Blitz Communications Ltd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley R Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 one other issue with them that I have found is the amount of spil out the front of the fixture around the barndoor when the gel frame is not in there, due to the round shape, and the square runners. If I remember correctly, there was somewhere else arround the front of the fixture that light seemed to spill out of. Trying to figure out how to change the lamp the first time you see one is also a bit of a head scratcher for a while, and even the 2nd time arround was still mystifying (due to a few month period between both lamps blowing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elarsen Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 one other issue with them that I have found is the amount of spil out the front of the fixture around the barndoor when the gel frame is not in there, due to the round shape, and the square runners. If I remember correctly, there was somewhere else arround the front of the fixture that light seemed to spill out of. Trying to figure out how to change the lamp the first time you see one is also a bit of a head scratcher for a while, and even the 2nd time arround was still mystifying (due to a few month period between both lamps blowing) Hi Ashley ETC is actually offering a special barndoor for the Fresnel with part number PSF1101 that has no light leaks at all and fit tightly to the fixture. From your description the doors you are using are made for the Source Four PAR (And correctly would need a colour frame behind it to prevent light leaks. You may get in contact with your dealer for further advice/ replacements Kind regards Erik LarsenSenior Product ManagerETC Ltd We own approximately 50 of the Source 4 Fresnels. Over all they are a very good unit. The beam of light is pretty flat, UNLESS they are zoomed fully out then the they turn into large donuts... In the rare occurrence this is required then pulling it back very slightly seems to fix this. The main bug bear though is the barn doors are a S**t design!! Ours frequently bend making it near on impossible to get into the runners on the fixture without forcing it which then causes further damage. We have also found that the nuts and used to hold the doors to the outer frame frequently come of leaving you on site with bits rather than functioning barndoors.. We have had to replace these ourselves with nylocks to prevent this. A very time consuming job that really could have been avoided with a little more thought. Finally and perhaps the most irritating "feature" of these barndoors is the weld points on the barndoor frames are really not very strong and on a couple of occasions now have snapped rendering the doors useful for the bin only.... For something that has quite a hefty price tag on it I would expect better. Especially from ETC. Keep in mind that Blitz mainly do high end corporate events and our kit is normally very well looked after and kept in excellent condition. Sub rental of these units is also not great, Hawthornes being one of the few other companies that stock in any great quantity. Not sure I will be buying into any more to be honest. Just my thoughts. I'm sure ETC reps read this forum and I'd be keen to hear their comments. RegardsAndy. Andy MahaffeyHead of Lighting Blitz Communications Ltd Hi Andy, I'm sorry to hear that you seems to have troubles with our Fresnel fixture.It sound to me like they are missing a focus stop which make they go beyond the limit and create the "donot effect" - OR you are using Source Four PAR Barndoors and not the PSF1101 Barndoors. Would it be possible for you to send me a picture of the barndoors you are using? You can send it to erik.larsen@etcconnect.com and I'll be happy to look into this. Kind regards Erik LarsenSenior Product ManagerETC Ltd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlin24 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Hi Erik, I hope all is well with you. The barn doors are the correct barn doors for the Fresnel and were bought specifically for the units. I will try and email you pictures showing my frustration with them. ThanksAndy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Andy, any chance you could share those pics on here too, just out of interest? We've been running 42 of these lanterns in our 'fleet' for a while now, and we've never had any barndoor issues - but having said that, the barndoors tend to stay in the lanterns pretty much all the time (apart from the occasions when they need to be taken out in order to flip the yoke over for stand-top use, which is a very minor bug-bear in itself!), and the lanterns generally stay in the grid of our studio theatre rather than being taken out on the road, so perhaps it's the more rigorous life that they endure in other situations which is causing the issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelysteph Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Sorry to resurrect an old thread. Is there any further information on the fix for the quarter-turn fastener? Secondly, I have one that refuses to open - it turns but won't disengage to allow the flab to open - any ideas apart from an hack-saw? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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