micromusic Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 Has anybody used these before? I can't seem to find out much about them either on the forums or google. I see mentions of Pilot 250s but not 300s... am I missing something really stupid? Are they the same manufacturer as www.pr-lighting.com? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 I had some Pilot 250s, and they just 'morphed' into the 300s. The odd thing was that they had a rubbery, rather than plastic finish, and were a bit nosier than the original mac 250s I had at the time. I rather liked them. Pearl River suddenly started being talked about as PR-lighting. I'm probably wrong, but was it Miltec who took over the UK side - I've not had any problems getting my 1200 followspots serviced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micromusic Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 so they are effectively the same thing? I found a manual for the 300, says it takes a 300W HTI dischage lamp. expected life 750hrs with colour temp 6500K. You'll have to excuse the ignorance but a lot of other similarly price ranged movers use 250 MSD.... I'm not really sure what the difference is, in terms of design, construction, expected life and output. or price. I'm trying to find old posts discussing different lamp types but not coming up with much :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 It looks like the 250 has more features: 2x gobo wheel where the 300 only has one.Effect wheel (beam angle/colour temp).Greater pan range.Faster shutter.Remote lamp/reset. IMO the 300W HTI is a better lamp (based on other fixtures) but there's not a lot in it. Remote lamp functions are very useful but the effect wheel, faster shutter and second gobo wheel less so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micromusic Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 Considering I'm looking for value over sheer performance I think I can live without effect wheels and faster shutters. Thanks for the info though. I'm a little more concerned about the lamps though. HTI seems to have a much lower life expectancy, lower brightness but more expensive? eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 I've just checked and I have a couple of different pdf manuals for the Pilot 250s - one dated 2003 and one 2005 - if they're of any use. The glass gobos from memory were quite good choices. The 2005 price list was as follows:INTELLIGENT LIGHTING LAMP RETAIL PRICEPR-2150 Pilot 150 Moving Head HTI 150W £ 699.00PR-2255 Pilot solo 250 Moving Head MSD 250W £ 999.00PR-2302 Pilot Wash 250 MSD 250W £ 999.00PR-2250 Pilot 250 Moving Head MSD 250W £ 1299.00PR-2575 Pilot 575 Moving Head MSR 575W £ 2699.00PR-2585 Solo 575 Moving Head MSR 575W £ 1799.00Pilot 575 Wash Moving Head MSR 575 W TBAPR-2900 Pilot 1200 Moving Head MSR 1200W £ 3599.00PR-2901 Pilot 1200 Wash Moving Head MSR 1200 W £ 3299.00PR-1201 Orland Scan HMI 1200W £ 1569.00PR-5010 Pilot Laser 150 150 Mw £ 5699.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micromusic Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 Basically I've been offered some 300s for a good price but not sure if this is the right thing to do. I'm not really worried about new rrp's, since I'm limited to the 2nd hand market. Question is will I regret getting the 300s cos the lamps are more expensive AND don't last as long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 How many? If you can get 4 fairly cheap, they can do nice things, and are quite usable. I really don't think I'd consider buying just two of anything now - I've done it quite a few times and it really limits what you can do, because with two of one type and two of another, they never quite match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micromusic Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 yep that's what I thought too. It would be four of them. And for only a bit more than a used pair of MAC250s. No comments on my lamp concerns...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenalien Posted June 17, 2011 Share Posted June 17, 2011 The latest Miltec catalogue for Pearl River products doesn't list the Pilot 300 (or the Pilot 250), just the Solo 250 and the Pilot Wash 250. I wonder if the Pilot 300 may have preceded the Pilot 250? I'd certainly rather have an MSD 250 lamp, with a 3000 hour life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrboo Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 But what ever you do dont try and take them apart to crean them as they are dont like it. they are the type of lights you buy and run them to the ground for the first year then pass them on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley R Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 If you want to search elsewhere for information you will see these lights advertised as Pure Reliability Pilot 300's not Pearl River. (Hey that's what it says on their flight cases, and on their website!) so this may help in your conquest for information. yes www.pr-lighting.com is their website. I own a pair of PR Solo 250's, cant fault them for their price and a fairly easy to clean, a great fixture with only a few downsides, the only reason I didn't go for the Pilot 250 was cost. Ive now had my Solo's for about 2 years and I don't in the slightest regret buying them. so far from what I've gathered the 300 HTI lamp is significantly brighter than the MSD 250 and thus you pay for it life expectancy. If the fixtures you are buying are from a band, I would be careful to inspect them first, I wonder what kind of maintenance schedule they have? (i.e. are the heads full of dust and dirt and is thus cooking all the components- Premature failure of Chinese parts) Oh and on the succeeding part (greenalian not finding them in a catalogue) so far what I've been told by the Australian distributor is that the Pilot line of moving heads is being superseded by the XL series. As the Pilot series was PR's "Mid-High Range" Movers, and the Solo was their "Budget-Mid Range" Movers. Now the XL Series is their High end line of movers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenalien Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 But what ever you do dont try and take them apart to crean them as they are dont like it. they are the type of lights you buy and run them to the ground for the first year then pass them on. Remind me never to buy any used lights from you, MrBoo! Like all lights with moving parts inside, they will repay careful regular maintenance - the rotating gobo holders need a drop of oil each every 100 hours or so, as well as the usual cleaning of the optics. If you don't keep the rotogobos lubricated, the extra friction will cause the teeth to get rapidly worn off the rotogobo drive wheel, which is a cog made of some sort of hard rubber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Basically I've been offered some 300s for a good price but not sure if this is the right thing to do. I'm not really worried about new rrp's, since I'm limited to the 2nd hand market. Question is will I regret getting the 300s cos the lamps are more expensive AND don't last as long? IF the offer is TOO GOOD (or currently involves the town name Berlin) the offer is too good to be true -read other posts on this forum recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Yep Miltec are the Pearl River agents, had good service off them. Maybe PR Lighting sounds more 'western'? They seemed to start off in the UK as an OEM for other companies and like Robe gradually made their own-brand more familiar over here. Like alot of mid-market brands these days, I find some PR stuff excellent and others definitely 'built-down' to a price. They did a range of budget stuff badged for Chauvet and Showtec, the Showtec barrel effects for example running abysmally hot with obscenely short lamp life as they seemed to have shoehorned a 250W lamp into a fixture designed originally for 150W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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