Neil_m_123 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Hi all, Looking at getting new followspots for he venue I'm working in. Looking for some around the 1600/1800w range or equivalent LED (if it exists). Any views greatly.appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 What throw distance are you looking at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Doesn't really address the issue of wattage and light output - but from the point of view of build quality, nice features and operator-friendliness you can't beat Robert Juliat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Over panto this year we noticed that Followspot brightness really has to go up, because the stage lighting is getting brighter. The old notion that you always have a scene or two in full up seems to have gone and you can now have bright AND colourful scene all the time - 1200W discharge is not bright enough unless the follow spot position is close, and even 1800W discharge is only just good enough - and if you do have the LED version of a full up, then even 1800W has trouble cutting through. Last year I tried a couple of LED followspots and they were not really bright enough, but each month, it seems, the light levels are going up. I'm not sure there is an LED equivalent to a 1200W HMI yet, but it will come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleah Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 but each month, it seems, the light levels are going up. Sorry to cut in... Paul, do you mean the fixtures are getting brighter or just that the LD is demanding brighter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 I guess partly it's that scenes with saturated colours are becoming brighter because the adoption of LED means you can so you do if you see what I mean. Saurated primaries would have taken a lot of the output with gels, but with LED you aren't taking away light so you can get much stronger colours. Think how much blue out put you can get from a decent LED compared to say a PAR with congo or tokyo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 The actual fixtures Simon. LED sources seem to be on the up, power wise, up to 350W now on some of the new LED ones. The LD wanted the followspots to be very obvious in some scenes, and 1800W discharge was only just there. When one died and they used a 1200W backup (Both RJ) the 1200W didn't cut it at all - yet fro panto just two years ago, two 1200W units were perfectly fine. The number of LED sources has increased, and this has had a big impact. I'm always amazed at just how bright LED now is. 90W movers making old 575W discharge sources look dim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 The actual fixtures Simon. LED sources seem to be on the up, power wise, up to 350W now on some of the new LED ones. The LD wanted the followspots to be very obvious in some scenes, and 1800W discharge was only just there. When one died and they used a 1200W backup (Both RJ) the 1200W didn't cut it at all - yet fro panto just two years ago, two 1200W units were perfectly fine. The number of LED sources has increased, and this has had a big impact. I'm always amazed at just how bright LED now is. 90W movers making old 575W discharge sources look dim. Surely that's just a plotting issue though, you don't have to run everything at max when you are designing the show (although I can understand the temptation to do so). I think it is Francis Reid's stage lighting book that says you set the audience's expectation for the look of the show in the first few minutes, if you go in with bright saturated colours then the audience will not notice anything subtle further in, whereas if you start with gentle pastel colours at half intensity they will accept that as "normal" - and your followspots will cut through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Yep - it's perfectly possible to run everything dimmer, but the popular deep blue wash that can now be done can be amazing bright. You could pull back the master until the followspots can cope, but then you could have always bought 650W Fresnels rather than 1Ks, couldn't you? I tend to think that Francis's old advice made sense, but while he did do this quite frequently with his real love, Opera, he wasn't adverse to blasting away when he could in panto. As an example, this year I often had to arrange curtain down photo sessions with the cast, and finding bright white/light states I could use was quite difficult - most of the show was bright colours - blues and pinks predominating. Same thing with the focus - far less wash and more much smaller areas contributing to the 'whole'. It actually made the show video easier too as the lens on the camera spent most time between f5.6 and f8, which makes focus much easier - although here again, problems arise with the followspots because instead of burning out the images as they used to do, they couldn't actually be seen in some scenes. I'm also wondering if the extra brightness makes watching less tiring on the eyes as with higher levels comes less need to constantly refocus your eyes in the same way that camera sharp focus is easier with higher levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil_m_123 Posted January 18, 2017 Author Share Posted January 18, 2017 I have looked at RJS but wondered if there was anything else out there. The throw is around 25m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Allen Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I have looked at RJS but wondered if there was anything else out there. The throw is around 25m Hi Neil,Spotlight do a range of Follow Spots that are great value. There is a 2.5K Discharge and a 450W LED that should work for you. 450W LED Cheers,Bob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Bob - any idea of the price of this Spotlight followspot. I have a couple of 2.5K Spotlight profiles and they've been pretty good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Allen Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Bob - any idea of the price of this Spotlight followspot. I have a couple of 2.5K Spotlight profiles and they've been pretty good? Hi Paul,I will drop you an email if that is ok. Bob.AC-ET Sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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