LED Fresnels (Again)

[p.k.roberts]

I'm looking to replace some 500 and 650W fresnels with LED units and wondered if anyone has had any real-world experience of the following models;

 

Elumen8 ZF 150 LED Zoom Fresnel

Chauvet Ovation F-95WW

Spotlight 100W LED Fresnel (supplied by AC-ET)

 

I'd be looking at them 'in the flesh' myself before making any buying decisions, but there's nothing like getting feedback from real users. So what I'm really thinking about is build quality, fan noise, dimming curve/smoothness, how well the barn doors 'cut', flatness of beam and any general observations.

 

Thanks in advance.

[pjrails]

I replaced mine with Stagg King Par 10's, found them to be excellent but would advise puchasing barndoors as well to control the spread

 

LINK

 

HTH

PJ

[timsabre]

I replaced mine with Stagg King Par 10's, found them to be excellent but would advise puchasing barndoors as well to control the spread

 

LINK

 

HTH

PJ

 

I've used something very similar to that and it's nothing like a fresnel, more like a par can (fixed beam angle). Barn doors on it are fairly ineffective too except to reduce scatter.

[Paul Turner]

Having been product manager for spotlight in the Uk for a number of years, and knowing how they work as a company, for long term support of the product spotlight will win hands down, they have control over the product, and don’t buy it on spec from a factory in the Far East.

[gyro_gearloose]

That Stagg unit that PJ linked to can't really be called a Fresnel on account of it not having a Fresnel lens :) I wonder why the manufacturers didn't fit a lens? I imagine one could be made fairly cheaply from plastic if cost were an issue. I'm thinking of fitting a COB LED to one of our old knackered Strand Preludes just to see what quality of beam I can get. I'm hoping it will behave more or less exactly like a normal Tungsten Fresnel.

[timsabre]

That Stagg unit that PJ linked to can't really be called a Fresnel on account of it not having a Fresnel lens :) I wonder why the manufacturers didn't fit a lens?

 

It doesn't need a lens because the beam is created by a parabolic reflector - hence it being more "par" like. I don't think a fresnel lens would make much difference to the output. I have also seen one of these with a holographic lens (appears to be just a thin plastic sheet, but has magical laser etching) which does about 60 degrees without the lens and 30 degrees with it.

 

Post photos if you do your Prelude experiment, it'd be interesting to see. Most LED fresnels seem to take the approach of just putting a COB led where the filament would have been.

[ferretwrangler]

We have a number of the eLumen8 units in hire stock both the smaller 60w and the larger 250w I have to say they are well made, a decent colour and good flat output

[alistermorton]

I'd be interested in how useful the white LED fixtures are if you start gelling them. Given the discontinuous spectrum you typically get from LED sources I guess you'd need to experiment somewhat, and the range of LED specific gels is very limited compared with traditional ranges.

[J Pearce]

It's tempting to convert a few of the Patt 123s I have kicking around. Maybe a summer project...

[timsabre]

It's tempting to convert a few of the Patt 123s I have kicking around. Maybe a summer project...

 

Getting the cooling right is the main difficulty... a CPU heatsink with attached fan is the easiest way but hard to fit in some housings, and you need to somehow arrange to draw in cool air from outside.

[gyro_gearloose]

Looks like someone has already made LED Fresnel conversions. Have a look at the Visionsmith website. The conversions seem to be powered solely by conventional dimmers, and yet seem to have fans and other electronics built in to them. It would be interesting to see how they work. Could they be using mains voltage LEDs?

 

They seem to be targeted at the film and photography industries where you might only have a small number of lights lighting your subject, whereas you might have dozens of Fresnels in a typical theatre rig. The conversions currently only fit Arri units and are far too expensive. Assuming they fitted our mix of ADB, CCT, and Strand Fresnels, it would cost north of £20,000 to relamp our lighting rig!

[timsabre]

Targeted at film because you don't need a nice fade to/from black, just an ability to change the brightness. There's still no way of getting a fade in with a mains dimmer on an led.

[sandall]

Looks like someone has already made LED Fresnel conversions.

I remember seeing this, or something very similar, in a 2kW Arri, attracting attention at a trade show a couple of years ago, but with no indication of when it might be market-ready or what it might eventually cost.

[p.k.roberts]

I think, 'reassuringly expensive' is the term I'd use - some euro prices here;

 

https://innport.eu/en/301-visionsmith

[BenEdwards]

Looks like someone has already made LED Fresnel conversions. Have a look at the Visionsmith website. The conversions seem to be powered solely by conventional dimmers, and yet seem to have fans and other electronics built in to them. It would be interesting to see how they work. Could they be using mains voltage LEDs?

 

They seem to be targeted at the film and photography industries where you might only have a small number of lights lighting your subject, whereas you might have dozens of Fresnels in a typical theatre rig. The conversions currently only fit Arri units and are far too expensive. Assuming they fitted our mix of ADB, CCT, and Strand Fresnels, it would cost north of £20,000 to relamp our lighting rig!

 

The relamp brand of LEDs are verry good and used by many video people for Arri Frenels but not sure if they fit well in stage lights, but the lamps they use are simeler so probably. Think a 650w is around £700. They do daylihht and tungston. Think the light quality is good.

 

Wondering what the lux equivelent for something like a strand 650w is?

 

Ben