Chauvet F-415FC vs Elumen8 MP-180

[Jaixom]

Hi all, it's coming up time for when I have to order things under the current budget, and spec out what I'd like for the next one at school.

 

Does anyone have any experience with either the Chauvet OVATION F-415FC 6" fresnel, or the Elumen8 MP-180 Fresnel ?

 

Other than the obvious differences such as a different beam angle zoom range, size, etc. Does anyone have any experience or opinion on the quality of light and colour that either produce? We will be using them in pretty much a purely theatrical context.

 

We're a mostly conventional rig still, with the grid much lower than ideal (about 3.5m height). We did upgrade the lighting board this summer from an ETC Express 72/144 to an ETC Ion Xe 20, and I purchased our first LED fixtures, 4x Altman AP-150s which have been already very useful for washes and saturated colours during drama classes.

 

Thanks in advance!

[J Pearce]

The ovation is a better built product, from a larger company who I understand to have a better support system (please correct me if I am wrong).

With your grid height the wider zoom of the ovation may be more useful to you.

[MarkPAman]

Not used either, but the Chauvet seems to have the beam angle controllable by DMX, whereas the Elumin8 has a purely manual control.

 

I do have some (far more basic) "zoomable" lights and find it's not as useful a feature as I thought it would be, but YMMV.

[Stuart91]

from a larger company who I understand to have a better support system (please correct me if I am wrong).

 

I've sold and maintained kit from both Chauvet and Prolight, both are fine in my opinion. Not sure about size, but one of the things I like about Prolight is as a dealer I can call up and speak directly to the service engineers. They have been very open with information and helpful - difficult to pull off with the lower margins compared to "branded" kit.

 

With your grid height the wider zoom of the ovation may be more useful to you.

 

I'd agree with that. It might be useful for the OP to compare with the angles available on their existing lanterns.

 

I've never been a fan of motorised zoom - it's just one more thing to go wrong - and without remote control of the pan and tilt, being able to control the zoom is less useful.

[Jaixom]

Thanks everyone for the input. I was leaning more towards the Chauvet because I think they have better service representation in Asia. All good points re: zoom range with our relatively low rigging height.

 

@MarkPAman/@Stuart91 - The Altman AP-150s are motorised zooms, so far I've used the zoom function a fair bit in a Year 10 immersive, surrealist unit that they are currently using, but yes I agree it's usage is limited without turning it into a full moving head... but for certain effects it's quite nice to have.