soundlight
Well-Known Member
Aha! Finally, I'll soon have some real world LED comparison tests for ya. I just recieved a Chauvet COLORado 1 unit on demo from Chauvet (thanks go out to BillESC for arranging the demo). We will be testing the fixture against source fours and S4 pars with saturated gel, and testing for coverage in our space. I'll take lots of pictures, and give lots of notes on comparison as soon as I do the shootouts.
Just out of the box, it's a great fixture (we tested it out with our Pocket Console yesterday when it came), and it's got good functionality. Easy channel configuration is the first thing that I noticed: the first channel is intensity, the second is red, third is green, fourth is blue, fifth is basically an LED color scroller if you want to use some nice pre-mixed colors that Chauvet has loaded in to the fixture, and sixth is a nice effects package. Channels 7 and 8 do stuff that I really don't care about (auto programs and ID address). I was able to, without looking at the manual, look at the back of the fixture, set it in the proper DMX mode, and set the DMX address.
We turned it on, and were suprised that flickering of the LED's didn't start until below 5 or 6 percent. So, unless you're doing ridiculously slow color fades that take a color back to zero, there are none of the standard issues associated with flickering LED's while dimming. Also, down to about the same 5 or 6 percent, the unit has a very smooth dimming curve. This was the first thing that our TD noticed. Unlike other LED fixtures that seem to step up slightly each time, this fixture actually has a nice dimming curve all the way down to the afore mentioned 5 or 6 percent.
The unit has an attachable gel frame that we added a heavy frost to, and this helped to diffuse the beam and reduce the multiple color shadows. However, after getting about 12 feet away, the shadows stopped having noticable red, green, and blue components against the cyc when you wave your hand in front of it. I will take pictures to document this "color halation" effect.
The other nice thing is that if you're gonna be using it outdoors, all of the connetors are waterproof, screw-shut connectors (there are in and out adapters for DMX and power to break in/out of the waterproof connectors. The unit is suprisingly heavy for it's size, but not awkwardly heavy.
Anyways, more later after I have pics, that's all that I've got for now.
Just out of the box, it's a great fixture (we tested it out with our Pocket Console yesterday when it came), and it's got good functionality. Easy channel configuration is the first thing that I noticed: the first channel is intensity, the second is red, third is green, fourth is blue, fifth is basically an LED color scroller if you want to use some nice pre-mixed colors that Chauvet has loaded in to the fixture, and sixth is a nice effects package. Channels 7 and 8 do stuff that I really don't care about (auto programs and ID address). I was able to, without looking at the manual, look at the back of the fixture, set it in the proper DMX mode, and set the DMX address.
We turned it on, and were suprised that flickering of the LED's didn't start until below 5 or 6 percent. So, unless you're doing ridiculously slow color fades that take a color back to zero, there are none of the standard issues associated with flickering LED's while dimming. Also, down to about the same 5 or 6 percent, the unit has a very smooth dimming curve. This was the first thing that our TD noticed. Unlike other LED fixtures that seem to step up slightly each time, this fixture actually has a nice dimming curve all the way down to the afore mentioned 5 or 6 percent.
The unit has an attachable gel frame that we added a heavy frost to, and this helped to diffuse the beam and reduce the multiple color shadows. However, after getting about 12 feet away, the shadows stopped having noticable red, green, and blue components against the cyc when you wave your hand in front of it. I will take pictures to document this "color halation" effect.
The other nice thing is that if you're gonna be using it outdoors, all of the connetors are waterproof, screw-shut connectors (there are in and out adapters for DMX and power to break in/out of the waterproof connectors. The unit is suprisingly heavy for it's size, but not awkwardly heavy.
Anyways, more later after I have pics, that's all that I've got for now.