We have two Canto 1200M's (the
Metal-Halide variety). I wouldn't say I'm crazy about them -- both of them since the day we opened them have had weird, very defined dark spots in the center of the beams. Maybe that's "normal," maybe the lamps are bad, but either way it irks me when we use them in sharp focus.
I'm also not lovin' the mechanism for holding onto the gels. It's not the friendliest mechanism I've worked with before, and because we don't change gels often enough, I have yet to develop "the trick" for replacing gels painlessly -- what I have mastered is spending a fair amount of time dicking around with those frames only to flip the frames a few times until the
gel falls out and I have to start again.
On the upside, it's a very bright
followspot, has a very friendly focusing mechanism, and the
iris and
dowser are both easy to use. It's also comfortable to use because it's really well-balanced and the handle is nice and cushy.
The difference between my 1200M's and the 1000TH's is the lamp type. The issue I have with dark spots is probably
metal-halide specific, but doesn't occur with the
tungsten-halogen lamps in the 1000TH's. On the other
hand, my basis of the 1200M's being very bright at an 80'
throw does not carry over to the much
dimmer 1000TH. The nature of the lamp is that it's going to be less bright than a
metal-halide, but that's also why the 1000TH's are intended for a shorter
throw of 30-65 feet whereas my 1200M's are for 30-130 feet.
EDIT:
I've used both the Midget and the 1200M -- have to say I liked the
gel boomerang assembly on the Midget a lot better, ignoring all other features and factors.
