Cant decide: Chauvet intimidator 450 vs Elation e spot II

[rxh5015]

Hello guys,

I am new in this forum and decided to ask a question. After doing research for about a week, I cant seem to decide between the following models. PLEASE GIVE AND INPUT IF YOU CAN, it will be greatly appreciated.

Chauvet intimidator 450 ($1500) Products » Intimidator
• Light Source: 3x60W LEDs • Beam Angle: 19° • 23,680 lux @ 2m
-This is a new light from chauvet which made it difficult to find reviews and info on the item. I like this light because its brighter than the e spot. It is also heavier and bigger than the e spot as well. I am also not completely familiar with chauvet products and their reliability. I have read that their high-end products are good as opposed to their low end products, which are not that reliable. BUT, have no personal experience.

Elation e spot LED II ($1200) Elation Professional - Professional Lighting Products
• Light Source: 60W LED • 15° Beam Angle • 7776LUX @ 2.5M
(the e spot I is a 45W LED, less brighter and is $1500. Does anyone know why?)
-I like the features on this moving head. Even though it doesn't have the power (don't actually know for a fact that its less bright). I like the gobos integrated, the 5 split, the 3-D effect.

*I manage a band that plays at small to medium-size venues, bars, clubs, and rodeos (not big arenas). We are looking to investing in illumination with the hopes of renting equipment to other bands in the future (already doing some rentals now)

I also don't know whether to ditch the spots and go with beams. From what I've read they are very bright, and it seams to be that it is more professional to carry beams for shows. Please correct me if I am wrong. Was thinking about the chauvet intimidator 350 beams ($900)

Also, if you know of any moving head that would recommend, my budget it set to ~$1600 max.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Ford]

Hi there!
As you can see by my job title, I am going to be a less than even-handed in my response

Seriously though, Allan Reiss (our Lead DJ Product manager)will chime in here, shortly.

First off, I looked at the Elation website, and saw different specs. They list 1330 Lux at 5m, not 7776, at 2.5m. This is more in line with the Q-Spot 360, or 460... or even the Intimidator Spot LED 350.

To be fair, with a 30% larger beam angle, and if we divide the Intimidator 450s lux by 6.25 (using the inverse square law to adjust for the throw distance), the Chauvet unit is about 4x as bright. If you only need something as bright as the Elation fixture, you should be looking at the Intimidator Spot LED 350, or the Q-spot 360 (slightly less bright) or the Qspot 460. (still brighter, but close to the other unit).

The pricing on these 3 units is way more attractive. You will see the Intim 350 advertised as low as $899, and the Q-Spot 360 at around $950 (or so), Q-Spot 460 as low as $1299 (pretty much in-line with the Elation piece). You can get a lot more "Bang for your Buck" with these units.

Comparing specs, the Qspot 360 and 460 both have 2 gobo wheels (7 static, 6 rotating) for the Gobo-Morphing effect you said you like, both have great output (about 1000 more lux than the Elation piece for the 460, using less power), user selectable Pan/Tilt ranges (which makes programming easier, if you have limited rigging options). The weight is pretty similar, too (360 is lighter 460 is slightly heavier). The QSpot-460 actually has power-linking (PowerCON in, and out), so that you can link the power the same way you would DMX. The Q-Spots units also have MET certification (MET, and ETL are equivalent certifications to UL... if anyone is interested, I can post on the alphabet soup of testing labs...but suffice it to day that these are ok for permanent install).

Please take a second look at the product pages for the Q-Spots, I think that it will settle a few of your questions.
Products » Q-Spot
Products » Q-Spot

As to the Intimidator 350 (better comparison unit than the 450) and the Intimidator Beam unit, I'll let Allan speak to those.

I hope this was helpful,
Please let us know what you decide.

 

[Allan]

Hi rxh5015,

Being a Chauvet employee my opinion about which light to purchase will be a little biased, so I will give you the facts between the lights to help you make the best decision that fits your needs.

While I have not personally seen the Elation ESpot LED II with my own eyes, I can tell you that based on the specs it might be a good contender for you. The main difference between these units is the light source and the IntSpot450 will blow away the ESpot LED II simply because it has 3 times the LED power (60W vs 180W) and if you take into account the beam angle it will actually be 4 times brighter. On the flipside, the IntSpot450 is almost double the weight and will be a little beefy to lug around from gig to gig. The other main thing to keep in mind is the beam angle. While a beam angle difference of 4° might not seem like a lot, you need to determine the average throw distance that you will be projecting the light from. If you are going to use these lights for long throw applications (>20ft) and want to maintain the intensity, you will want to buy the 15° ESpot. If you are going to use these lights for short throw applications (<20ft) you will want to buy the 19° IntSpot450. Since you are a band member and not performing in large arenas, I would recommend the 19° IntSpot450 which has a wide beam angle and will offer an extremely bright moving head in all venues that you visit. The ESpot should also be bright enough, but once again, the IntSpot450 will be 4 times brighter (due to the LEDs and beam angle).

Based on your message above, I honestly think that both fixtures will work for your application. In fact, you might also want to consider the Intimidator Spot LED 350 which has a 75W LED, is $900 and is well within your budget. It also has a manual zoom range of 12°-17°.

Other things to keep in mind are the little things (like me because I'm short!) and if you plan on doing any custom gobo projection, the Intimidator Spot LED 350 & 450 both have an easy access gobo door which makes swapping out the gobos a cinch. That comment comes from my 15-year experience of being a mobile DJ and is one of my favorite features of the Intimidator line. I don't think the Elation piece has that feature.

The IntBeam350 is the brother to the Spot 350 and look great together in shows. In my opinion (as a DJ and not a Chauvet employee), I recommend adding to your lighting arsenal versus swapping. Why not have the Beam 350s behind your drum set beaming out over the drummer into the air while the spots are moving around the room projecting the [custom] gobos and creating additional aerial effects? I think that will be 'da bomb [insert explosion sound here].

Anyway, the decision is completely up to you, but in my opinion, I would highly recommend the Int Spot/Beam 350 combo because they have the features you'll need, they will look good together and they will also be easy to program because they share the same DMX channel layout which makes DMX programming and stand-alone operation really easy. Most importantly, the Spot/Beam 350 combo won’t break the bank – or your wallet.

Intimidator Beam LED 350: Products » Intimidator
Intimidator Spot LED 350: Products » Intimidator
Intimidator Spot LED 450: Products » Intimidator

Let me know which way you decide to go.

..::..::..::..::..::..

Allan Reiss
Lead DJ Product Manager
Chauvet Lighting

 

[soundlight]

I'd recommend you get yourself a demo of the Intimidator Spot LED 350 unit mentioned above. It's a great little fixture that meets or exceeds the output of most MSD-250 fixtures and has a really stellar stock gobo selection. I really don't like the stock gobo selection they put in the 450, and I've had issues before soft-focusing gobos in fixtures with more than one LED source (ex: Chauvet Q-Spot 560). The size, weight, and price all make it a ridiculously good fixture for small to mid-size venues. I've only seen demos of the 350s but I've used the Intimidator Scan LED 300s in a venue before (I specified them for the room & then programmed them). With the 60 watt LED they were already as bright as an MSD250 and that was with the 21 degree beam angle - and the Spot LED 350 is a narrower beam angle with 15 watts more LED power. The beam angle is another thing - depending on the size of the venue, you can manually zoom the Intimidator Spot LED 350 from 12-17 degrees (or 15-19, not sure which - I've seen 12-17 everywhere else, but Allan posted 15-19 above). Pie4Weebl worked for a short while at a venue with a bunch of Spot LED 350s...maybe he'll be along here later.

As far as the beams go, I prefer spots if there's only one type of fixture. You can also get a pretty narrow beam by zooming the Spot 350s all the way down to 12 degrees. If you're getting a bunch of lights, you might consider a mix of spots & beams. The Chauvet Intimidator Beam LED 350 would definitely be the way to go - this video demonstrates their aerial capabilities way better than the Chauvet product demo video does.

 

[rxh5015]

Ford,

Thank you for the info. My first option was actually in between the ones you mentioned (350 LED, Q spot 360 and the Elation e spot). However, when Found out there was an intimidator 450 with the 3x60 LED's, I was willing to put the cash to buy something that I "wouldn't" regret later on. BUT, if we don't actually need the output of the 450's then I would rather. I was just stuck in between the "reliability" of elation vs the power of the chauvet 450.

I have reconsidered my options. Now its in between the chauvet intLED350 and Qspot360.

I will post videos for some of largest venues we played at. Please take a look at them and see if the 350's are a good option.

 

[rxh5015]

Allan,

The easy access to gobo door is one of the features I personally liked about it. I am a marketing and advertising guy, and details like that and its application make me lean towards the intimidator series.

Definitely reconsidering my options. I did the math and I can have either 4 fixtures with the intimidator 450's or 8 fixtures (4 beam and 4 spot) with the intimidator 350's for only around 1200 bucks more. As you said, that would be an awesome setup.

I am going to post videos for some of the largest venues we've played at. If you have the time, can you please look at them and tell me if the 350's are a good option. Thanks for all the information.

 

[rxh5015]

soundlight,

I had no idea that the 350's were comparable to a 250 MSD discharge. We played at a venue one time and the DJ had 200W discharge fixtures (dont know what brand), and they were bright enough for what we were doing. I thought they were actually very, very bright.

The video you linked definitely shows the capabilities better than the demo videos from chauvet. I like them a lot actually. Do you know what he is using on the top set up. I am assuming the bottom ones are the 350 beams based on the description of the video.

I am going to post some videos of the largest places we played at. We wont be doing shows much greater than those. Please take a look if you have the time, and let me know if the 350's will do the job for us. Thanks a lot for your input.

 

[rxh5015]

HERE ARE SOME VIDEOS OF SOME OF THE LARGEST PLACES WE HAVE PLAYED AT. Will 4 elation 350 beams and 4 elation 450 spots do the job for these venues? Possibly going larger in the next couple of years, but not anything really larger than these venues.

Skip to 1:00 min

Skip to 2:30 min

 

[Allan]

I watched your videos and think (4) IntSpot350 and (4) IntBeam350 will work out very nicely for you in that space. I wouldn't go with anything less than 8 movers for the venue sizes that I saw. You should think about getting a haze machine too with the money you'd save!

..::..::..::..::..::..

Allan Reiss
Lead DJ Product Manager
Chauvet Lighting

 

[rxh5015]

Allan,

Thanks. I think I am going to go with the intimidator 350's. Anyone have a different opinion before I make the order. I am going to need these by saturday.
Thanks for all the input from all of you guys. This really helped a lot.

Just to make sure. I wouldn't need a dmx control/mixer for the mean time right? I can use these without controls for a couple of gigs? Want to save up for a good one and do some research before buying one.

 

[soundlight]

It won't look spectacular, but you can set them in to master/slave mode and link them with 3-pin DMX cable to make sure they're all at least doing the same thing when they're reacting to sound/playing back internal programs. I personally wouldn't consider running them in sound active, but plenty of people do for DJ gigs. I'd put a DMX controller or DMX software on the shortlist of things to get though. Auto mode doesn't look that great. Plus, if you have a controller, you can hire out your services and run the controller/software for them.

 

[Allan]

If you're going to purchase 8 fixtures, I highly recommend a computerized software program (like Chauvet's ShowXpress) because it will unleash the full potential of the lighting fixtures as well as give you full control of the room. You can definitely run them in master/slave mode with a DMX cable for the time being, but once again, if you want to take your business to the next level I highly recommend a computerized DMX controller.

 

[rxh5015]

I got an awesome deal for the following package.

-4 intimidator 350's
-2 double hard cases
-1 ADJ MYDMX 2.0

I will have to do with this set up for now. Going to order the 4 beams a couple months down the line.

Thanks for everyones help. Definitely will be here as I get more knowledgeable on these fixtures. I feel like I made the right decision.

 

[rxh5015]

I had a bad experience on my purchases with a particular company. will post up the information later.