So, I have now had the Elation PowerSpot 700 CMY in house for almost a week and I have had the chance to get a feel for it. As it is a new fixture, I know that people are anxious to hear a first hand review.
My setup is as such: We are currently in tech for a show so I was not able to hang the fixture, so we set it up by our tech tables. The fixture is about 30-40 feet from the stage. Control is from our Strand 520 with a profile that I wrote which I would be happy to post if you want it.
Before I even took the fixture from my local dealer (GTS in Salt Lake City, UT http://www.theatrelights.com) I spent about an hour with one of their techs, taking the fixture apart and putting it back together. This is actually a fairly simple process. The top and bottom covers of the head each have for snap-lock screws, providing quick release and since the screws don't come out, they are hard to loose. With the top cover off you have access to the effects module of which Elation currently makes two, one with CMY, 1 fixed and 1 rotating gobo wheel, effects wheel, varible CTO, and color wheel (this is the module I have). The other module currently offered has 1 fixed and 2 rotating gobo wheels, and two color wheels. Built into both modules is the shutter/dowser system and iris.
The modules release very easily. They are held in place by two spring clips, and there is only one cable to unplug from the module that feeds it data and power. With the module removed from the fixture it opens like a book for easy access to gobos and color, for swapping or maintenance.
Built into the fixture are the three facet prism, capable of continuous rotation. The dual flag variable frost, and the zoom and focus.
The pan and tilt systems are set on what our TD and myself see as sturdy, robust bearings. The lamp is not actually the one advertised on Elation's website, but the MSR 700 SA/DE.
Setup and power up were very simple. The fixture runs through the same routine as most MLs, zeroing all the attributes and a self diagnostic and such. DMX addressing and various other features is accessed through the 4 digit LCD display and 4 buttons on the base of the fixture. Most of the menu items are easy to decipher even without the manual, especially if you have worked with other MLs before.
With the fixture up and running I proceeded to try out all of the features. Pan and tilt first, are amazingly quiet and fast. I was always able to hit the same place every time I ran a cue for it. Next up was the color wheel. NOt much to report there, works like any fixed color wheel, whole colors, split colors, and continuous rotation in either direction.
On to the gobos. Gobo wheel 1 is the fixed gobo wheel. as you can see in some of the images above the gobos are not interchangeable, in fact they are all cut in the same disc. I suppose it may be possible to swap out an entire disc, but that is a slight bummer (though it is as advertised). It also wouldn't surprise me if having an interchangeable fixed gobo wheel would jack the price up almost $1K. Gobo wheel 2 is the rotating gobo wheel. Decent stock gobos. Operation to be expected, gobos can be indexed or continuously rotated. Then we have the effects wheel (also can be seen in the images above). The effects wheel can be moved throughout the beam to create horizontal or vertical motion with variable speed in both directions.
CMY color mixing is accomplished via a set of 6 flags (pictured below), 2 for each color. There is also a set of variable CTO flags. Color mixing was very smooth and capable of many colors. The CTO was also very useful and could come close to matching the color temp of our source fours.
Iris works well and can get very tight. I don't remember how many blades it has, but when you Iris in you can see them at sharp focus. Another money saving thing here I would imagine, as City Theatrical's Source Four Iris is about $112.
Zoom is nice. It was also the loudest attribute in the fixture. 14˚-32˚ Zoom is a good range for us. It will give a good size field (which I could calculate if I wanted to) from the 27' high proscenium pipe where these will most likely hang. There is a visible loss of intensity as you zoom wide, but that is to be expected. Even at the widest zoom there is still very nice punch from the fixture.
Frost, when they advertise this fixture as a hybrid Spot/Wash fixture they are not kidding. Withe frost in full you get a very nice soft edge wash. It may even be a little too diffuse, but I could see it being useful. Not sure if you can chance out the frost, I didn't try.
I don't think there is much to say about the prism, it is a standard, rotatable 3 facet prism.
So, we took a morning and brought up a Mac 2K Performance to compare the PowerSpot to. Our rental guys gave us the 2K with a new lamp and with all of the optics cleaned, compared to the PowerSpot which has been traveling around the country and we don't know how old the lamp is or when the optics were cleaned. We were running the 2K on 115v power, which the local Martin dealer guys though would men the PowerSpot would be brighter since the 2K prefers 208v. Well, the 2K was brighter, but not by that much. The PowerSpot has a slightly blue-er color temperature than the 2K. We were very surprised that the 700w fixture could even compete with the 1200w fixture. We felt like the Mac 2K was louder in is movement and some attributes, and it was also a little slower. Here is one of the other things that we feel separates the prices of a Martin fixture and an Elation, and that is the quality and amount of glass used for the lenses. The Martin fixtures have wider openings in the optical train, the gobos are larger, so this lets more light pass. On the other hand, the optical train of the PowerSpot is shorter. The feature set of both fixtures is very similar. The 2K Perf. only has one gobo wheel, but it has framing shutters. The 2K is a narrower zoom. Both fixtures have very similar body design (could be that Elation has a guy from Martin now). It was a very interesting comparison (there is a lousy photo below), could be worth seeing the PowerSpot shoot out against the Mac 700.
So, after a week of testing and playing, we have decided to purchase two. I will let you all know how thins go with them. Also, feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them.
My setup is as such: We are currently in tech for a show so I was not able to hang the fixture, so we set it up by our tech tables. The fixture is about 30-40 feet from the stage. Control is from our Strand 520 with a profile that I wrote which I would be happy to post if you want it.
Before I even took the fixture from my local dealer (GTS in Salt Lake City, UT http://www.theatrelights.com) I spent about an hour with one of their techs, taking the fixture apart and putting it back together. This is actually a fairly simple process. The top and bottom covers of the head each have for snap-lock screws, providing quick release and since the screws don't come out, they are hard to loose. With the top cover off you have access to the effects module of which Elation currently makes two, one with CMY, 1 fixed and 1 rotating gobo wheel, effects wheel, varible CTO, and color wheel (this is the module I have). The other module currently offered has 1 fixed and 2 rotating gobo wheels, and two color wheels. Built into both modules is the shutter/dowser system and iris.
The modules release very easily. They are held in place by two spring clips, and there is only one cable to unplug from the module that feeds it data and power. With the module removed from the fixture it opens like a book for easy access to gobos and color, for swapping or maintenance.
Built into the fixture are the three facet prism, capable of continuous rotation. The dual flag variable frost, and the zoom and focus.
The pan and tilt systems are set on what our TD and myself see as sturdy, robust bearings. The lamp is not actually the one advertised on Elation's website, but the MSR 700 SA/DE.
Setup and power up were very simple. The fixture runs through the same routine as most MLs, zeroing all the attributes and a self diagnostic and such. DMX addressing and various other features is accessed through the 4 digit LCD display and 4 buttons on the base of the fixture. Most of the menu items are easy to decipher even without the manual, especially if you have worked with other MLs before.
With the fixture up and running I proceeded to try out all of the features. Pan and tilt first, are amazingly quiet and fast. I was always able to hit the same place every time I ran a cue for it. Next up was the color wheel. NOt much to report there, works like any fixed color wheel, whole colors, split colors, and continuous rotation in either direction.
On to the gobos. Gobo wheel 1 is the fixed gobo wheel. as you can see in some of the images above the gobos are not interchangeable, in fact they are all cut in the same disc. I suppose it may be possible to swap out an entire disc, but that is a slight bummer (though it is as advertised). It also wouldn't surprise me if having an interchangeable fixed gobo wheel would jack the price up almost $1K. Gobo wheel 2 is the rotating gobo wheel. Decent stock gobos. Operation to be expected, gobos can be indexed or continuously rotated. Then we have the effects wheel (also can be seen in the images above). The effects wheel can be moved throughout the beam to create horizontal or vertical motion with variable speed in both directions.
CMY color mixing is accomplished via a set of 6 flags (pictured below), 2 for each color. There is also a set of variable CTO flags. Color mixing was very smooth and capable of many colors. The CTO was also very useful and could come close to matching the color temp of our source fours.
Iris works well and can get very tight. I don't remember how many blades it has, but when you Iris in you can see them at sharp focus. Another money saving thing here I would imagine, as City Theatrical's Source Four Iris is about $112.
Zoom is nice. It was also the loudest attribute in the fixture. 14˚-32˚ Zoom is a good range for us. It will give a good size field (which I could calculate if I wanted to) from the 27' high proscenium pipe where these will most likely hang. There is a visible loss of intensity as you zoom wide, but that is to be expected. Even at the widest zoom there is still very nice punch from the fixture.
Frost, when they advertise this fixture as a hybrid Spot/Wash fixture they are not kidding. Withe frost in full you get a very nice soft edge wash. It may even be a little too diffuse, but I could see it being useful. Not sure if you can chance out the frost, I didn't try.
I don't think there is much to say about the prism, it is a standard, rotatable 3 facet prism.
So, we took a morning and brought up a Mac 2K Performance to compare the PowerSpot to. Our rental guys gave us the 2K with a new lamp and with all of the optics cleaned, compared to the PowerSpot which has been traveling around the country and we don't know how old the lamp is or when the optics were cleaned. We were running the 2K on 115v power, which the local Martin dealer guys though would men the PowerSpot would be brighter since the 2K prefers 208v. Well, the 2K was brighter, but not by that much. The PowerSpot has a slightly blue-er color temperature than the 2K. We were very surprised that the 700w fixture could even compete with the 1200w fixture. We felt like the Mac 2K was louder in is movement and some attributes, and it was also a little slower. Here is one of the other things that we feel separates the prices of a Martin fixture and an Elation, and that is the quality and amount of glass used for the lenses. The Martin fixtures have wider openings in the optical train, the gobos are larger, so this lets more light pass. On the other hand, the optical train of the PowerSpot is shorter. The feature set of both fixtures is very similar. The 2K Perf. only has one gobo wheel, but it has framing shutters. The 2K is a narrower zoom. Both fixtures have very similar body design (could be that Elation has a guy from Martin now). It was a very interesting comparison (there is a lousy photo below), could be worth seeing the PowerSpot shoot out against the Mac 700.
So, after a week of testing and playing, we have decided to purchase two. I will let you all know how thins go with them. Also, feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them.
