Focal Length of 360Q?

[soundman]

As for labeling standards, there aren't any. It is whatever you want it to be. however, labeling the yoke with e-tape is not a good way. Paint the color frame holders, it is quicker to identify and it is less likely to come off.

We label our source fours with spike tape around the yoke and there isn't a problem with them coming off. Its practice to not swap barrels but instead just swap fixtures. Ive worked places where they paint the gel clip area and then use colored magnetic tape on the yoke. The fixtures dont get beat up too bad so the magnets stay on.

I prefer to have both the lens tube and the yoke labeled because depending on how you look at it one location is easier to see than the other.

 

[derekleffew]

...As for labeling standards, there aren't any. It is whatever you want it to be. however, labeling the yoke with e-tape is not a good way. Paint the color frame holders, it is quicker to identify and it is less likely to come off. My color scheme is:
4.5x6 or 50˚ - White
6x9 or 36˚ - N/C
6x12 or 26˚ - Red
6x16 or 19˚ - Blue

I too like either painting or taping the color frame holders, been doing this since 1982. Easily changeable lenses should not have the yokes labeled. Another scheme I've seen, for SourceFours™ only, is to use the same red dot, yellow dot, etc, that E.T.C. uses for each lens. But I can never remember which is which.

For 360Q's be sure to label (Sharpie/Marker/Paint pen is fine) the tube and barrel as well as the yoke, just to make sure no one puts a 6x9 tube in a x12 or x16 barrel. It's not pretty.

And I think permanently attaching the safeties to the yoke is a great idea.

Hey, NYC people: Why did the "old" shops always label yokes with 6/9, 6/12, instead of 6x9, 6x12?

 

[gafftapegreenia]

I am planning to paint our S4 barrels with a color code. I've held off because I'd like to follow ETC's own paint dot code, which I do not know.

Derek, excellent point about remembering to label the 360Q barrel as well as the yoke. Personally, I'd follow a similar color code to ETC's paint dot system if I was coding 360Q's, especially since you can identify near-corresponding angles. Especially in a mixed inventory, a "corresponding" color system could be beneficial.

I really like the idea for colored magnetic tape marks on S4 yokes.

 

[Charc]

****ation. One of the lights I checked out today was on-the line, not sure if it's a x12 or x16... This is what happens when it's just me holding a light in hte air pointing it at a tape measure...

(Come-on, like I was gonna haul a 50lb boom base up the ladder?!)

 

[Les]

I think you can buy those degree stickers from ETC if you want to just stick those on there. They probably wouldn't be precise but they'd be close.

 

[TimMiller]

am i the only one with the problem of those ETC stickers comming off. Also the guy who stuck the stickers onto our expression 3 must have been having a bad day, most of them are crooked

 

[derekleffew]

Here's the E.T.C. S4 lens dot code (and now I remember why it doesn't work so well when painting colorframe holders--the difference between "black" and "dotless").

19°-Red Dot, (lens all the way at the front)
26°-Black Dot
36°-Dotless, (only tube that uses two lenses)
50°-Yellow Dot, (lens almost all the way at the back)

Using this system, it's difficult/impossible to tell 26s from 36s without looking at the sticker or pulling the tube to see if there's a back lens.

I propose the following, with apologies to non-Americans. Either painting or colored E-tape on the colorframe holders.
19°-Red
26°-White
36°-Blue
50°-Yellow

I also like writing the degree in paint pen on the bottom of the lens tube near the color frame holder.

Since 5°, 10°, & 14° are easily distinguishable by color frame size, and 70° and 90° are specialty items, I would keep all of those un-marked, except for the factory sticker.

 

[Grog12]

We label our source fours with spike tape around the yoke and there isn't a problem with them coming off. Its practice to not swap barrels but instead just swap fixtures. Ive worked places where they paint the gel clip area and then use colored magnetic tape on the yoke. The fixtures dont get beat up too bad so the magnets stay on.
I prefer to have both the lens tube and the yoke labeled because depending on how you look at it one location is easier to see than the other.

Wow...swapping out the whole fixture...I'm sorry but that's an absolute waste of time and energy with the S4.

Personally I don't like to color code my lens. I had this problem in Vegas because we'd gotten different used lights from different suppliers (PRG/4wall/AES) and each place had a different color coding system. Some followed the ETC some had their own.

We finally got fed up...painted over them and used a silver sharpie to label the barrells. We labeled the top and bottom of the barrell so it was easy to see what degree the lens was depending on where you were standing in relation to it.

 

[Charc]

Here's the E.T.C. S4 lens dot code (and now I remember why it doesn't work so well when painting colorframe holders--the difference between "black" and "dotless").
19°-Red Dot, (lens all the way at the front)
26°-Black Dot
36°-Dotless, (only tube that uses two lenses)
50°-Yellow Dot, (lens almost all the way at the back)
Using this system, it's difficult/impossible to tell 26s from 36s without looking at the sticker or pulling the tube to see if there's a back lens.
I propose the following, with apologies to non-Americans. Either painting or colored E-tape on the colorframe holders.
19°-Red
26°-White
36°-Blue
50°-Yellow
I also like writing the degree in paint pen on the bottom of the lens tube near the color frame holder.
Since 5°, 10°, & 14° are easily distinguishable by color frame size, and 70° and 90° are specialty items, I would keep all of those un-marked, except for the factory sticker.

While I'd strike the patriotism, ETC should have had the forsight to use a color code easily follow-able by the rest of the industry, knowing that people have their own quarks with where/how they like their fixtures labeled.

 

[Lightingguy32]

Don't forget about EDLTS, all of them have two lenses in them. However, they are a specialty item, so per derek's post, I would probably keep them unpainted with only the logos. The local Preforming arts center that I work for paints the bottoms of the color frame holder different colors for each of the degree fields except for the 10 degree and 14 deg units. They do the following:
Yellow: 19
Green: 36
White: 50
Colorless: 26

 

[Charc]

Okay... so I coulda updated this awhile ago, but I just thought of it again last night...

So it turns out... I don't have any Altman 360Q 6x16s... I have a good number of 360Q 6x9s (which don't see heavy use) a handful of 360Q 6x12s, and a handful of Strand 6x16s... There ya go...

 

[derekleffew]

... I don't have any Altman 360Q 6x16s... I have a good number of 360Q 6x9s (which don't see heavy use) a handful of 360Q 6x12s, and a handful of Strand 6x16s...

And at least one 6x22, hung upside down.

 

[Charc]

And at least one 6x22, hung upside down.

A good number of 6x22s actually, and those two are now hung right side up, even the S4 next to it was upside down, and no one pointed that out! No one saw that there is a 6x22 with the tube held on by 1.5 screws?