We did a shootout at our shop a few years back, a Comet, a
Lycian 1206 midget, and (iirc) a
Trouperette IV. They were all pretty similar in terms of
throw,
intensity,
etc., so you shouldn't worry much about that aspect. I'd concentrate more on ease-of-use issues, or perhaps looking at what else is in use in your area, so that operators can jump from
house to
house and feel familiar with the fixtures.
One hidden thing to contemplate is lamp life. The Comet uses either an ENX 360 w or FXL 410 w
MR16 lamp, rated at 80 or 40 hours, respectively. The
Lycian 1212 uses a 575 w FLK, aka HX-600 series lamp, with a 300 hour or more lifespan. Since this is the same lamp as a lot of ellipsoidals, you have fewer lamps to
stock. The flip side is, if you're out of lamps for the ellipsoidals, and the
followspot lamp pops, you're dead in the water for the night... or you go cannibalizing. Having a unique lamp for the spot might help ensure that the spare stays unused and available (depends on your group's purchasing practices, local politics, and your
level of control over inventory).
In all fairness to the Comet, it's a much, much older design than the Lycians, and there have been some things learned about
followspot design since the Comet started production, both in construction and lamps. Any
followspot seems to require three hands to run properly - I personally have always preferred the control
layout of
Altman's small spots to the others I've run, but then again, they're what I grew up on. I really took a dislike to the
Lycian models with the two control handles out the back - they might have been fine on a
platform, but I was encountering them as
truss spots for rock concerts, and having to
bend one wrist back double for a couple hours while strapped to a spot chair wasn't pleasant.