Gel alternative for fresnels?
- Thread starterHullPro
- Start date
How saturated is the gel? Who's make and #? So many options:
1) Check the focus and the seating of the lamp. The wrong lamp, improper seating or certain points in the fixtures zoom from flood to spot can create hot spots that melt or burn through gel almost instantly.
2) Use LEE high temp gel, with a heat shield, with a color extender.
3) If this is a long term or permanent installation, a colored glass or dichroic filter may be the best option.
4) Replace them with a suitable LED instrument
Also since these sound like Altman 65Q Fresnels, I always recommend upgrading them to 575 watt BTH lamps, especially if you are using them alongside Source 4's.
(Clicking on any word with a yellow dotted underline will take you straight to our wiki for more info)
1) Check the focus and the seating of the lamp. The wrong lamp, improper seating or certain points in the fixtures zoom from flood to spot can create hot spots that melt or burn through gel almost instantly.
2) Use LEE high temp gel, with a heat shield, with a color extender.
3) If this is a long term or permanent installation, a colored glass or dichroic filter may be the best option.
4) Replace them with a suitable LED instrument
Also since these sound like Altman 65Q Fresnels, I always recommend upgrading them to 575 watt BTH lamps, especially if you are using them alongside Source 4's.
(Clicking on any word with a yellow dotted underline will take you straight to our wiki for more info)
Not cheap, but labor savings usually win out: Rosco US : Filters : Permacolor
sdauditorium
Active Member
sdauditorium
Active Member
If you need to have gel loaded, look at lower saturated versions of the same color(s) and/or switching to the 575w BHT lamps would help. Heat shields, from Apollo or Lee or whatever your choice, are expensive per sheet, but the savings would be realized in extending gel life.
Another idea, check to make sure that not of the lenses are cracked. Besides a tighter (more zoomed) focus, a cracked lens will allow more head to dissipate through the front of the unit and burn or melt gel quicker than it should.
Another idea, check to make sure that not of the lenses are cracked. Besides a tighter (more zoomed) focus, a cracked lens will allow more head to dissipate through the front of the unit and burn or melt gel quicker than it should.
MPowers
Well-Known Member
Just be Glad that you're not back in the days of "real" gel, when gel was really gelatin. In a bright musical, lavenders were replaced every night, a moody or romantic show with a lot of night scenes and all the dark or moonlight blues got replaced every day. Every gel in the show was changed on Tuesday morning, every week. We didn't think of it as a "pain", that's just the way it was.
Do you have any accessories (barn doors, tophats) in your fresnels? Sometimes, especially with certain fresnels, the addition of a tophat will cause gel to burn through much more quickly. See if you can remove this accessory. Alternatively, the addition of a color extender with the gel in the far slot should help, if you can get your hands on one.
OR, gaff tape the plastic color media to the front of the top hat. Which is what we used to do before color extender s were invented. Although I've never heard of an accessory causing color to fail more quickly. I have experienced Fresnels that burn color more at flood focus than at spot, I suppose as the lamp is closer to the color.
I also have this experience, on some fresnels at full flood the colour filter is less than 3 inches from the lamp. This happens on my 1k FE fresnels with saturated blues.
Most barn doors actually act as a short color extender as well, that is unless the gel frame slot has already been mashed in when you get them from the rental shop. That way one can put heat shield in the "normal" slot and color medium in the barn door.
While I'm sure OP can appreciate the sentiments of "use the fixtures less", sometimes that's just not an option. I wish OP would chime back in with some more details.
While I'm sure OP can appreciate the sentiments of "use the fixtures less", sometimes that's just not an option. I wish OP would chime back in with some more details.
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The times I've seen this have been with Altman 65Q and 165Q fresnels, which may be the ones that the OP is using. I found that I could put even high-transmission gels like L202 in a fresnel and have it last a respectable length, but as soon as I put a tophat in the fixture, the gel would burn out within a day or two. My assumption is that the tophat was preventing the heat from escaping and keeping it focused on the gel, but I never investigated further. I had the same effect with barn doors with these fixtures, but not as pronounced as with the tophats.
shiben
Well-Known Member
The quote we got a few months ago, was about ~$72 each.
Robert
Well-Known Member
An old trick was to get a sewing supply tracing wheel and make a pattern of small pin holes in the gel. Might change the color ever so slightly, but it never bothered me. Gel did last longer as some heat/light passed through the holes.
Precisew Pattern Tracer in Patternmaking Supplies: Sewing Supplies & Alteration Supplies by Sew True.com
Precisew Pattern Tracer in Patternmaking Supplies: Sewing Supplies & Alteration Supplies by Sew True.com
