JChenault
Well-Known Member
My theatre recently purchased 32 ETC CS Jr’s ( deep blue) for a high-side light system.
One statement about LED fixtures is that they are not as bright as incandescent units in white and pastels, but are very bright in more saturated colors. I have always been curious about how true that was, so I did some tests that I thought I should share.
Procedure:
Here are the results:
Comments:
I am very happy with the purchase and what they allow us to do ( specifically move from one color to another smoothly). I would hesitate to use them for front light, but for side or back light I would recommend them.
One statement about LED fixtures is that they are not as bright as incandescent units in white and pastels, but are very bright in more saturated colors. I have always been curious about how true that was, so I did some tests that I thought I should share.
Procedure:
- I have a CS-Jr and a S4 Incandescent ( 750) watts with an Apollo smart color scroller. In our current production they are within a foot or so of each other and focused to approximately the same location. The CS-Jr is set to 50 degrees. The S4 is a 50 degree fixture.
- The CS-Jr is in Direct mode (individual control of all four emitters)
- I put a white board on the set and compared the apparent intensity ( by my eye) of the CS Jr and the S4 . I then balanced the intensity so that the appeared equally bright and recorded those values
- In some cased the color from the color picker was noticeably off IE it was way to blue. In those cases I created an ‘Adjusted’ color which matched the CS color closer to the gel color.
Here are the results:
Apollo Color | Rosco Equiv | CS Jr | Incandescent | Notes |
NC | NC | 100 | 100 | The 'Open White' for the CS is very blue. I tweaked it in the next comparison |
NC Adjusted | NC | 100 | 60 | |
6300 Yellow | R14 | 100 | 70 | |
7150 SF Amber | R16 | 100 | 75 | The CS color was very blue. I tweaked it in the next comparison |
7150 Adjusted | R16 | 100 | 70 | |
7650 Coral Amber | R01 | 100 | 70 | Again the CS color was very blue. Tweaked in the next comparison |
7650 Adjusted | R01 | 100 | 60 | |
7600 Orange | R23 | 100 | 60 | |
3250 Lavender | R52 | 100 | 90 | |
3700 Grape | R358 | 60 | 100 | |
8450 Pink | R34 | 100 | 70 | |
4800 Ice Blue | R63 | 85 | 100 | |
4450 Heavenly Blue | R69 | 80 | 100 | |
4400 After Hours Blue | R74 | 45 | 100 | |
5960 Marg Greene | R88 | 100 | 80 | |
5500 Blue Green | R95 | 80 | 100 |
Comments:
- The color picker did not do a great job of picking colors in the amber end of the spectrum
- The Amber colors did not look as rich in the CS unit as the incandescent unit.
- The open white equivalent ( all emitters on full) is extremely blue )
- We had some quality control issues with one of the CS-Jr units. The cooling fan wanted to run full on and after a couple of days it showed ‘Error’ on the LCD panel and would intermittently work. ETC replaced the unit under warranty in two weeks.
- The units are plastic. They seem sturdy, but I would be hesitant about putting them in a position where they are banged around a lot.
- The accessory holder is a new size ( IE your existing top hats will not fit)
- There is a gobo slot, but no accessory slot ( IE for an Iris, or gobo rotator)
- Running power and data and daisy chaining to each fixture is a paint in the posterior ( but since these are part of the rep plot, it is a one time problem)
- The units do not leak light. IE our apron units are in the grid, exposed to the audience. When thy are on ( with a half hat) the audience does not see any glow from the ficture.
I am very happy with the purchase and what they allow us to do ( specifically move from one color to another smoothly). I would hesitate to use them for front light, but for side or back light I would recommend them.