Inexpensive Movers

Hey guys,

I'm trying to decide between which moving heads I'm going to get. Ultimately I want MAC700's however the budget can't stretch that far. I've had a look at other options and I've drawn it down to either

4 Blizzard Torrent 90's and 4 Blizzard Torrent 90 beams

Or

4 Elation 5R's and 4 Elation 5R beams

I personally haven't had experience with either light so I would be grateful for some input

Thanks
chris
 
I don't have any experience with either unit, I do remember some talk on here earlier in the year about people having a lot of problems with those units from elation.
 
The 5R line is hit and miss. The problem seems to be that Elation's factories in China have manufacturing tolerances that are much wider than any other "pro" lighting manufacturer, so they have numerous issues out of the box and other issues that hide themselves until later in life when they just get to be too much for the fixture. So while some fixtures may perform flawlessly, others will be just unusable out of the box. I once had 3 out of 6 bad out of box. Some people also don't like the extremely short optical train and the things that does to focusing on gobos and such. It can really throw some people off with how the image look when you run the focus. Nothing like any other fixture I've ever seen. I know some people that love 'em, but personally I really don't. I've seen myself and heard of second-hand far too many issues, and I've taken some of these things apart so I know how wide the manufacturing tolerances are.
 
When do you want to buy the fixtures? I don't have direct experience with the Blizzard stuff, but I've heard of people who like a lot of their other fixtures - LED washes and moving lights both. I'd look at the Chauvet Q-Spot 260 and/or the Intimidator Spot LED 350. I recently worked on a club install of 30 Q-Spot 260 LED fixtures and they are pretty sweet. About the output of an MSD-250, we did a shootout with an MSD-250 fixture and it the 60 watt LED was about the same as the MSD-250. Great gobo selection as well. I do know that Chauvet is working on a couple of new fixtures too, don't know the timeframe for those.
 
When do you want to buy the fixtures? I don't have direct experience with the Blizzard stuff, but I've heard of people who like a lot of their other fixtures - LED washes and moving lights both. I'd look at the Chauvet Q-Spot 260 and/or the Intimidator Spot LED 350. I recently worked on a club install of 30 Q-Spot 260 LED fixtures and they are pretty sweet. About the output of an MSD-250, we did a shootout with an MSD-250 fixture and it the 60 watt LED was about the same as the MSD-250. Great gobo selection as well. I do know that Chauvet is working on a couple of new fixtures too, don't know the timeframe for those.

I second the q-spot 260's. We run a couple in our theater - modified for interchangable gels. Great budget light. A little on the louder side with their fans but no big deal.

What is the function you're going for? What kind of venue?
 
Live bands, tribute shows, small productions - it's all for a PA hire inventory. I'm seriously debating wether to bite e bullet and get 4 Mac 350's..
 
If you do happen to get the Elation fixtures... crack them open before turning them on and just start tightening down the screws. I've had 5 of 8 out of box have problems and 4 of them were all super loose. Enough that I could actually move the yoke a bit on one of them.
 
Do a search for Platinum Spot 5R on here and you will find my posts. I'm not going to get into it again here. I used the Mac350 a couple of weeks ago and they were fantastic units. If you have the cash and they provide everything you're looking for you will not be unhappy.
 
I personally am afraid of anything Chauvet. For my personal use, I bought two DJ sized Chauvet scanners and have had nothing but trouble. I am lucky that I'm an electrical engineer and could fix the problems, but I've had no luck with their products. I fully endorse the Mac 350's they're a bit more expensive, but they will work right out of the box and they will have the longest life out of any of the fixtures that you are looking at.
 
I have several Design Spot series Elation units and have been quite happy with them. I can't speak for the Platinum series though.

Have you looked at the used market? You can get some great deals on both Martin and Clay Paky fixtures in the 300-575W range.
 
My apologies for not putting this in the correct forum, but I think it applies to this thread... i have some lightly used Osiris Seth MR 250 profile fixtures in cases.... The company is now called glite, and thier fixture is called a 300s
:: G-Lites ::
they are basically a copy of a mac 250 entour. Looking for $2000 for 6 fixtures, in cases... the 6th fixture that is hurt, but could be brought up to spec with some labour. I bought the mounting hardware for them a few months ago fully expecting to use them this production season( about $300 touch) instead I got a smokin deal on some mac 101's, so now these fixtures are parked. I'm in Ottawa, Canada ( about 30 minutes north of NY state. I have a broker that handles all the cross boarder BS and shipping is very reasonable. Let me know if you'd like more info. They are a 240 fixture, and require a L5-20 plug ( hot hot ground).
 

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