Picking Moving Heads
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techieman33
Well-Known Member
That line has been discontinued, so I doubt you'll find any new units, you'll end up buying used. That being said what do you want to do with them? That's going to have a big effect on what fixtures are recommended. Do you have a budget you need to stick to? How many fixtures are you looking to get?
soundlight
Well-Known Member
Look at the Chauvet Intimidator Spot LED 350. Great little fixture, the 75 watt LED actually is as bright as a new MSD250 (in my opinion), and it's got a gobo door that gives you easy access to the gobos to swap for customs (wedding monograms &c). It's also got a really nice set of stock gobos. If you'll be doing mostly weddings, they come in white. You should be able to get them for around $850/ea, so you might be able to start off with 4 fixtures. 4 fixtures looks much, much better than 2.
Les
Well-Known Member
The Intimidators probably wouldn't hold up quite as well, and the perception of quality from the client will be different assuming they know a thing or two about lighting equipment.
It depends on how you're renting them. If you're planning on a straight rental to other people, you may have trouble finding people who are requesting the intimidator, or will take it as a substitution for whatever they did request. If you're planning on renting them as part of the package that includes yourself (or another qualified person) to set up and operate, you should stick with whatever you like and what works for you.
JD
Well-Known Member
In most cases, theaters will know what product they want to rent, the question will be "Do you have it?" If that is the case, you might want to check with some rental houses in the area and ask what rentals they have available. This is a good indicator of what is in demand.
Now, it is a different story if you are renting out a system that you packaged. In that case, it is more important that the product fits in with the other equipment in the package. (More common when renting to a band.)
Now, it is a different story if you are renting out a system that you packaged. In that case, it is more important that the product fits in with the other equipment in the package. (More common when renting to a band.)
techieman33
Well-Known Member
techieman33
Well-Known Member
It's going to depend on the condition of each individual fixture. Like was it sitting in an install and well taken care of? Was it run in some club 8 hours a day for years on end? Toured hard and beat to crap? Do you know how to work on them? If not warranty is going to be a big issue for you since moving light repairs will get expensive very fast.
soundlight
Well-Known Member
Which MACs are we taking about here? If it's the original MAC250s - I'd take the Intimidator over an original or + version in a heartbeat. If it's entours/kryptons, it'd be a close call. Also, a lot of people will be looking for a more complete rental package, not just movers, and especially not just narrow-angle, low-feature movers (which all the movers we're discussing here are). Most theater groups that rent movers from the company I work for, which is a fairly well known regional rental & production house, want mid-range movers with zoom and probably color mixing. We send out packs of 2 or 4 MAC700s all the time for those kinds of groups. For the people who rent our 250 watt fixtures - the couldn't care less what the fixture is. We're still renting out old Studio Spot 250s that go bad with startling frequency, though mostly in the shop for some reason - I guess they just like our clients better than me. If we got some LED-source fixture from Chauvet, Elation, &c., our clients wouldn't really care as long as they work, have half decent gobos (which the Intimidator 350s do), and we have the personalities in our consoles for them. Most of the time it's either a middle school or high school renting a few movers for their school play or musical, or it's someone lighting a dance floor.
I don't think it's at all worth it to buy anything under 700 watts that takes an arc lamp these days. There are too many good LED fixtures out there. We've had great reliability with Chauvet units, we sell & install lots of them. They've really come a long way on the reliability side of things. Significantly superior to Elation in my experiences of the past 2 or so years.
I don't think it's at all worth it to buy anything under 700 watts that takes an arc lamp these days. There are too many good LED fixtures out there. We've had great reliability with Chauvet units, we sell & install lots of them. They've really come a long way on the reliability side of things. Significantly superior to Elation in my experiences of the past 2 or so years.
StNic54
Active Member
My advice - buy new units that are under a warranty, even if you have to rely on less-expensive fixtures. If you've never done repairs on a mover and you plan to purchase used fixtures as old as Mac250's, then you'll find yourself in a tough position constantly fixing worn out parts. Also know that when you rent your gear out to other people, it's inevitable that eventually someone will break your stuff, so just be ready for that. If I bought two movers, rented them out and one came back broken, my business is immediately cut in half until that unit is fixed. Now if it were something covered under warranty, you'd be in a better place, but still, at the starting line, I'd suggest you going out with your gear just to make sure it's handled correctly. If you purchased a handful of low-cost fixtures to start out, then you can have more to rent and work your way towards the bigger, brighter units. Good luck in this endeavor!
Speaking from what experience I have, the mac 101's and 301' are garbage for rentals. The 101 is mostly plastic and I have replaced 4 bodies in the last couple of months. One or two "dings" and the plastic head snapps off right at the yoke on the tilt motor side. 9/10ths of what we use are between the mac700(wash and profile) and the elation platinum beam 15r pro. The mac 700 is a freaking workhorse and easy to repair. The 15r does a great job as well, but only has a color wheel, so no cmy mixing. Have to say we use the mac2000xb's quite a bit as well. Get what you think you need, but I would try to get at least 6 of the same fixture if not 8. 8 seems to be our most common number for simple mover only rentals...except when we do rent 101's then it's 10 to 20
I haven't seen the chauvet 350 spots so I don't want to fully comment for/against them. I personally like the 700's because of their versatility, andvhow much easier it is to work on or change a gobo over the elation 15r. That being said, the 15r is still a good light and has been trustworthy. The majority of the issues I have seen are with the gogo retainer springs. Have to say what I have delt with elation on warranty items or other parts has been a good experience.
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