Please help me choose some LEDs

[traxman25]

I'm looking to add LEDs to my inventory and am wondering what everone's thoughts are as I'm pretty undecided. I do a wide variety of events and need some input.
Systems I'm looking at that fit in my budget are

• 16 used Chauvet Colorado 1 Tri Tours, 6 lengths of truss, 2 truss cubes, and a hazer.
• 16-18 New Elation Opti-tri Pars, 6 lengths of truss, 2 truss cubes, and a hazer.
• 8 New ETC Selador Vivd-R 11's, 4 lengths of truss, and 2 truss cubes, or the hazer.

I'm reluctant on the used LEDs as I know the issues with the sources loosing intensity over their life. The blue in my Coemars is quite unmatched. I can't seem to find any good photometrics data on the Chauvet units but I have a hard time believing 14 sources is brighter than the 18 from the Elation units. Anyone have experience with both? Then through the Seladors in the mix. I work with a couple of them regularly and they are a great unit. Very bright, much brighter than the Coemars, richer color, and they have so many lens options that are relatively inexpensive, but the initial price, ouch.

Lets hear your thoughts and opinions.

 

[JChenault]

I think the answer depends on what you expect to use them for

IMHO if you want to light human skin you want the selador units.
If you want backlight in a primary color ( But not amber ) the par units would probably work fine and let you get more
If you want to have a good dimming curve ( ie smooth ) get the selador

 

[EBB]

I don't speak highly of Chauvet products generally, but I will say that the Colorado products have impressed me a little since using the 2 and 3's. The dimming curve isn't amazing. But the colors are still pretty good. And consistant. Unlike alot of LED products that I've seen where the colors will be a shade off or none of the fixtures will look like. But still, they have a decent lumen count versus many other fixtures. I would say brighter than the elations that I've tinkered with.

The Elation LED pars that I had used in the past had terrible dimming curves. It felt like it had 20 steps for dimming and it was very obvious when you were attempting to fade in. I don't know how the new fixtures are but since then, I have rarely played with the elation LED's

I finally got a chance to play with a Selador not too long ago. And I think if you are looking for a great theatre fixture, that is definitely what you will enjoy. I would say it was decently close to that of a 575w par fixture. But just under that I think. I can't wait to tinker with the 40 and 60's at some point. But ya. I think you might do better using the Chauvet fixtures as long as you take a good amount of care into them. And if they stop working, they can be replaced with a different LED I'm sure.

 

[FlashPointLighting]

Seladors are very good at producing realistic skin tones. For bands and vivid colours the ColorADOS would do just fine though.

 

[DiscoPony]

It depends on what you want to use them for. if your looking to incorporate them into a theatrical lighting plot then I would go with the ETC Seladors. But if your looking for some lights with high color saturation for backdrops, small concerts concerts or where the LED's are being used as "eye candy" then either go with the Colorado's or the Elation.

 

[traxman25]

The dilemma I'm faced with is well highlighted here. These will be used for a wide variety of events, including theater, concerts, and weddings.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

Color blast TRX's are pretty banging.

 

[traxman25]

Color Kinetics and their horrible data/power method is completely off the table. I'd go Selador in a heart beat over having to deal with the bulky power supplies and one data/power line from said supply to each individual fixture. YUCK!

 

[EBB]

Actually the TRX series is pretty nice. It can daisy chain and do some really nice things that it's earlier generation LED's could not. I think you would be very surprised by the fixtures. Plus being RGBAW is a plus for doing theatre applications. And by daisy chain, I mean both power and data. The fixtures have an RJ45 in/out as well as a 5-pin DMX in/out. And the power is done via powercon connectors.

It's a nice fixture from what I saw on some tours. I think it was on the Rush tour and I want to say TSO last year.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Actually the TRX series is pretty nice. It can daisy chain and do some really nice things that it's earlier generation LED's could not. I think you would be very surprised by the fixtures. Plus being RGBAW is a plus for doing theatre applications. And by daisy chain, I mean both power and data. The fixtures have an RJ45 in/out as well as a 5-pin DMX in/out. And the power is done via powercon connectors.

It's a nice fixture from what I saw on some tours. I think it was on the Rush tour and I want to say TSO last year.

Maybe the longer strip light style ColorBlaze TRX can daisy chain power and data, but the pod style ColorBlast TRX cannot. It still uses the 4 pin cable of its predecessor.

Anyone considering purchasing high end LED units owes it to themselves to consider the Chroma Q ColorForce range of instruments.

 

[AhClem]

You might take a look at the Blizzard Lighting fixtures. I haven't used them personally, but an associate just got some of their RBGAW fixtures for his theater and he's been very pleased (and mildly surprised) with them.

 

[soundlight]

I support the use of Blizzard for small bands, clubs, stuff where dimming curve & color consistency aren't paramount. But from the issues with dimming curve, color consistency, and the build quality that comes with the price, I wouldn't get Blizzard stuff given the units that the OP is considering.

I'd check out the new Elation Quad stuff - the Opti Quad/QA Par and the EPar QA/QW. Remember for spreading beams of LEDs to get Luminit/LSF films rather than just using diffusion, this results in better spreading of the light & less output cut. It's easy to make a narrow beam wide, not so much vice versa - remember that when getting fixtures.

If you are indeed looking at the real pro stuff, I would second the Chroma Q Color Force recommendation. Great product, amazing color mixing, and their phosphor-transposed amber is absolutely the best out there. Out of this world as far as LED ambers go.

 

[traxman25]

Chroma Q does make some great looking fixtures. I will be considering them in the future. They have tough competition from the x7 Seladors though as they are in the same price range. I love the idea of the wireless Color Change fixture for banquet type events.

Good call on the Luminit, I'd forgotten their name.

Blizzard lighting: screams cheap DJ lighting. Chauvet is as low on that totem as I'll go and only because I've seen the Colorado Tour series in a lot of professional press.

 

[traxman25]

Update:

I ended up going with the 16 COLORado's. I just finished my first show with them, theater show, and they were great! I'm very happy with them.

Saw the Elation Quad-pars at the Elation Road Show last week. They look promising, I'm certainly interested.

 

[Sayen]

You've already got them, so this is a little late, but - the nice thing about the Colorado's is you can daisy chain power, over the Elation units. They'll also last you longer. I like the Elation lights for the price, but they don't seem to hold up very well - although anything in that price range is essentially disposable.

 

[traxman25]

yes daisy chain power is a great feature. I've already built a bunch of cable for just that. The new Elation Quad stuff does have this feature as well though.

 

[StNic54]

Biggest advice on LED's - make sure you get them all from the same batch - if they are manufactured together the led colors are going to match the best - if you buy led's from separately produced batches (way different serial numbers) you run the risk of different color temperatures and intensities per unit. In the past I've taken a line of like led's on a wall and brought them up and seen how each fixture may show more red, more blue, unbalanced white, etc. Also, is you have cameras running, you'll need to make sure your led units can solidly perform with video - ie, you don't want them to flicker on camera, ever. Make sure you address that with your sales rep and even run a test when you demo the unit.

At work I use or have used:
CK Colorblast - solid, dependable, but the cabling and the 'brain' as a source are very annoying. Not individually addressable, which is a must. The brain that is addressed has limited function for individual control.
CK Colorblaze - solid, can be broken down into sections for color effects, nice spread; daisy chain and all that
Chauvet Colorado / Illuminarc Illumipod - big, bright, heavy, but with proprietary dmx and power cables. I like the output from the 48-led units, and the power daisy chains too
Chauvet Well-lights - mostly good as decor uplighting -battery operated and wireless dmx - the tiltable face and the mirrored finish are neat, but impractical for most scenarios outside of uplighting
Hanson LEDs - this is a newer company - their battery operated/wireless led's are very slim with good output, and they run pretty evenly; beware for camera use - they are working out the 50-60 hz issues right now

Hope this helps

 

[Cooperhodges]

I've had good experiences with both the Chauvet and ETC lines. Personally, my favorite LED I've tried out would be the ETC Selador D60 or D40.

 

[Esoteric]

We sell and have used ETC, Selecon, Martin (movers), Elation, and our own brand Visioneer. They are all great and have given us no problems. But, the price difference is HUGE. For me, we install the PL series (they use the light tubes from the VL series) and then our own brand. One for absolute quality, the other for value. Everything else, we just sell at the request of the customer for those that have to have a certain brand for some reason.