Red Dot Scope for Followspots

We use S4s at my school. They are pretty easy to sight using points on the light. Even on my first time spotting, which i rarely do, i was fine. During a school performance i was literally thrown behind a spot and told what to do having never done it before and i hit my mark perfectly.
 
We use S4s at my school. They are pretty easy to sight using points on the light. Even on my first time spotting, which i rarely do, i was fine. During a school performance i was literally thrown behind a spot and told what to do having never done it before and i hit my mark perfectly.
Congratulations.


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Back on topic though, that's a good point as far as iron sights of sorts go. Is there any real benefit to the Telrad over iron sights/crosshairs? I know some reflex sights "compensate" for the angle at which you look through them, but hell, couldn't you just paint a bent coathanger with glow paint and get almost the same effect as the Telrad for about $5?
 
Congratulations.
...
Back on topic though, that's a good point as far as iron sights of sorts go. Is there any real benefit to the Telrad over iron sights/crosshairs? I know some reflex sights "compensate" for the angle at which you look through them, but hell, couldn't you just paint a bent coathanger with glow paint and get almost the same effect as the Telrad for about $5?

Yes. Telrads work well in an un-lighted booth, or on a spot platform with no worklight available.

SB
 
Congratulations.
...
Back on topic though, that's a good point as far as iron sights of sorts go. Is there any real benefit to the Telrad over iron sights/crosshairs? I know some reflex sights "compensate" for the angle at which you look through them, but hell, couldn't you just paint a bent coathanger with glow paint and get almost the same effect as the Telrad for about $5?

Besides being cool? :cool:

I feel like they might be a little more resistant to change (bumps etc.). Though I've not used any. I think I will get the telrads. Though I am still unsure of where to mount them on the instrument, is anywhere better then anywhere else? Do they... melt?

~Charlie
 
Besides being cool? :cool:
I feel like they might be a little more resistant to change (bumps etc.). Though I've not used any. I think I will get the telrads. Though I am still unsure of where to mount them on the instrument, is anywhere better then anywhere else? Do they... melt?
~Charlie

They don't melt, or at least I've yet to see one melt on a 3kw xenon.

I mounted mine on small camera tripods (see post above) so as to get the Telrad 6" away from the fixture. The operators got tired of having to lean their heads almost alongside the spotlight so as to view the sight, whiththe Telrad taped firectly to fixture body. The tripod makes it a bit more user friendly.

One of the things I like about the Telrad vs. the SpotDot, is the Telrad has a decent sized image consisting of 3 concentric rings, ea. roughly corresponding to the beam size at tight head-shot, half body and full size pickup. Makes it easy to gauge where the beam's going to be.

Steve B.
 
A member wants sights for his Lycian Midgets, and I've convinced him to buy Telrads (even though I'm a SpotDot fan). His question to me was " 2" or 4" base extension, or none?" Since I've never used any, I told him I'd ask. Does anyone have any strong preference one way or another? @SteveB, can you post picture(s) of your elaborate mounting system?

For those unfamiliar with the Telrad, of course there's a YouTube for that.
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It's real purpose is as a telescope sight, so that's what the video discusses.

See also the thread http://www.controlbooth.com/threads/followspot-aiming-tips.4018/ .
 
I've used Telrads on followspots. I just gaff tape the base to the housing of the spot. I haven't used the extension, but would recommend one (not sure if 2" or 4" would be better - I'd be inclined to try the 4" first). Without the extension the Telrad is too close to the instrument to be easy to sight. I personally don't find the Telrad useful without a base extension for the 100' throw I'm used to; however, less experienced spot ops have found it quite valueable.
 
We have a Telrads on our two Lycian M2s. We have a couple of the 2" standoff mounts available for our spot ops to use as they prefer, as they're easy to add and remove. They work a treat. The rings correspond (in our space) to a headshot, head-to-waist, and full body shot. The standoffs do add a bit to the parallax error you get with changes in throw distance, but it's never terrible, and still way better than opening up blind.
We mounted the bases to the spots with the self-tapping screws after we'd played around with placements and Gaff, and ordered more bases to be used with tape in case we had wanted to temporarily transfer them to road spots. I should look into the DIY magnet option, there. The downside is they're fairly easy to forget on, and by the time you get back to them, the batteries are dead. I have yet to find out how long a fresh set will last when only used for shows - and we've had these for years - but the AAs they take are wildly plentiful here thanks to the Audio dept's wireless mic habits, so we don't actually buy them for that purpose any more, and have loads of spares around. (You can jam a couple of spares inside the Telrad case, too.)
Overall, I'd give the Telrad four out of five stars. Would definitely recommend to a friend.
 

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