varying intensities driving me crazy!

[raeraeiam]

i've been noticing for some time now that certain lights just plain arent very bright, and others are (of the same light) most of these that i notice are source-4s, but i notice it with my two followspots too; one is nice and bright, and the other you can hardly tell it's on.
any ideas to what could be wrong? i would say maybe there's something wrong with dimmer/patching process, but it's consistent with the light no matter where they're plugged in, and the followspots arent even in channels at all.

 

[wakkoroti]

Bench Focus your lights! Use the optimization knob in the back of your source fours to put the center of the filament in the best brightest spot.

 

[Footer]

Bench Focus your lights! Use the optimization knob in the back of your source fours to put the center of the filament in the best brightest spot.

Bench as stated above, also lamps lose output over time, so your spot lamps might have alot of hours on them that will cause a loss of output.

 

[Van]

Bench Focus your lights! Use the optimization knob in the back of your source fours to put the center of the filament in the best brightest spot.

Bench focus the S4's and remember you need to focus the spots as well. The instructions should be in the owners manual, or on the safety sticker that tells you how to change lamps. You do still have those right ? or they are filed in a safe place ? How long since the lens in the s4's were cleaned ? Proper maintainence should include a cleaning schedule. Do a search on here about cleaning fixtures there is a very long thread about it. I was amazed at the number of people who respond in the manner of , " what ? you gotta clean 'em too ? "

 

[Grog12]

The only other thing I can add is to check the lamps themselves, I've had occasions where the lamps develps a white oxidation on the envelope that completley ruins the lamps output.

 

[raeraeiam]

ooh thanks so much! i will definetly check all those things out.
i love this site, everyone's so helpful!
thanks again!

 

[Thranduil]

Something else to check is the colour tempertature of the lamps in your lights. We in a rush before a show ordered some lamps from someone other than our normal distrubutor, and they ended up being a slightly different color temperature than our normal ones.(these are hpls for source fours). This made some of them look brighter than others.

 

[disc2slick]

also, as simple as it is, make sure you have the same wattage lamps in all of them. A 575w S4 vs a 750w will be quite different in terms of output.

-Dan

 

[ship]

Often happens that one brand to another or in long life verses high output mixed lamps that you will get an assortment of outputs. Same with voltage of the lamp installed - all posted as with very good advice above.

Color temperature unlike luminous output does not drop with distance. That’s fact. If the color temperature from fixture to fixture is different as opposed to luminous output (appairent say blueness to the light as opposed to intensity of what ever light it is), than that’s one thing to look towards. Another thing is just plain dim.

Add to what’s recommended so far that your dimmers are trimmed and don’t have some pre-set trim setting on them that on certain channels is lowering the output below what is now needed. Off balance trim settings and or recorded trim setting cues can also screw with the output and is much easier to check than each individual fixture.

Quick check after the dimmer programming is to take one fixture that is known to be the expected output and plug it into what fixture outlets are known to be less in output. If lower, it’s not the fixture it’s the trim setting or something in the cue or cable. If as expected as bright, it’s the fixture or lamp inside it.

Color temperature don’t change with distance. Use it after computer cues are disqualified from the problem solving.

 

[PhantomD]

We have a spot that's giving an almost unnoticeable output, methinks the bulb is about to blow?

Anyway this stupid problem caused us to drop spots for the most recent show because the last time we blew a spot it tripped the main building power breakers!!!

So I guess I am after another CP72...