Uni-Par makes the only plastic
PAR cans and the reviews on them are good.
http://www.unipar.com/
After that, there is steel and aluminum
PAR cans. Steel cans are typically for the
stage in having the ability to mount a
top hat,
scroller or what ever and have the
fixture neither rotate downward nor have problems in
fitting the accessory into the
gel frame brackets. Steel cans for the
stage are rugged and will last a long time without rivets loosening up, bending out of shape,
play in the
yoke etc.
For steel
stage and studio cans, (not having checked the main brands)
Altman, L&E,
Leviton, Times Square and
Strand no doubt all have a steel can if not also a rock and
roll aluminum can.
James Thomas Engineering / Thomas is known for the top of the
line in aluminum cans. You get what you pay for. Tomcat no doubt if not offering their’s are also top of the
line in thinking they offer them also.
After that, most major theater/rock suppliers such as Technilux, TMB, Creative
Stage Lighting,
BMI no doubt
Production Advantage and many others offer a product they engineered and farmed out to China or Europe in having made for them. Heck, where I work they also had their own custom fixtures made for them at one
point. Not very cost effective in the end. Also Penn Fabrication offers
PAR cans of some renown as a compering company to that of American DJ and others. (If you have not gotten it yet, I’m not offering an opinion of what is best or good, more the choices in general.)
Kupo is an amazing company - not perfect but some times they do make good gear in becoming in some cases or ways highly respected or on the
road to it. Kupo in the US has it’s primary distributor
thru Moonlight
www.moonlightusa.com Most theater suppliers can get Kupo gear but in some end result as with
ETC gear often not in an absolute way
thru ETC, Kupo gear comes
thru a main distributer. At very least when I’m ordering parts which often are standardized for rock and
roll cans, I use the Kupo exploded pictorial either off the Kupo website or Moonlight website (forget which) to ensure I get the part I’m asking for even if not for a Kupo
fixture. Moonlight also not saying that they are the best supplier for Kupo gear, but to the best of my knowledge, they are the primary supplier to the US. End user prices at times will very in a distributer being cheaper than an end user. Also with Kupo gear, as with any made overseas gear, at times if you need a part or bulk of gear you wait for stuff coming in from overseas, clearing customs
etc. in you getting your part or cans in time. This to the extent that at times those you bought the gear from simply won't be interested in helping you get parts to them. Not to say all or any distributer but at times it will happen that something is out of
stock (most
stock the various parts) or even that they seem to lack interest in stocking parts to what they sell. Welcome to the world of rock and
roll cans - best have some replacement parts in
stock rather than waiting on a boat. Resupply of parts is however a factor.
On parts by the way, the best
PAR 64 lamp
base on the market these days is the Sylvania/Osram “
PAR 1.” #F511914 is the number I work with. The aluminum frame about it helps in many ways support and protect it.
Nuts and bolts, there is a lot of rock and
roll cans out there and TMB even came out with an upgraded version of it within the last few months. Not better or worse, different in considering.
Back to nuts and bolts, there is defiant differences between a quality can and a crap can. First is the
gel frame clips. Does it have three clips with spring steel
gel frame retainers or four clips with one that is a spring hinge? The ones with the three clips are more often than not crap cans which won’t stand up, get bent up easily and won’t mount an accessory. Look to the
thickness of aluminum on the
fixture. The thicker the aluminum, the more resistant to rivets and bolts
thru them ovaling out the holes and becoming loose in a way that is hard to repair. Holes in the aluminum do open up larger holes especially around the
yoke mounts, after a few years of people adjusting the
fixture by way of not first loosening it’s knob, the aluminum does tend to wear out a
bit around these holes. That’s a problem. Thick aluminum good, thin wears out with time.
Three clip fixtures also don't stand up on their own and this also causes problems in them falling over and causing problems. Three clip
fixture... bad in my view, loose the spring retainer clip and you pay for another. This not to say that those four clip vesions are better in geneal given a
thickness of aluminum concept but for a
fixture that if you should set down on the
stage it won't fall over, those with a latch as it's fourth clip are superior and often better but not always.
At the bottom of the
fixture, the better fixtures have the aluminum rolled at it’s end rather than just terminating. Such rolled up into a circle aluminum adds a tremendous amounts of strength to this end that’s easy to
bend up out of round if just ending there. In addition to aluminum, you will often find on cheaper fixtures and especially the three clip ones a slightly smaller grade of steel that makes up the
gel frame clip. This steel also bends out of shape readily in not allowing the
gel frame to get into the
fixture.
Bend it back and you often also loosen up it’s mounts.
These for the most part are key factors in
fixture design and differences. I don’t buy my fixtures pre-wired - don’t like how it’s done. Nothing worse than a
SPT cord melting down unless it’s a crap
fixture mounted
barrier strip with terminals that come loose and wires that mount down from there unless it’s some just as bad if not worse cap splice that also don’t take the heat. Buy my fixtures un-wired so I can buy a lamp
base with 40"
whip to it and put that
whip into fiberglass sleeving. This and the
ground - rivets loosen up (something you want to check in prepping the
fixture), screws come loose, I got my own way of grounding in a better way. Buy it un-wired and
wire it yourself and you often can save a few bucks as an option.
None the less, there is an overview into a few suppliers and more important what you are looking for in differences between them.