Affordable Scanning Heads?

[Trike]

I'm starting to look for an affordable lighting setup to use with FreeStyler. This will be my first lighting setup. I understand you get what you pay for. One of the Scanner heads I've been looking at is the Chauvet DMX-600 Intimidator 1.0 Scanner. At $150 a head, it seems fairly reasonable. What i'm still unsure of, is how good it actually is. Has anybody used one and can tell me how the performance is?

I've also found a Elation Active scan 250 on CL for $150 without bulb. It seems to be a pretty high end unit from back in the day. My only concern is, I'll need about 4 heads. It seems pretty unlikely I'll find 3 more of the Elation heads for cheap. Matching the light quality will be hard if I mixed different brand heads.

Any other affordable heads to look at?

Thanks!

[dmxlighting]

In Europe I would recommend looking at www.thomann.de
Not sure that they ship to the US.

Chauvet and AMDJ make fairly good quality kit at fairly cheap prices so maybe thats your best option ?

[stuv]

If i were you I would look into second hand Moving Mirrors. Keep an eye on eBay or look into local auctions. If you have some basic electronics skills and/or maintenance, you can pick up some great bargains. All of my lights I aquire for very cheap/free, in various states needing some repair. I usually try to get atleast 4, then strip them down to parts, recondition them, and rebuild the best units i can. Usually I can repair all of them, however sometimes I have to scrap one or two for parts. It's not too time consuming, especially once you get to know a model of light, and I now have 30+ Lights (and have only spent about $4000 including some expensive "Love Buys").

Good Luck

[matt]

Yes Ebay can be your friend.


Most people will toss there light if it goes bad or put it on ebay.

I have rebuilt a few myself from parts!

[Trike]

Thanks guys, I've been keeping my eyes open on ebay to find some units. I was watching an auction that had 4 omniscan II scanners, but I didn't win it. I couldn't find much information on them and didn't want to chance it. But for the most part, all the decent used scanner lights i've seen are really expensive.

I'm still considering the Elation Active scan 250 that's on craigslist, but it's missing a bulb, so I can't test it. But it uses a HTI/MH type bulb, so it should be pretty bright compared to the halogen's
I found out the Chauvet Intimidator 1.0 has the Color wheel and gobo's as one unit. So you can't change the color independent of the gobo pattern. I found that as kind of a drawback since I wont have as much flexibility with the color and patterns. But maybe I'll need to compromise since they're cheap. I just don't want to be replacing them later down the road because of cheap quality.

This is the light i'm talking about. I can get these for $130 shipped USD
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/intimidator-10.html

[Mavi]

The problem with cheap lights: The vendors have to put in less features to make them cheap.

The combined gobo and color wheel is such a think. I realy do not like fixtures with only one wheel.

An other thing is the lamp. There is a big difference between 250W halogen and 250W MSD (Sorry, do not know if the terms are right in englisch). Of course the MSD-Lamp coasts much mur, but you receive a much brighter light beam. You can see a german video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FkOxVHwzW0 Go to 6:02. You see two light beams. On is from a 250W halogen lamp, the other from an 250W MSD lamp.

We had the problem to decide wich fixtures to buy some weeks ago. We compared a lot and decided to use 250W MSD lamps. We have some PAR CANs with 500W lamps in so we need some bright lights. A 250W halogen lamp would not look good next to them. We decided to buy two "HQ Power Aeron II 250 MSD". Thos fixtures coasts 300 Euro each (bought at musicstore, a german online store). You will get some cool features usualy just to finde in costly fixtures: rotating gobos, a rotating prism and a motorized focus. How good this fixture works I will report in two weeks, then we will use them on an event the first time.

Befor you buy something think about what you need. Perhaps it is better to buy only two fixtures (and perhaps later on two more) [if you buy from vendors that are well known it should be no problem to get them later again]. But with this fixtures you will have much more fun!

[matt]

I'm still considering the Elation Active scan 250 that's on craigslist, but it's missing a bulb, so I can't test it. But it uses a HTI/MH type bulb, so it should be pretty bright compared to the halogen's

Here are the Specs..

Its Very Similar to the American DJ Dj Scan 250 HP


Active Scan 250 - Professional DMX Scanner
High Output Intelligent Lighting Fixture

Control Features
• USITT DMX-512 (8-bit resolution)
• 6 DMX Channels
• 4 Digit LED display
• Self test & stand alone settings
• 3 Pin XLR Serial input/output

Features & Specs
• High luminous parabolic reflector system
• 19º Beam Angle
• Manual Focus
• 11 colors + white
• 7 gobos + spot
• 1 Glass Dichro Gobo
• Color & Gobo Scroll
• Gobo Shake Effect
• Rotating gobos
• Master/slave Operation
• Linkable with ACTIVE WAVE-250
• Sound activated built-in programs
• Mechanical Dimming 0-100%
• Mechanical Shutter
• Strobe & Pulse effect
• Variable Speed Strobe (1-15fps)
• Fan Cooled
GOBO SIZE: 26.9mm x 23mm

Technical Specifications
• Lamp: MSD250/2 (250W, 8500K, 2000H)
• Dimensions (LxWxH): 10.25” x 11.75” x 25.5”
(260x299x650mm)
• Weight: 30 lbs / 13.5 kgs
• Fuse 10A
• Voltage: 115V/60Hz
• Power Consumption: 300VA

[matt]

Edit..
OUCH!!!

$99 bucks for a bulb!!
http://bulbamerica.com/PLATINUM-ASD-250 ... 4-prod.htm


The American DJ Scan 250's use a 24volt 250watt Bulb thats $15

One thing to consider is lamp replacement when purchasing a fixture!

[Trike]

$99 bucks for a bulb!!

Yeah, They're expensive. I did find a vendor on ebay selling the MSD250/2 for $38 shipped.

I would prefer a MSD250 lamp over a halogen, strictly for the light output and quality.

Matt,
Do you use Scanners? if so what kind?

[stuv]

$99 (US$?) for a MSD250 is actually pretty cheap int he scheme of things. For a good quality MSD250 it's usually about AU$170.

They are expensive, however they have a very punchy beam. All discharge lamps have a nice white color that really punches through incandescent light. they are the more "professional" way to go, and the only way to economically get high output (ie: above 500W) without too much heat.

Also note: ELC250 dicroic Halogen may be $15-$30 but only had a lamp life of 50-200 hours IIRC. MSR250/2 has a lamp life of 1000-2000 hours IIRC, + has higher light output and more flexible color temperature.

Just my 2c...