Scanner vs. MovingHead

[dustin]

Hi,

as some of you know, I have a little "moving" problem with my scanner.

Until Thursday I have the possibility to exchange the scanner and get money back or change it against an other device.
The last days I took a look for other scanner or movingheads. At the moment I will only have one of this device, but totally I will increase up to 2 or 3 of the same devices.

So, now I'm unsure what should I do. Using scanner or movinghead. My favorite yet is movinghead, especially the American DJ DJ-Spot 300. Now, what's your opinion? What do you prefer for a small lightning setup?

[remco_k]

What do you prefer for a small lightning setup?

Uh, strange question for this forum but hey, here goes:
Take a nice kite, like this one:

Attach some rope to it, connect that to ground (read: earth). Wait for a thunderstorm, and you'll have a perfect scenario for disaster. (if holding the rope or standing nearby).
So read well: I don't recommend to play with lightning at all.

However, since we are on the FreeStyler forum, there is a small chance you meant lighting.
Here's what I think:
- Scanners are cheaper in general because of only small moving parts, needing small step motors.
- Moving heads have 1 big moving part: the head, needing relative big step motors. This (along with some other hardware related things, I guess) makes moving heads more expensive than scanners.
With these 2 points in mind, you could say that if you buy one scanner and one moving head with exacly the same specifications (light, gobo's, colors, you name it, general quality), the scanner is (a lot!) cheaper.
I believe scanners need less maintenance because of the mechanical differences.

There is one thing scanners always have in advantage: they are ...----====fast====----..... Only moving the little mirror or a complete head (moving head) is a big difference.
(to make it clear: talking about the pan/tilt moves).

So, for a beginner, who has no money growing in his backyard, who has no clear wish to really have a movinghead, I'd say: buy a scanner.
If you do have a clear wish to have a moving head, then its just a choice to be made.

And FYI: I made the same "lightning" mistake in the beginning.

[dmxlighting]

Well there is no straight forward answer to your question.

In my fleet I have a number of moving heads and a number of scans.
They both do a similar job but depending on the situation, environment, type of job etc. I will choose one or the other or use both.
The main difference is that a moving mirror fixture will always be faster that a moving head.

So what do you want to achive with your new light?

Also I would not buy any fixture that uses halegen type lamps (I think the AM DJ Spot range does) as they blow very easily and discolour in no time.

You might be better to look at the AM DJ LED Scans and Head (X-Move, X-Scan, X-Color). This range is cost effective, light weight, bright and reliable.
I fit this stuff in clubs and Ive had very little problems with it. The little clubs love it because they get alot of bang for there money.