Since 2003, I've added some models of moving head and scanners, which I consider "favorites"! For now, I have achieved my goals, having a fixture with CMY color mixing, more than one prisms and a Clay Paky! Next target is zoom. Here you will see some popular models, as well as some vintage lights.
The scanners! The first official fixture, of course, it would be a scanner! Well actually it was two of them. It was hard to believe back then that a dream that I had since I was a child came finally true. I remember that I was working the whole summer, after school was closed for holidays and I spent all the money for them. It was funny, because I had made my calculations for having some money for taxi, but I really spend them all. I had to walk for... hmm how many... it was about 2 kilometers I think, carrying them on my own, to the bus station. Happily they weren't fixtures with medal halide lamps!
I enjoyed them a lot through the years, I programmed them both with classic consoles and software and still they are working. I was thinking of giving them away, but as usual, I am emotionally attached to them!
Firestorm Scanners by Showtec
Rotating gobos ftw!! Another dream which became true sooner as I was expected, because Showtec in these Firestorm Series included a scanner with halogen lamp (which meant low cost usually) and rotating gobos too! I was so exited to get it!
Two years after Firestorm Scanners came, the Rotoscan was the top fixture, back then on 2005.
The Halogen Era has finished for me, but the three Firestorms are still in my attic to remind that this passion that I have for entertainment lighting, is never fading out.
Firestorm Rotoscan by Showtec
MSP250 by Contest Lighting
MSP 250, a moving head by Contest Lighting gain my attention from 2007. It was not my first moving head, I had got one already and it was the first fixture I bought after 2 years of innactivity, because of the Army mostly and the search for a new job.
MSP had a characteristic that I was seeking: Two gobo wheels. It was also the first fixture with motorized focus in my collection. I still play a lot with them, I am teasing their gobo paletes, plus I have added two special filters on the gobo wheel: UV and a light blue, which can be combined with the standard color wheel, giving me more color combinations.
One year later, I got another one.
The MSP model is an OEM fixture that can be found in American Dj and Futurelight discontinued catalogues.
I've made my first attempt of repair in one of them, with success! Dissasembling moving heads is really challenging !
EVO250 by Contest Lighting, another breakthrough for me, as another target acomplished. A fixture with iris and gradual frost was added in my bright family. EVO is also a popular fixture in another brand, it is the Design Spot 250Pro by Elation. The fixtures are identical. I think that Futurelight had also that specific model.
I love working with that fixture, not only because of the special features I mentioned above, but because its extremely silent and its optical system produces such clear and crisp projections.
The only complain that I have is about this UV filter that the factory is choosing for the color wheel. The "Dewberry" filter can not compare with the real UV dichroic.
In few words, I love the quality of construction and projection and I consider EVO one of my masterpieces in my collection.
EVO250 by Contest Lighting
The flagship of my lighting family and the most expensive fixture that I've managed to get, is the Design Spot 300e by Elation Lighting. It's the first and only fixture with CMY color mixing. I can't play enough with it's color combinations and its 2 prisms!
Of course, in addition to make a proper and impressive show, you need more than one, but for a collector like me, having at least one and new, it's an achievement.
DS300e is another fixture that I love to work with. Silent, like EVO, with a plethora of mechanical effects and amazing crisp optics. The disadvantage of that fixture is it's beam angle, which I consider that its wide, for the brightness of the MSR 300 lamp. I haven't work with it in a large area, only in my room and I believe that it will lack of brightness in larger distances, especially when you use CMY together with the color wheel, for darker, deeper colors.
Other than that, I am pleased that I own that model!
Design Spot 300e
by Elation Lighting
Stage Light 300
By Clay Paky. The brand speaks for it self! I admire Clay Paky fixtures, all the new technologies and patends that the company brought to the industry.
On 2010 I was searching for a used Clay Paky fixture, mostly a scanner, an HPE 300. I was eager to get one, to open its cover and observe the quality of construction.
I was lucky enough to get the Stage Light, brand new and when I got it and opened the cover, I just got amazed, there was nothing to compare with the fixtures that I have seen. We know that CP fixtures are expensive, but definitelly, they deserve every penny.
The wheels are so close to eachother and even the chassis is small, there is space for double blade shutter, moved by two steppers. Exept its classic gobos and the effect disk, which gives you a total of 32 color combinations, I really love the deep, dark Ultra Violet filter, which I have seen only in
Italian fixtures!
Stage Light 300
by Clay Paky
In the meantime, an affortable scanner got my attention on the internet, the Dj-Scan 300 by Futurelight. I liked it's chassis most, it reminded me the vintage, classic scanner chassis. Seing its demo ideos, I knew that it will not reach my expectations. But its price, the motorized focus and rotating gobos (ok, the prism too) were a temptation.
Since I bought it, I work with it time to time, but it has some dissadvantages: It is slow. Not only the mirror movement (in comparison with other scanners), but also the wheels, when you need to jump from one gobo / color to another. On the color wheel there is only linear chanage of colors... Why??? And there is a single blade for shutte/dimmer.
But it's optics are desent, with good projection quality. If you ask me to be honest, the true reason that I don't want to give it away, is it's chassis!
DJ-Scan 300
by Futurelight
Eurocolour 2 by Electron
When I wanted a smaller restoration project, I was getting an Eurocolour 2. Made by Electron company, it has a unique color mixing system, providing linear colour change in one single channel, frost filter, gobos with beam reducers, manual focus and zoom.
The fixture needed just a deep clean after the complete dissasembly and it worked like new. It's light output is high due to optical system with condenser lenses. Eurocolor used to have an MSR400 lamp, but after a small adjustment I've installed an MSD 250.
PanScan 4 by SLS
The PanScan 4, which became Golden Light HMI 1200, another Greek made scanner, by SLS company, for which unfortunatelly I don't know details. This was my first huge scanner with HMI lamp, 4 prisms and two colour wheels.
The scanner was previously owned by a PA company and it's internal was in perfect condition. I've cleaned and repainted it's chassis without dissasembling it, giving a new name too.
Its light performance it's outstanding, the small beam angle allows the light to reach distances, with no a remarkable loss of brightness.
These two Italians, the Performance 575, were saved just moments before recycling. They are in perfect condition, despite their age (they born on 1996). They offer basic characteristics and the amazing Ultra Violet filter, but their optical system kills.
I would like to work with them in a large venue!
Performance 575 by COEF
Performance 200 by COEF
I've took this Performace 200 from a storage room, just to have spares for the Performance 575. It was abandoned, with it's main transformer missing.
When I brought it to my laboratory, obserbing it's mechanical effects, I decided that It worth a try to fix it. It just needed 12 and 24 V transformers. I was excited to see that the boards were working properly and only one motor needed replacement.
Along with static gobos and brilliand colours, that scanner offers an effect wheel with frost, two prisms and three special color filters that combine with the color wheel can give many more color shades.
Another model that proves that fixtures from 90's with low lighting output, could make an impressive show.
