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[Bonnie Lackey]

Our rental department is replacing 40 older fresnels and are considering ETC zooms.  In a rental situation why do most rental houses have the fixed degree ETCs?  How do the zoom ETC's hold up in a rental situation?  

What have been your experiences?

Thank you.  
Bonnie Lackey
Lackey Sound and Light, Inc.
http://www.LackeySound.com

[Don DeLong]

We've never had any problems with our Source4 zooms, although they've only been out on a few dry-hire rentals.  We've travelled across the country with them simply laying in the truck (no cases yet) and never had an issue.  

Hope this helps,
Don

[Craig Leerman]

Hi Bonnie,

My ETC Zooms have been pretty rugged. Way better than my Altman Shakespeare zooms (which I all but replaced).  Another fixture to look at is the S-4 JR Zoom. Its a great fixture, and a lot smaller than a standard zoom, but still has  great light output.  The only downside to the smaller JR Zoom is that it doesn't take the full size gobo patterns (It uses a smaller size gobo)

I am curious as to why you are going to replace Fresnels with Lekos though. Fresnels are a wash fixture, and Lekos (even wide zooms) will not give that wide a coverage.

Craig                                        

[Rob Timmerman]

Craig Leerman wrote on Wed, 09 June 2004 16:43

I am curious as to why you are going to replace Fresnels with Lekos though. Fresnels are a wash fixture, and Lekos (even wide zooms) will not give that wide a coverage.

IIRC, 8" fresnels didn't go wider than about 45 degrees field, while 6" fresnels go as wide as 70 degrees field.  If you're replacing 8" fresnels, yeah, a 25-50 degree zoom makes sense, although I might be inclined to look at the PARnel instead.  If you're replacing 6" fresnels, the only instrument that comes close is a Source 4 PAR, and it's not a direct replacement.

As far as the question about fixed vs zoom, fixed beam instruments  make more sense for dry-hire, because they are more familiar to people, easier to repair, and are enough cheaper that you can afford more instruments and a collection of lenses.  They also tend to be a bit more efficient than zooms, but that has changed recently.

[Bonnie Lackey]

Thank you everyone that answered this for us.  To explain the sale of old lights to purchase new lights --after 25 years of being in business, we are building our THIRD warehouse in November.  With the ability to sell online, etc. the employees now need to GET rid of something, ANYTHING before we purchase new ... anything.  It isn't financial, it is storage. If you want to purchase 40 of ____ then 40 something have to go in the dumpster or be sold.  So far this new policy is working quite well. Unfortunately the sets we are now building just keep stacking up ... As I say to the employees, just leave the bathrooms accessible.  Sigh.

Bonnie Lackey
Lackey Sound and Light, Inc.
http://www.Lackeysound.com