What's the worst light that you've owned?

[East Anglian Discos]

Over the years I bought loads of lighting, although much less in recent times.

I can recall some real duff purchases, but the worst 1 was in 2002 when bought a pair of Soundlab 100w scans. The principle of the light was fine, but no DMX and no way to control the beams meant they frequently scanned either to the left or right with nothing on the dance floor. No control whatsoever! They were similar I think to Abstact's Wildstar, but not as good. No Gobos either just coloured twister style coloured beams, but not as good. 18879

[rth_discos]

ADJ Inno Pocket Scan

12w just isn't enough for a disco light

It looked great in a dark room with haze, but beyond that had very little impact.

It's a shame because in essence it was excellent - just let down by a low watt LED bulb.

[Imagine]

TWO spring to mind.

Like Gavin - I own a pair of Inno-Pockets, except mine are the moving head version...what a waste of money they were!
The other? The Domin8tr 2....hideous, noisy dot spewer only ever went out twice!

[East Anglian Discos]

TWO spring to mind.

Like Gavin - I own a pair of Inno-Pockets, except mine are the moving head version...what a waste of money they were!
The other? The Domin8tr 2....hideous, noisy dot spewer only ever went out twice!

I had 2 pairs of the Inno-Pocket Spot Twins. These were the same but with 2 moving heads on the same thick bar. The idea was that you simply mounted them on a speaker/Gravity stand. I thought it was ok for small venues, but it didn't really like them. If I remember correctly the ADJ IRC Remote only worked at the front and not the back was was a pain.

[Nakatomi]

2 fixtures spring to mind. Chauvet scorpion RGB clusters & 2 equinox 25w led scanners. The scanners might have had 15 more watts than inno pocket thingies, but they were no brighter compared head to head.

Further back than that... Those awful lightscreens & R080 spot boxes. Simple & effective but they epitomise all that was bad about discos of old - big heavy boxes that don't light a room much & get hot. Ironically, the best fixture I owned was also an R080 spot box, but I could mount it up high on a tripod so it wouldn't be obscured by dancers :D

[rth_discos]

Actually, I've just remembered *the* worst light:

18880

This little beauty.

Was pretty much a standard feature of budget discos back in the day.

I had one in the late 90s, and was up on my T-bar along with a few pin spot lights.

The pin-spot lights looked great, but had quite a tight beam and little coverage.

But this thing provided great coverage.

The only issue was it was *very* sensitive to sound. As soon as the volume went up, the built in Sound 2 Light worked at its fastest setting, which was basically 'strobe'!

[Nakatomi]

Actually, I've just remembered *the* worst light:

18880

This little beauty.

Was pretty much a standard feature of budget discos back in the day.

I had one in the late 90s, and was up on my T-bar along with a few pin spot lights.

The pin-spot lights looked great, but had quite a tight beam and little coverage.

But this thing provided great coverage.

The only issue was it was *very* sensitive to sound. As soon as the volume went up, the built in Sound 2 Light worked at its fastest setting, which was basically 'strobe'!


Oh! When I said r080 spot boxes I meant big heavy wooden contrivances with at least 8 lamps in them, driven by a 4 channel light chaser. The likes of me wouldn't possibly splurge on any of that 'ready made' stuff :lol:

[Imagine]

Oh! When I said r080 spot boxes I meant big heavy wooden contrivances with at least 8 lamps in them, driven by a 4 channel light chaser. The likes of me wouldn't possibly splurge on any of that 'ready made' stuff :lol:

OI!!!!

What's wrong with big heavy wooden contrivances with at least 8 lamps in them, driven by a 4 channel light chaser?
There's a HUGE market for that type of setup in "normal" times. And there are several people who use ONLY those setups and make a very respectable living from them.

When we're eventually allowed off the leash again (oh....roll on normality over driving a 3.5 tonne hippopotamus full of groceries down narrow streets for a fraction of the price of a decent party....), Retro is going to be one of the three big things I concentrate on.

[mattydj50]

I had 2 pairs of the Inno-Pocket Spot Twins. These were the same but with 2 moving heads on the same thick bar. The idea was that you simply mounted them on a speaker/Gravity stand. I thought it was ok for small venues, but it didn't really like them. If I remember correctly the ADJ IRC Remote only worked at the front and not the back was was a pain.

I had one of these which I intended to use in a regular small venue coupled with a pair of the original Chauvet Obsessions. Never made the grade so they were hastily replaced with a pair of Inno Pocket Scans alongside a pair of Inno Pocket Rolls. All four hard mounted on one T-bar. They lasted 6 months before being sold on and I went back to the Obsessions and a pair of mini Kintas.

[Benny Smyth]

I honestly cannot think of a light that I regret buying.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't touch an ADJ Revo 4 with a barge pole in 2020, but it was right for me at the time when I bought it. The lighting that I had back then in not comparable to what I have now, but I have no buyer's remorse for any of it.

[Excalibur]

I honestly cannot think of a light that I regret buying.


Benny, that would be because you are a mere child, and have not had the pleasure of purchasing woefully underpowered scanners and rollers ( Revo Rolls, ADJ Inno Rolls ) unbelievably heavy but uncontrollable units ( EFX 500, still the most bang for your buck available, Geni Spin3s and the lighter, awesome, but still uncontrollable Acme Samurai ), and you have the benefit of modern information highways populated with savants such as myself ( who still apparently haven't got the hang of Rule 23. Naughty Peter. :blush::Naughty: ) which allows you to make wise and informed choices.


Nurse! My tablets please. :daft:

[DJ Jules]

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't touch an ADJ Revo 4 with a barge pole in 2020, but it was right for me at the time when I bought it. The lighting that I had back then in not comparable to what I have now, but I have no buyer's remorse for any of it.

I'm impressed that you researched enough to have never experienced "used once, never touched again" syndrome :D

Worst light I've owned...? I hate the ADJ Eco UV bars with a passion. I've got 2 of them, the output is great and I still use them, but I hate the physical design of them. Whoever thought these things up was taking tips from Apple on repair-ability. They're made from extruded aluminium section and the LED boards are stuck to the section inside so the body becomes the heatsink for the LED's. The control board and 2x mains PSU's are slid into the back box of the section and the mains and DMX connectors are on fly leads at each end which prevents the PSU's from being removed without destruction of the cables. Add to this a crazy little mess of fiddly metal brackets, bolts and locknuts that slide into the back of the section to mount them and a thin perspex screen over the front of the LED's and you've got a fragile mess of a fixture that is hard to position, prone to breaking and bending, prone to cable breaks and also suffers from failure due to heat build up because the chassis becomes hot in operation and the dual PSU's are INSIDE the chassis with no ventilation. I do not get a lot of use out of them, but I've now returned 2 out of 4 due to PSU failure and I've had to machine my own brackets out of aluminium block to fit the extruded section because I'm so fed up with the supplied ones bending and breaking in use.

Nasty.

I picked up a bulk load of kit about 10 years ago and there was some nasty junk in there. Soundlab moonflowers, cheap pattern lasers and lots of really horrible cheap fixtures that were sold on sharpish and never even saw the light of day on my rig before they were sold. They're probably the worst lights that I've technically owned, but not by choice :D

I can't think of any fixtures I've bought that have ended up sat in the corner gathering dust. I never succumbed to any of Maplin's "bargain" lights otherwise it might be a different story (I did buy a PA from there, but that's for a different thread!)

However, +1 vote for anything that used Bulgin power connectors or R080 lamps :D

Julian

[Nakatomi]

I certainly don't regret buying (or making) any of the lights I've owned because they were right for me at the time. Right price, right kind of effect etc. But times change & one day I thought "nope, it's time to move on".

It's funny seeing ads for things like the equinox domin8or where the ad description says "gigged twice". If it hadn't been for a couple of ads like those I'd have been tempted to succumb.

As for dotty lights, I'd done more than enough walk-in gigs where a revo or similar had been put in so I simply would never have even gone there.

[Excalibur]

I certainly don't regret buying (or making) any of the lights I've owned because they were right for me at the time. Right price, right kind of effect etc. But times change & one day I thought "nope, it's time to move on".

It's funny seeing ads for things like the equinox domin8or where the ad description says "gigged twice". If it hadn't been for a couple of ads like those I'd have been tempted to succumb.

As for dotty lights, I'd done more than enough walk-in gigs where a revo or similar had been put in so I simply would never have even gone there.

Indeed. I must say that the meetings in the function room of a standard WMC near the Discotechnology shop have been invaluable for guiding many DJs towards suitable lights ( and indeed sound ) for their needs. We got to see and hear a lot of stuff before it was widely available.

[stormproductions]

Can't quite believe I'm replying to this at 10.15pm on a Saturday in June. Obviously in a normal year I'd be expecting to be working.

Worst light I've ever owned in some ways may be the Martin Exterior 600, as they're so blinking heavy and awkward (48kg), no way of changing any settings (even the DMX address!) without connecting to a laptop running specific Martin software via an interface, and worst of all they're by far the worse intelligent lights I've ever had to service. However, when they're in use they're still pretty good so I can't claim them as my worst lights.

That's got to go to some well used Silverstar branded moving heads I picked up as part of a package many years ago, very vaguely along the lines of a MAC250, the engineering on them was appalling and there was no way I'd ever have risked using them on a gig as they'd almost certainly have failed.

[mattydj50]

I honestly cannot think of a light that I regret buying.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't touch an ADJ Revo 4 with a barge pole in 2020, but it was right for me at the time when I bought it. The lighting that I had back then in not comparable to what I have now, but I have no buyer's remorse for any of it.

Oh, yes, I bought one of those as well. Looked great on videos and in the shop, but when I put it into service, it disappointed big time. Went straight back!

[East Anglian Discos]

Prior to the internet and proper reviews, many of my purchases were based upon upon visiting the local dealer, and entering a blacked out room filled with fog where even a pocket torch would look great :)

I owned a couple of Soundlab Valera lights around 20 years ago. Massive coverage, basic control, but horrible to transport due to size and loads of sharp edges to cut your fingers on. They also ate bulbs!