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

[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. ) which allows you to make wise and informed choices.


Nurse! My tablets please.

[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

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

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

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!