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Came-TV Boltzen lights?
Hey everyone. Ive looking at some of the Came-TV Boltzen LED fresnel lights and they look pretty decent for the price. I was just curious if anyone here has had experience with them and what your thoughts were?
Thanks!
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5 Replies
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I have some of them, we’ve been using them for a few months.
They’re good lights, very solid, fairly controllable light for an LED fresnel. Although… even though they call them that they are not true fresnels… they don’t have a fresnel lens but some sort of more honeycomb-like lens. They work well, focus well.
They are a bit power hungry at full blast and will eat through an NP battery relatively quickly (maybe 35-45 minutes). For longer run times we power them with AB brick batteries, they come with a power cord that has a powertap connection on it so that’s easy.
Other thing to note, there are 35 and 55 designations of these lights. Some people have recommended the 35 since it does not have a fan, and so it is quieter than the 55. Well, ignore that, go for the more powerful 55. You absolutely CANNOT hear the fan… maybe if you pressed your ear to the housing you could hear it hum, but otherwise they are totally silent even though they contain fans.
I give them a very positive review.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Thanks I really appreciate the input. Glad to hear the fan isn’t an issue. I heard mixed opinions on that. Yes indeed I am thinking about getting a pair of 55w versions, but im also looking at the 100w and 150w versions as well. Im just not not sure if I should maybe shell out the extra cash and go with some Aputure 120D ii’s instead. People seem to swear by their reliability and not so much for the Came-TV stuff. Hence the thread. I know the Came-TV lights have some excellent CRI/TCRI ratings as well as good output per watt.
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Well, that’s a little bit apples-and-oranges. From what I’ve heard the Aputures are good instruments, but keep in mind those 120D heads are open-faced instruments, and are not fresnel heads, like the Boltzens are. Personally I’d rarely (if ever) use an open-faced instrument for a job that called for a fresnel, and vice versa.
I think Aputure might have an add-on fresnel accessory attachment among the various light modifiers they sell… but in its out-of-the-box state the 120D is not a fresnel.
The Came-TV lights are indeed cheap, and you tend to get what you pay for. However so far these have performed great, and seem to be built very very well. And yes, the fan is absolutely silent… so much so that I actually forgot they had fans in them until I’d had them a couple of months and suddenly remembered someone mentioning it. I knew you would not be able to hear them on location, but even on stage in a perfectly silent environment you still can’t hear them.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yeah the aputure does indeed have a fresnel add-on accessory that works great from my understanding. Its only about $70. Still, the Came-TV lights can be used as open face as well if need be which is nice.
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Does anyone know if the bi-color versions work at full output?
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