Lighting at Sea Part 3
I had a VL2500 blow a lamp today, taking with it the UV Filter and dimmer wheel. There is a policy to change the lamps every 10 weeks or so to try and avoid this type of damage, but this lamp was only about 6 weeks old. I like the VL2500, it’s small, works well, has good gobos, but like a lot of moving lights, you have to take the whole thing apart to fix anything when it breaks. The UV filter is right above the lamp, but you can’t get to it from the lamp side of the fixture, you have to go in through the side, and almost completely gut the fixture to get there. It takes longer to get to the UV filter than it does to replace it.
I have two VL’s in the rig that I’ve noticed have an issue with dimming, they are brightest at about 30 percent and almost out between 40 and 80 percent and then get to around a 75 percent yield when they are at full, I haven’t had an opportunity to pull them down and look at them, but I am curious to see what is causing this to happen. So, stay tuned!
Another issue I’m having with some of my VL’s is they appear to have either their cyan or yellow wheel stuck in place so that the light is not the color it should be. This isn’t too bad or noticeable during effects, even color changing effects; where it is really noticeable is when there are a bunch of VL’s on all one color (but especially white) because you can clearly see that it’s a different color. Might be a bad motor, or the belt has come off the motor, but once again, I’m waiting for an opportunity to get my hands on the light.
