“Aputure 600d and Nova P300c Panel Updates”

The fresnel came in a little while ago and man, it's a beast. That's a big 'ole piece of glass. After attaching it to the head, it's way heavier than my Bron Kobold 800 HMI with barn doors and frosted glass diffusion. And I didn't even put the barn doors on the 600d. And speaking of, it's much more subdued than the barn doors. 'Aputure' is only on one place on the side.

The beam looks to be pretty nice in the quick test I did just shooting it onto some trees in the woods and into the carport. If it's nice again tomorrow/this weekend, I really want to do a head-to-head with one of my Bron Kobold 800 HMI's, since that's the watermark for me for it's use cases. If it is as good or at least 90% of the way there, I'll probably be a happy camper.

I am probably going to have to have a case designed/built for it all, though. I don't want to have to carry the light/ballast, fresnel and barn doors all in three separate bags/cases, because there is no way to fit it all in the case that the 600d comes it, even if you removed all of the padding. Not sure if I'll try to go with something like retrofitting a Pelican or reach out to Larry Nolan at Versaflex, who is doing a custom job for me right now, or if I want to go 'whole hog' and have Thermodyne design something.
 
So, some quick initial impressions from a use perspective now that I have the fresnel and barn doors.

It's a HEAVY light, fully assembled. With the fresnel and barn doors both attached, it feels very heavy(especially front heavy). Much heavier than my fully metal 800 HMI with reflector, glass frost filter and metal barn doors. I hope the single yoke brake is (over)engineered well, because if it goes, you are screwed, unless you only use the stock reflector. And as I've never used a light with a Bowens mount, I wonder how much weight and torque they are designed to take? I'm guessing it's probably at its max(if not more), because it's not just a static load. When you adjust the focus on the fresnel, it takes a not-insignificant amount of force and you can feel/see the fresnel moving in the mount.

And speaking of the fresnel, and it may seem like a small thing, but it takes two hands to adjust the focus. Whereas I'm used to lights, like my Bron Kobold 800, that only takes two fingers, because you're only turning a small knob.

The barn doors are heavy, and like the large barn doors on the Nila Boxer, they do not have enough tension on them for to support themselves(open/closed). It only takes a literal bump of a finger to move them, and they're brand new. I will have to check and see if they can be tightened down, but right now I would be extremely hesitant to use them outside with any type of wind beyond a very light breeze. It's not going to take much more than a slight gust to move them(possibly fully closing the top over the light). Big oversight. As a matter of fact, just picking the whole thing up on a stand and moving it ten feet, the top door closed. The barn doors on my BK's take a very deliberate force and action to open and close them.

Things I do like:
Instant ON
"Full" range dimming
Option/ability to power via battery
Ballast can charge batteries
Mount to attach the ballast to the light stand
App control
PowerCON connector for A/C cable and long A/C cable
Nice transport case for basic system for day-to-day light duty/single user use(would not stand-up to rental and shipping)
Relatively cheap vs. light output(when comparing to comparable HMI's)

Things I do not like:
With fresnel and/or barn doors, head becomes very heavy(especially front heavy)
Weak barn doors/not enough tension to reliably stay in position(fixable?)
Two hands to adjust focus of fresnel
Unknown reliability in wet conditions
A/C power cable plugs into bottom of/underneath ballast
Fans required to cool head and ballast
Will have to spend extra money to make a singular case to carry/transport all major components together

IMG_5762.jpg
 
Run&Gun said:
So, some quick initial impressions from a use perspective now that I have the fresnel and barn doors.

It's a HEAVY light, fully assembled. With the fresnel and barn doors both attached, it feels very heavy(especially front heavy). Much heavier than my fully metal 800 HMI with reflector, glass frost filter and metal barn doors. I hope the single yoke brake is (over)engineered well, because if it goes, you are screwed, unless you only use the stock reflector. And as I've never used a light with a Bowens mount, I wonder how much weight and torque they are designed to take? I'm guessing it's probably at its max(if not more), because it's not just a static load. When you adjust the focus on the fresnel, it takes a not-insignificant amount of force and you can feel/see the fresnel moving in the mount.

And speaking of the fresnel, and it may seem like a small thing, but it takes two hands to adjust the focus. Whereas I'm used to lights, like my Bron Kobold 800, that only takes two fingers, because you're only turning a small knob.

The barn doors are heavy, and like the large barn doors on the Nila Boxer, they do not have enough tension on them for to support themselves(open/closed). It only takes a literal bump of a finger to move them, and they're brand new. I will have to check and see if they can be tightened down, but right now I would be extremely hesitant to use them outside with any type of wind beyond a very light breeze. It's not going to take much more than a slight gust to move them(possibly fully closing the top over the light). Big oversight. As a matter of fact, just picking the whole thing up on a stand and moving it ten feet, the top door closed. The barn doors on my BK's take a very deliberate force and action to open and close them.

Things I do like:
Instant ON
"Full" range dimming
Option/ability to power via battery
Ballast can charge batteries
Mount to attach the ballast to the light stand
App control
PowerCON connector for A/C cable and long A/C cable
Nice transport case for basic system for day-to-day light duty/single user use(would not stand-up to rental and shipping)
Relatively cheap vs. light output(when comparing to comparable HMI's)

Things I do not like:
With fresnel and/or barn doors, head becomes very heavy(especially front heavy)
Weak barn doors/not enough tension to reliably stay in position(fixable?)
Two hands to adjust focus of fresnel
Unknown reliability in wet conditions
A/C power cable plugs into bottom of/underneath ballast
Fans required to cool head and ballast
Will have to spend extra money to make a singular case to carry/transport all major components together
Click to expand...

Thanks for the write up. That's a shame about the current situation with the barn doors. Having the barn doors close completely over the light at full output sounds a bit dangerous - especially if it's up high on a stand.

Can you change the tension at all? At least it's a separate detachable accessory so they can probably put out an improved version pretty easily. Maybe enough people have to complain first?
 
rob norton said:
Thanks for the write up. That's a shame about the current situation with the barn doors. Having the barn doors close completely over the light at full output sounds a bit dangerous - especially if it's up high on a stand.

Can you change the tension at all? At least it's a separate detachable accessory so they can probably put out an improved version pretty easily. Maybe enough people have to complain first?
Click to expand...

I'm gonna try and see if I can tighten the hinges. And yes, you could just not use them. Honestly, most of the time when I'm using an HMI outside, I don't need the barn doors anyway. I'm usually lighting a person and have them open fully, so it's not really hurting anything if I just removed them. But still disappointing that they are not really up-to-the-task of what they were designed for.
 
Run&Gun said:
I'm gonna try and see if I can tighten the hinges. And yes, you could just not use them. Honestly, most of the time when I'm using an HMI outside, I don't need the barn doors anyway. I'm usually lighting a person and have them open fully, so it's not really hurting anything if I just removed them. But still disappointing that they are not really up-to-the-task of what they were designed for.
Click to expand...

How are the barn doors attached? If the light takes other standard wire scrim sizes, could it take any existing tungsten/HMI barn doors?

I'm not talking about their own creation to take care of the size of the source when using with the fresnel but in the same set up as you have above.
 
rob norton said:
How are the barn doors attached? If the light takes other standard wire scrim sizes, could it take any existing tungsten/HMI barn doors?

I'm not talking about their own creation to take care of the size of the source when using with the fresnel but in the same set up as you have above.
Click to expand...

It’s a 10” fresnel and has four standard looking ears at 3, 6, 9 and an articulating one at 12 , and according to Aputure, is set up to take standard 10” accessories, like scrims(there is space), so I guess you could conceivably use another manufacturers barn doors designed for that size.

Shockingly, the Arri barn doors for a 2K open face(listed as taking 10” scrims) are the same price as the Aputure, though without the expanding side leaves.
 
Run&Gun said:
It’s a 10” fresnel and has four standard looking ears at 3, 6, 9 and an articulating one at 12 , and according to Aputure, is set up to take standard 10” accessories, like scrims(there is space), so I guess you could conceivably use another manufacturers barn doors designed for that size.

Shockingly, the Arri barn doors for a 2K open face(listed as taking 10” scrims) are the same price as the Aputure, though without the expanding side leaves.
Click to expand...

Maybe their plan is for people to pick up arri barn doors but didn't want to say that in the marketing material.

I've got a 2k but no 600d to test them on. If they work and word gets out, there could be a shortage of barn doors from the other brands. It'd be pretty funny if an arri product was essential to truly complete the aputure system.
 
While the fresnels are handy, I'm actually finding the "Aputure Barndoors" (the blacked-out reflector + felted barndoors combo) to be perhaps my favourite modifier on the COB lights so far. GREAT for quick, hard cuts, and shaping without having to bring in additional flags.
 
How do you get the app to work? I haven't been able to connect to both the 600D and the Aputure bulbs I got. It also made me register an account to use the app. Like, what the heck? I or a new gaffer for the day shouldn't have to register an account just to use an app.

Yeah, their decision to have the plugs sticking out of both ends of the ballast so you can't have it sit upright was a poor choice, especially considering the handle is placed at the top where it'd be natural to pick it up if it was upright.

Bright light. Like it so far.

Any thoughts on the projection attachment? Seems overly large.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
How do you get the app to work? I haven't been able to connect to both the 600D and the Aputure bulbs I got. It also made me register an account to use the app. Like, what the heck? I or a new gaffer for the day shouldn't have to register an account just to use an app.

Yeah, their decision to have the plugs sticking out of both ends of the ballast so you can't have it sit upright was a poor choice, especially considering the handle is placed at the top where it'd be natural to pick it up if it was upright.

Bright light. Like it so far.

Any thoughts on the projection attachment? Seems overly large.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I don't like that you have to log in to the app periodically. It's really not a good setup. The app itself is good, but the need to be a logged-in user is BS.

What projection attachment? The regular spotlight? It's fine. I own it. However, it's not designed specifically for the 600d. Works ok, but you are losing a bunch of output because it's not optimized for that COB. In other words, it's not 2x the amount of output of the 300d with the attachment. Not sure exactly how much light loss though. Haven't done actual readings of the two setups, although I own all of said pieces, so I could try to test it next time I have them all out.
 
Any other Nova 300c owners out there buy the barn doors and/or the Aputure soft box for the unit? I'm still testing my unit out - haven't used it on a proper job yet... barn doors seem a necessity... but seem to be on back order everywhere. I realize the doors won't make hard cuts... just wondering if they work generally well for flagging off areas. That 120 beam spread just goes everywhere...
 
markfpv said:
Any other Nova 300c owners out there buy the barn doors and/or the Aputure soft box for the unit? I'm still testing my unit out - haven't used it on a proper job yet... barn doors seem a necessity... but seem to be on back order everywhere. I realize the doors won't make hard cuts... just wondering if they work generally well for flagging off areas. That 120 beam spread just goes everywhere...
Click to expand...

I recently used my Nova and had to flag off some light… I attached some very large pieces of black cardboard to the sides of the light I needed to flag and even that was only barely enough to stop the spill from coming out of the side. Honestly the barn doors aputure makes won’t do very much for you in most situations - the leaves are much smaller than my ghetto DIY solution… save your money
 
chris_f said:
I recently used my Nova and had to flag off some light… I attached some very large pieces of black cardboard to the sides of the light I needed to flag and even that was only barely enough to stop the spill from coming out of the side. Honestly the barn doors aputure makes won’t do very much for you in most situations - the leaves are much smaller than my ghetto DIY solution… save your money
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting. I did see somewhere that the aputure barn doors do have some kind of strip that keeps light from leaking out the slits between doors... but that also sounds like one extra step - and likely one small piece that's just a nuisance to deal with...
I can always use flags or possibly even black wrap in a pinch... was just hoping to have to deal with extra stands, etc.
 
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