Astera Pluto & Leo Fresnel Fixtures

I was wondering when we’d see internal batteries in medium sized lights. The fresnel light quality looks great. Yoke turning into a ground stand is cool too.
 
rob norton said:
I was wondering when we’d see internal batteries in medium sized lights. The fresnel light quality looks great. Yoke turning into a ground stand is cool too.
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It’s the same with their AX-5’s & 9’s, too. Although I look at it sorta the opposite. The ground stands can be adapted with a TVMP mount to go on a stand. ; ) And the same idea, but different design on the AX-3’s.

The only thing that’s a little odd/different with these, the cases don’t seem to be designed/intended as ‘charging cases’ , like is the case (no pun intended) with so many of their other fixtures. Regardless, I’m pretty interested in trying out the Pluto. I think I’d like to have a couple of those in the arsenal.

*edit*. Looking at the spec sheet, it does include two power supplies in the kit. What I saw yesterday said it only came with one power supply, which would have made it hard to charge both simultaneously. But it still doesn’t look as streamlined and convenient as some of the other charge case set-ups.
 
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Not that it's a big deal either way but do you think with TVMP adapter installed, you could still use the foldable legs on the ground?

Yeah you'd think they'd have a charging case. It's easier charging v/gold mount batteries than entire lights.
 
Just heard about pricing... ~US$1700 for the small 90watt one and over US$4000 for the 250watt light. That's a bit hard to swallow
 
rob norton said:
Not that it's a big deal either way but do you think with TVMP adapter installed, you could still use the foldable legs on the ground?
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No. But I just screw them on and off when necessary with my 3's & 5's. Only takes a few seconds, at least with the ones that I use.
 
chris_f said:
Just heard about pricing... ~US$1700 for the small 90watt one and over US$4000 for the 250watt light. That's a bit hard to swallow
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$1700 for a kit with two Pluto's and the charging case wouldn't be too bad, but for just for a single 80 watt fixture, that's steep.
 
chris_f said:
Just heard about pricing... ~US$1700 for the small 90watt one and over US$4000 for the 250watt light. That's a bit hard to swallow
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This is quite the indictment coming from the owner of some pretty costly lighting equipment. Astera obviously hit one of the biggest home runs in lighting history with the titan tubes, but if chris_f is saying something's too pricy you're in trouble!
 
chris_f said:
Just heard about pricing... ~US$1700 for the small 90watt one and over US$4000 for the 250watt light. That's a bit hard to swallow
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Hey Chris, where did you see the pricing? RedShark is saying €1070 & €2750, which with a straight conversion at the current exchange rate to USD is about $1145 & $2942. I would possibly jump into a set at that price.
 
Something doesnt sing to me about these. (in the context where the tubes have been a winner - or certainly ive seen them on a lot of jobs)

Im trying to work out what that is.

I guess the tubes are often seen in shot so no battery to hide becomes a winner.

They are also put on ceilings and the like, again no cable wrangling is great.

But if you have worked with astras (and I have!) the dp chat goes like this..

'brighter'
'sure but then we get 1 hour runtime'
'ok dial them back a bit we can charge at lunch'
'hmm to charge them we have to take them all down'
'fk it leave them at 5% and have some fillers on standby'

And that is a pretty bad conversation when the prodco rented maybe $15k of asteras (enough to do a corridor ceiling)

So to go down the battery onboard route sucks hard, but on occasion where the fixture is seen in shot and is in a hard to get at location.. can be worth it.

THat is not likely to be the case with a fresnel spot that doesnt look like a practical fixture.
 
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this is a phone shot from exactly where this convo happened (it happenend many times during the shoot)
 

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not to mention charging this at night and having it ready for the next day meant late starts and finish (and overtime costs) for a couple of sparks - it has to be two to 'work safely on a ladder'
 
morgan_moore said:
Something doesnt sing to me about these. (in the context where the tubes have been a winner - or certainly ive seen them on a lot of jobs)

Im trying to work out what that is.

I guess the tubes are often seen in shot so no battery to hide becomes a winner.

They are also put on ceilings and the like, again no cable wrangling is great.

But if you have worked with astras (and I have!) the dp chat goes like this..

'brighter'
'sure but then we get 1 hour runtime'
'ok dial them back a bit we can charge at lunch'
'hmm to charge them we have to take them all down'
'fk it leave them at 5% and have some fillers on standby'

And that is a pretty bad conversation when the prodco rented maybe $15k of asteras (enough to do a corridor ceiling)

So to go down the battery onboard route sucks hard, but on occasion where the fixture is seen in shot and is in a hard to get at location.. can be worth it.

THat is not likely to be the case with a fresnel spot that doesnt look like a practical fixture.
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For "longterm" installs, like in a set, where they may be there for several days or longer, battery powered lights can be a problem, especially if there's no easy way to charge them, but for certain other types of shoots, like what I do(heavily weighted towards interviews) where the set-ups are up for usually just a few hours, maybe the day, then the Astera system is great. I did have one last year, a two-day event where we were live for about eight hours a day from a sports related media event, and I needed to "spice up the background" of the large room that we were in. I used my Astera AX-3's and AX-5's and set the run-time for about 10-12 hours, to give us some pad and then I had to pick them up when we were finished at the end of the first day and put them in the charging cases so they'd be ready the next day, then place them back out the next morning.
 
chris_f said:
It was at the 7minute mark in this interview - perhaps the rep got his information wrong?

https://youtu.be/zX_YKDeiipk
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I actually stumbled across that video a little while after my post. Not sure how I missed it before. But yes, I hope the rep was wrong, as well. That's a pretty significant difference. Of course, that's based on the presumption that RedShark had the correct price, too.
 
I just heard at the end of the cined interview that studio versions are on their way. No pulling out of a case already charged but it'd be great if there were cheaper, smaller versions with access to the same set of optics, especially since these lights don't really need to be in shot that often and if they are, nobody will care about seeing a cable. I doubt they'll be smaller though.
 
Hoping to get clarification on US pricing soon. Texted with one of my sales reps today about them. They had no pricing info in their system, but reached out to one of their "lighting people"* that was at Cine Gear and saw them.

*Apparently they have partnered with Lux Lighting to help better serve customers lighting needs.
 
I wish these just had a V-mount bracket on the back and were balanced appropriately. I know i'm close to describing the new Dedolights, but not having a ballast is such a boon on fixtures like these.
 
Quested said:
I wish these just had a V-mount bracket on the back and were balanced appropriately. I know i'm close to describing the new Dedolights, but not having a ballast is such a boon on fixtures like these.
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Not a fan of the yoke mount battery plate? I wish more lights had them.
 
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