Introducing the Prolycht Orion 300 FS

M

Mitch Gross

Veteran
The new Orion 300 FS from Prolycht Lighting is an RGBACL LED full spectrum spotlight. It can accept a variety of accessories such as a softbox, lantern, projector lens with gobos, and our new adjustable fresnel. In fact the Orion 300 FS with 2x Fresnel is the first focusing full spectrum color-tunable light in the film & video industry.

Here’s a Newsshooter article with more info, along with a link to the excellent video showcasing the Orion 300 FS, shot by Rodney Charters ASC.

https://www.newsshooter.com/2021/06/16/prolycht-orion-300-fs-full-color-rgbacl-spotlight/


BTW, it’s pronounced “pro-light.”
As in “Prolycht, Light Done Right”
 
Price info at the bottom of the article Mitch links to:

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Price & Availability
The Orion 300 FS and accessories are available immediately from authorized dealers in the US, UK, EU, and China. The light will retail for $2150 USD, and the 2x Fresnel will cost $320 USD.

For more information visit www.prolycht.com or www.prolycht.us.
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Mitch Gross said:
The new Orion 300 FS from Prolycht Lighting is an RGBACL LED full spectrum spotlight. It can accept a variety of accessories such as a softbox, lantern, projector lens with gobos, and our new adjustable fresnel. In fact the Orion 300 FS with 2x Fresnel is the first focusing full spectrum color-tunable light in the film & video industry.

Here’s a Newsshooter article with more info, along with a link to the excellent video showcasing the Orion 300 FS, shot by Rodney Charters ASC.

https://www.newsshooter.com/2021/06/16/prolycht-orion-300-fs-full-color-rgbacl-spotlight/


BTW, it’s pronounced “pro-light.”
As in “Prolycht, Light Done Right”
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Not to try to steal your thunder, but what about the Hive's? Specifically the 200-C and 575-C. They both have adjustable fresnels and a seven color light engine consisting of Red, Green, Blue, Amber, Cyan, Saphire and Lime emitters. Are they not considered "Full Spectrum"? And are their certain empirical date and criteria that can be measured and must be met to call/consider a light "Full Spectrum"?
 
We have some spectrum info available on our website with more to come. I believe Hive does as well. I don’t think it’s proper for me to comment on another manufacturer’s products but we welcome any shootout tests.
 
Mitch Gross said:
We have some spectrum info available on our website with more to come. I believe Hive does as well. I don’t think it’s proper for me to comment on another manufacturer’s products but we welcome any shootout tests.
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Looks like a job for Matt Allard, as he does arguably the most thorough and in-depth lighting reviews on the planet, right now.

“In fact the Orion 300 FS with 2x Fresnel is the first focusing full spectrum color-tunable light in the film & video industry.” But the Hive 200-C with seven color light engine, manufacturer claimed full spectrum output, and available focusing fresnel has been around since at least 2017 or ‘18. So, is someone fibbing, stretching the truth or just mistaken? Because, to quote and paraphrase Highlander, “There can be only one” first.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see competition among manufacturers. It usually benefits us. I just don’t want to see marketing claims muddy the waters, instead of just focusing(no pun intended) on the products themselves.
 
Run&Gun said:
Looks like a job for Matt Allard, as he does arguably the most thorough and in-depth lighting reviews on the planet, right now.

“In fact the Orion 300 FS with 2x Fresnel is the first focusing full spectrum color-tunable light in the film & video industry.” But the Hive 200-C with seven color light engine, manufacturer claimed full spectrum output, and available focusing fresnel has been around since at least 2017 or ‘18. So, is someone fibbing, stretching the truth or just mistaken? Because, to quote and paraphrase Highlander, “There can be only one” first.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see competition among manufacturers. It usually benefits us. I just don’t want to see marketing claims muddy the waters, instead of just focusing(no pun intended) on the products themselves.
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Y'know what? I'm pulling back on our claim. I don't want to be putting something out there that isn't true, or is maybe technically correct but somehow misleading. I know the guys at Hive and they make good products. I feel that we make an excellent light that stands on its own. I can't put the toothpaste back in the tube but I don't think I'll be making that statement again until we've had some discussion on the matter.
 
This looks like a fantastic light, congrats Mitch and team.

With the projection attachment, can you rotate the gobos? I'm assuming with a fixed bowens mount, a rotation function would need to be added to the modifier itself.

A source four for example, I believe gives 30 degrees of rotation for gobo fine tuning. If this isn't enough, a trick is to tilt the light up so the yoke and the fixture are completely in line, then mount it to a pin through a grip head. This essentially gives 360 control (heat dissipation aside) via the TVMP adapter. This trick isn't to school you Mitch, I'm just throwing it out there for any gobo enthusiasts who might not have thought of this as a solution.

For a cantilevered set up described above:
- can the light tilt up completely?
- is the locking knob strong enough to in hold various positions?

Are the gobos a standard size or unique to this light?

I know it might seem like I'm making a big deal about gobos but I think the projection attachment is a seriously underrated accessory. Some other options from various companies I've seen still seem like clunk/jank city to me so I think there's room for improvement in this space! The compact footprint of the projection attachment is extremely appealing and impressive.

EDIT: hive looks pretty good too with their source four compatibility.
 
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Nice job fielding questions and guff on the newsshooter page, Mitch! Very informative and patient. It looks like a really well-designed and useful product. I, too, would like to see head-to-head shootouts that evaluate color quality compared to competing products
 
The Bowen’s flange on the projection lens is a plate clamped to the focal spot assembly by four spring-mounted thumb screws. With the thumb screws “loose” the lens assembly can rotate 360-degrees on the mount with the springs providing plenty of friction to hold everything in place once set. And if you want to lock it in place for an install or perhaps protect against vibration on a car mount or whatnot, simply tighten the thumbscrews. There’s a spring clip that holds the gobo tray in place at angle. As the unit puts out very little heat it can be mounted at any angle and one of the improvements in the Orion 300 FS over the original Orion 300 is a stronger yoke & yoke tilt clamp, so you don’t have to worry about it holding the light & projector properly.

I think our gobos are a little smaller than ETC Source-4 Leko gobos, but I’m not sure. One gaffer mentioned to me that he thought he could easily fit a Leko gobo tray into our projector but I haven’t tried it myself yet. I need to get around to that.

I agree that Orion + focal spot can make for a great combo “killer app”. The projection is super clean, with no color fringing and even brightness from edge to center. The edges are razor sharp and it’s just really impressive performance. When I first saw it I was like “Wow.”
 
ahalpert said:
Nice job fielding questions and guff on the newsshooter page, Mitch! Very informative and patient. It looks like a really well-designed and useful product. I, too, would like to see head-to-head shootouts that evaluate color quality compared to competing products
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Thanks, some people like to pundit about things they don’t really know much about, but that’s fine as long as the info isn’t misleading. I’m just glad to have our products as part of the conversation. As far as shootouts go, that’s something I think is best left to reviewers. It would be rude coming from us and I don’t think people would trust our results as we’d be seen as having an axe to grind. But I’m happy to participate in any comparisons.
 
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Mitch Gross said:
The Bowen’s flange on the projection lens is a plate clamped to the focal spot assembly by four spring-mounted thumb screws. With the thumb screws “loose” the lens assembly can rotate 360-degrees on the mount with the springs providing plenty of friction to hold everything in place once set. And if you want to lock it in place for an install or perhaps protect against vibration on a car mount or whatnot, simply tighten the thumbscrews. There’s a spring clip that holds the gobo tray in place at angle. As the unit puts out very little heat it can be mounted at any angle and one of the improvements in the Orion 300 FS over the original Orion 300 is a stronger yoke & yoke tilt clamp, so you don’t have to worry about it holding the light & projector properly.

I think our gobos are a little smaller than ETC Source-4 Leko gobos, but I’m not sure. One gaffer mentioned to me that he thought he could easily fit a Leko gobo tray into our projector but I haven’t tried it myself yet. I need to get around to that.

I agree that Orion + focal spot can make for a great combo “killer app”. The projection is super clean, with no color fringing and even brightness from edge to center. The edges are razor sharp and it’s just really impressive performance. When I first saw it I was like “Wow.”
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Thanks Mitch, this is great news. Do you focus the lens at the front element or is there a screw somewhere?
 
I bought the Prolycht Orion about a month ago. I quite like it. As some mentioned on Newsshooter it's frustrating to buy a new light and see a replacement already out. I may still be in my return window assuming they have a standard 30 day window for returns. Mitch, you'd mentioned on Newsshooter to someone about being able to do something about those who recently purchased the first generation. Any advice on how I should proceed?

The beam angle is tight on the Orion. Mitch said on Newsshooter that they like that as it's easier to diffuse a tight beam than to tighten a wide beam. I'm not sure I understand that. The other lights have wide beams and can all be tightened down with various modifiers. I was using the Orion as a fill light for an interview, bouncing off of a 4 x 4, and with the amount of space I had, I couldn't get the Orion to fill the 4 x 4. What attachment would be recommended for making the beam angle wider? Are there small dome attachments available? I don't want to put a whole softbox on just to get a wider beam angle. Maybe something like this?



So, following up on my COB lighting journey. I got the three CLAR lights, two 500s and one 350, the Nanlight Forza 500, two Aputure 600Ds, and the Prolycht Orion 300. The Nanlight had a fan that was way too noisy to use. I was told by Nanlight that I could exchange it for their newer ballast with a quiet fan but I didn't want to risk exchanging it and still not being happy but then being outside of my B&H return window, so I returned the light to B&H and had them send me another with a note on the order for them to make sure it was a Nanlight with the newer lower noise ballast. Well, the new light they sent was still noisy, probably a B&H stock issue or missing note rather than the fault of Nanlight. So, I returned it as well. My gaffer didn't like the yoke setup of the Nanlight, where it was more difficult to make adjustments with two ratched knobs rather than one more precision non-ratched knob. Build quality not as robust as the Aputure.

The CLAR 500s were about 70% as bright as the Nanlight and the colors not as good, one stopped working for a few minutes when a producer barely kicked it. The fan is decently quiet. Very plasticy build quality. I ended up returning all of the CLAR lights.

The Prolycht Orion, I love RGB, this is the quietest fan out of all of them by far, good build quality. Not as bright as the others, but that's to be expected at 300W. Love the projection attachement. The Prolycht projection attachment works on the Aputure 600D, though at full power it started burning up the metal Prolycht gobos so we went down to 50% power and were good. Full power on the Orion didn't have any issues. The menu system for controlling things feels like it could be simpler, but I admittedly haven't taken much time to go through it yet as I haven't been DPing or gaffing my most recent project which I'm producing and acting in. I also used it was a fill light to an Aputure 600D as the key light on a recent corporate shoot.

The Aputure 600Ds are quite nice, keeping them. They've got some brand recognition among clients, good build quality, bright, etc. No RGB, but nice and bright. One thing I don't like is how the cable sticks out of both ends of the ballast which limits angles you can place the ballast at. I wish you could put the ballast upright but can't with the cable sticking out. I think James and others have mentioned the Aputure has a spotty spread to the beam where it's extra bright in the middle as opposed to evenly spread; I tried the CLAR reflector on the Aputure and it completely solved that issue, so it just means you've got to buy a different Bowens reflector and you can then get whatever spread you want. Larger and heavier than the CLAR and Orion, but brighter and better build quality, so likely worth it there.

I've got the Hive 100, Hive 200, and Hive 575 in my B&H shopping cart and about to pull the trigger on them. Those lights are 100w, 150w, and 550w, respectively. The Prolycht Orion fills the gap in-between 150w and 550w, so will fit in with that kit, and at half hte price per watt of the Hives, though larger and heavier and with less light control options. Hive has a better assortment of accessories. Their zoom reflector looks cool which apparently Bowens mount lights cannot do.

I'm trying to figure out a small light kit that is sufficient for most interviews. Three Hive lights and two panel lights may be sufficient for my needs, and if I can fit all of that into one bag that isn't too large or heavy, then I'm in a good situation. Then I'll take out the Aputure 600Ds when I need more power, and the Orion when I want another bright focus-able RGB light in the mix, or perhaps keep the Orion in the main kit as the fill light to the Hive 575, perhaps getting by with just one panel light in the standard kit. Will see how it goes.


Random chit chat of me filming my DP/gaffer talking about the Aputure 600D which I had setup with the Prolycht projection lens. Nice hard cut beam on the wall.

 
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Hi Eric, we should discuss privately about your Orion 300. I'll DM you.

There's lots of Bowens accessories out there. The one you linked to is a pretty heavy diffuser, I don't think that will be an effective tool if you want to fill up a bounce card. I'll look around to see if I can find a good item to suggest, but honestly I'd probably just clip some Hampshire Frost diffusion (very mild) to the front of the reflector to widen the beam slightly. Our fresnel will be out in a few weeks to adjust beam angle, and the barndoors that ship in the fresnel kit also fit on our reflector.
 
There's also a diffusion sock I found which would appear to do the same thing as slipping diffusion on the front of the light.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1525428-REG/impact_9031602_diffuser_sock_for_7.html

But, if I'm thinking this through correctly, putting a one stop diffusion on a light where the diffusion in this case is just a 7" diffusion, it's cutting down a whole stop of light in order to spread the beam angle, whereas if you had say a 120 degree light to begin with and were shooting that into say a 6 x 6, you wouldn't need to put it through a one stop diffusion to fill the frame at a reasonable distance from the frame.


I'm seeing the Hampshire Frost is just a 1/4 light stop loss. Perhaps if I can find a diffusion sock like that as clipping on paper all the time can be cumbersome.
 
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That diffusion sock is still far too heavy if what you're trying to do is spread out the beam a bit to cover a larger surface for a bounce. That's why I suggested Hampshire Frost, as it is an extremely light diffusion grade that will just spread out the beam a bit. My suggestion iwould be to put some in a cardboard ring and use a rubber band to hold it to the reflector. You could probably rig something up in 10 minutes and then apply it to the light in seconds, similar to that sock. Back in the day my go to front cap for my camera lens with mattebox was a shower cap. Quick and easy to slip on if it started to rain, at lunch or whenever I needed to step away for a moment. This would be similar but for the light.
 
Hmm, I'm personally not good with DIY things. If only we knew someone at Prolycht who could design such an accessory. ;)


What is the shipping date on this light? B&H is saying 7-14 days for expected availability.



Fiilex also has these dome diffusors which are designed to spread the beam angle. They're magnetic which makes putting them on and off easy. I don't know what the light stop loss on them are, but they look simple to use ergonomically.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...z8ZYYSJwHgRoNkWoUDRHm2Df32hGMOQhoCb_UQAvD_BwE


I just bought the Hive 575, Hive 200, and Hive 100. Will be interesting to compare them to the Orion and see how well they all work together.

I also need to see if I can fit all those lights in one reasonably sized bag. Most of the COB light bags take up almost twice as much space as needed. I guess that can leave room for extra accessories if wanted, but I've been finding it's wasted space and shall seek other storage options. The Aputure 600D bag, it was a tight fit (such that it's kind of a pain to maneuver and not ideal), but I was able to fit two Aputure 600Ds with the ballasts and cables (I forget if the reflectors still fit) in a single Aputure 600D bag.
 
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