Par / Leko / S4 Par Info

M

M.R.

Active member
Hi,

here with another round of questions, as the search engine almost only wants to refer to Led par options.
Basically tell me everything you know about pars and leko's :)

I know Par 64 bulbs have the lenses incorporated, and you have them in various beam angles. They are 1000 Watts and the very narrow spot is the most interesting.
But how do they compare to multi pars, parnel or S4 pars (Source 4 pars)? I read they are more efficient. Do they compare a similar look / feel? Do they have the "beaminess" like a par64 with a very narrow spot bulb?
They come in 750W and 575W versions, does anybody have photometrics for these with the variable lens options (beam angles)?

What are some good brands for (used) multi pars, parnel or S4 pars? I know ETC is a good and popular brand, but they seem hard to find here in Europe used.
Are there any brands to avoid?

Regarding Leko's or Ellipsoidals, again I know the ETC brand is good, and Robert Juliat probably is too. But seem hard to find used. Any other brands that are good and should look into? Any brands to avoid?
Is it true that a leko is less efficient than a fresnel?


Thanks!
 
Blimey - so many questions, but I'm old and all these things I've gone through in the time line - BUT - the majority of these types of light source had a proper home in theatre and events entertainment first, and TV/film as a secondary market.

The evolution of PAR lamps stemmed from work on better aircraft and airfield lighting. Up until then, you had a reflector and a replaceable lamp, but the fitting of the lamp meant the beams were inconsistent and to be frank, optically compromised, so they invented the PAR. A sealed beam unit similar to the designs used in cars of the period. The numbers, by the way are quarter inches - so a PAR64 is an 8" lens, and a PAR56 is a 7" lens. PAR 64s come in different beam widths. In the 1000W versions (the popular one) the CP60 is 12 degrees, the CP61 is 14 degrees and the most popular, the CP62 is 24 degrees - which is described as a flood, and it is NOT - not remotely a flood beam.

Precision Aligned Reflector was the original source of the PAR term, but Parabolic Aluminized Reflector is the one cited for years now - the landing light origin having faded away.

When introduced, one brand was called 'Punchlight' - which described them very well. Narrow and amazingly punchy light. With haze in the air, a very defined (BUT note - OVAL, not circular) beam.

The damn things can cook bacon as they are intensely bright. Brand wise, we bought Thomas if we wanted the industry standard, but as the housings were just a tube, cheap ones are just as good. Being aluminium they get battered quickly, so make isn't important. As the beam is oval, you can spin it to rotate the beam for best effect. This means touching the rear of the lamp which burns you. Some designs, like the PARSafe, have a heatproof grabber which enables spinning without the burns.

The Parnel isn't really a PAR at all, but a similar reflector you can plonk a 750W lamp in - the same one as ETC Source 4's. They're horrible, and come with a set ion clip in lenses to change beam angle. They last longer but are not as bright, or same beam quality as real PARS.

I'm in the UK and finding used ETC kit is not that hard, the hire companies dispose of stock regularly.

You mentioned ellipsoidals - but these over here are called profiles, because their optics are capable of projecting the shape of internal shutters, or the pattern of gobos slotted into runners. They come in a number of sizes, from the rather large A types to the moving light size M types. Finding the right size frame holder is always a pain. The US Leko brand is quite rare in europe. Robert Juliat, Spotlight Milano, Strand, Arri and lots of cheaper brands pop up in the UK/Europe. Fresnels have very different light to profiles (Leko/Ellipsoidals) Fresnels have soft edges that blend with another beam seamlessly. Profiles have hard edges, and even if you soften the beam with the lens adjustment, they are pretty obvious where one finishes and another starts. Profiles come in two types - fixed beam, or zoom. ETC sell their with interchangeable lens tubes. The normal ones are quite compact and manage the wider angles, but you can get bigger and longer ones going down to around 5 degrees - where they look more like follow spots which are profiles with an iris and handles! Zoom versions have two lens groups one sets beam width and the other focus. They're my favourites.

Photometrics are on every manufacturers website, and can easily be compared.

LED versions of all of these are now getting pretty bright, but we're learning to use their very different looks. LED Fresnels don't look as nice and soft as tungsten ones, but even me - a die hard oldie are now using them because their advantages outweigh their faults. I know a source of loads of old TV and theatre kit in England - all sorts and powers, much collectors items - drop me a note if you want an email address for him. He's been hiring them out for years and is retiring soon. Huge barns full of lights.

In the ETC's - I've been using the 750W versions now for years and my old 575W stock is gone.

I missnthe punch and the heat from real PAR64s, and still use (or at least did till lockdown) them because the light quality is unique. That said, the price of PAR64 lamps is now crazily expensive and they don't last long. Over £20 a pop is frankly too much now.

There are a few brands of older lights that were cheaply made, prone to rust, rather flimsy and just pretty horrible to use, but they were capable of decent light, they just never come up second hand because people scrap them. Leko and profiles suffer jammed shutters, cracked lenses and heat induced warping when left on too long. Fresnels lose their barn doors, or of they keep - them, the damn things get loose and droop!

Profiles lose their shutters, and tend to jam the lens tubes.
 
paulears said:
Profiles come in two types - fixed beam, or zoom. ETC sell their with interchangeable lens tubes. The normal ones are quite compact and manage the wider angles, but you can get bigger and longer ones going down to around 5 degrees - where they look more like follow spots which are profiles with an iris and handles! Zoom versions have two lens groups one sets beam width and the other focus. They're my favourites.
Click to expand...

Paul with the history lesson! Is there a compromise in light quality with the zooms?

I only looked this up after your post and I'm sure it's a typo so this isn't me correcting you but I think you meant to say the PAR64s are measured in eighths of an inch (not quarters) e.g. 64/8 = 8 inches.
 
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Ha! Yep messed the maths! Re: zooms. Lenses on lights do different things to camera lenses. The snags are about flat field, and appear mostly when you use gobos. In the simplest types the lenses aren't ground they're moulded, so as the light usually comes from above and then hits the floor or a bit of set, the non 90 degree interesection means focus sharpness is impossible to get consistent across the beam. Blurred and soft and sharp in different places. Various solutions are in existence. The best is condenser optics, with additional correcting and condensing lenses and smaller gobo sizes. Using zooms adds to the glass count, so zoom profiles are much more versatile, but a compromise if you need gobo projection. Worst though is the edge of the circle. The lenses, compared to camera lenses, have colour separation at the edges. A circular white projection with red,green,blue, cyan, magenta and yellow spill. Pretty but unwanted. Some manufacturers fit circular 'donuts' that reduce the output of the edges of the lenses - these work, but reduce brightness. You can fit them externally too to cut down the mess and sharpen up gobos. You can also fit snoots - top hat shaped add on tubes to reduce spill, so the poorer lens optics don't let light out, outside the main beam.

You can use profile shutters a bit like barn doors, that you'd find on Fresnels. When comparing lights remember too that manufacturers change language from TV lights to theatre lights. In theatre a Fresnel is a soft light, profiles are hard. In TV we use Fresnels as key lights and our soft lights are the equivalent to floods, which fell out of favour in theatre in the 70's. Lekos/profiles in TV are for effect, generally. In theatre, they produce very deep shadows on the face, revealing shape - essential when audiences view in perpetual wide angle establishing shot style format. Stick a camera on an actor lit like this, and often the light source is mirrored on the other side, and it looks horrible. In theatre it's rare to use a fill, unless it's in the centre. Even then it's not common, as Fresnels as a general rule, don't get used on the audience side of the curtain!

Theatre lights use lenses that don't even work that well in the sun, trying to burn wood like we did when children. The accuracy and quality is pretty crude. ETC popped up with better designs than Strand and Leko, the leaders at the time and wiped them out with the Source 4. Smaller filament lamp, more accurate reflector, a co-axial design (similar, but better than the one marketed by CCT in Europe/UK) made the Source 4 unbeatable. The Parfocal was by comparison, a bit rubbish.

Sadly, the days of tungsten are over. LED is not a direct alternative but the supply of lamps in the old types is drying up, big manufacturers scrapping their lines and the price is now very high and quality seems lower. I now take whatever PAR64 brands the stockists have.
 
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Thank you so much for the elaborate and valuable information!!

I know these lights have their origin in stage and theatre. And that LED's are taking over.
Reason I'm looking into these is for a nightshoot on quite a large location (200m2 to 300m2) with very large windows (3m). We would like beams of light entering the room and casting the shadows of the windows on the ground. (We are not replicating sunlight or such). As our budget is limited I was thinking of multiple parcans 2 or 3 per window. Not that parcans are our only option, we could budget wise also go for fresnel. But not the big 10k, 12k hmi's or full wendy's.

As I know some would never use an open-faced fixture to light the talent. A par of course is different, but would you light a talents face with it?

So the multipar / parnel / s4 par is all just marketing. Only having longer burning hours being true.
I noticed another thing researching pars, there's also par lamps called ACL. Is there a difference? I read something regarding the voltage? Is there a difference in quality/color/etc.?
I know the Mole Richardson Molebeam is a good light to produce a beam, it's too expensive here to have multiple though (for our budget). But reading up on it, it seems to be more or less the same as a par (not the parcan 64 type).
Did I miss something on that part?
 
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