Rayzr 7 Fresnel LED - Anyone know anything about this company?

Hmm...

1. Looks like a new Dutch startup http://www.rayzr7.com/
2. I don't like how in their video demo they are talking about the light when you can clearly see that an AC is holding some sort of handheld small panel right under the lens. How can i trust what the light can do when I am looking at a shot that isn't even lit by the light you are selling? Seems weird too that in the same video clip, the lighting person is pointing the Rayzr light at a welder working on a motorcycle frame with no barn doors?
3. The construction looks fragile and not heavy duty. They look like cheap lights to me. €939 to €1555 is not really an expensive light for a 7" fresnel and that's fine but the construction somehow seems flimsy and not heavy duty to me, just based upon visuals and looking at people manipulating them in the videos.
4. It may sound a bit cliche', but I tend to judge different products country of origin as a basis for how robust and well engineered other products that come from the country have been. I have owned Russian cameras, guns and watches and I would never look to a Russian product to provide me with high tech finesse. Their products are heavy duty, crude and only sometimes reliable, depending on the product. Chinese products generally have more finesse and sophistication than a Russian product but are generally not very reliable as well, although some are like Apple products, if they are held to a higher standard. I would never buy any English made mechanical devices or cars, they are known to be unreliable generally (not always, there are exceptions) but I have had several made in the UK products that always had electrical issues. Products made in the Netherlands? I have no idea if they are well engineered and reliable.

For me personally, I wouldn't touch these without a hands-on rental/demo. I see nothing from their website or videos that intrigues me, I would look elsewhere. I am much more excited about Aputure lights. I have not used their hard lights yet but their LED panels are an amazing value.
 
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Mitch Gross said:
Dude, tell me some more stereotypes.

People will see this at IBC in a few days and we'll likely see some video blogs quite soon.
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Jeez Mitch, did I hit a nerve? You noticed I prefaced it with "It may sound a bit cliche"? (tongue in cheek) Not saying my opinions have been scientifically proven with engineering tests and data point tracking, just my anectdotal experience over decades, personally purchasing hundred of thousands of dollars (might even be up in the low millions by now?) of gear, electronics, cars, watches, grip and lighting. I've been buying gear for almost 40 years, was a high end audio buyer in the late 80s, served as a rep between Sony Consumer Electronics and a Fortune 500 retailer for a decade, bought about 23 million dollars per year of consumer electronics, have two close friends who contract manufacture electronics in China, etc. After going down the same path dozens of times, there can be legitimate reasons cliches exist. Not saying that all of those stereotypes apply to each and every product from each country, just what I have experienced. Nobody has posted so far that they have had these lights in their hands so all we have are a few impressions from a website and some videos and those were my observations. They might be the next big thing and bury all of the established players, who knows?
 
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puredrifting said:
Jeez Mitch, did I hit a nerve?
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It just felt a little dismissive and quick to judgement.

As opposed to a Chinese or Indian company that is knocking off someone else's product with a cheap imitation that will likely seriously underperform and might just fall apart after a month or two, this might very well be the product of a couple of guys who work in the business and are trying to build the better mousetrap. There is the entreprenurial spirit that should be encouraged, not stepped upon.

Call me a glass half full kind of fella, but I'd like to know more before I pass judgement. I have questions sure, but I'm not creating answers just yet.
 
I thought they were interesting because on the site, they compare the output to the Arri L10-DT daylight fresnel for about 1/4th of the price and you can run this off a brick.

Build quality looks solid to me, but obviously would like to hear some reviews from the field. I like the Aputure lights also and want to pick up a few of the 120daylight versions when they're released but I hear those aren't as bright as Aputure claims. This light might be an affordable solution when I need more daylight in the field. To be able to run it off a brick is pretty amazing, but I'll hold off until the reviews are in.
 
Mitch Gross said:
As opposed to a Chinese or Indian company that is knocking off someone else's product with a cheap imitation that will likely seriously underperform and might just fall apart after a month or two, this might very well be the product of a couple of guys who work in the business and are trying to build the better mousetrap. There is the entreprenurial spirit that should be encouraged, not stepped upon.
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That is NOT what's being implied. What the poster said above is that unlike the other easy-to-form-stereotype countries (including your own stereotypes about China and India), there isn't much to be said about Netherlands.
Stereotypes are super useful to help form our opinions and yet they should be looked down upon publically as through their simplification they open up a floodgate of prejudice by the simpleminded of us who don't have intellectual ability to see any statement with a grain of salt. So cheers to you Mitch by trying to keep the stereotypes out of the conversation (...even tough they are correct - which shouldn't be admitted publically).
 
I would never pass judgement on a new product without hands-on testing, my posts were merely observation about what I saw on their website and videos. I write reviews and tech-pieces for several magazines and websites and review gear all of the time. It appears that my mention of cliche's and stereotypes offended some, which was not my intention. But since this is a "discussion" board, I discussed them. I may be able to get a hold of one of the Razyr lights for a hands-on review, IF I can get my editor to let me write about it and if I can track down the U.S. distributor. If not, I am sure there will be plenty of words written about it from IBC attendees who see it in action.
 
All love fellas.

Puredrifting, would love your thoughts if you get ahold of one. Meantime, I'll post any reviews I run across in this thread for anyone else who may be interested.

Cheers.
 
is there anyone on here who has had hands on experience with the rayzr 7 lights? if so, how is the build quality? thank you.
 
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Hi guys.

Just bought one of these yesterday - it's completely MADE IN CHINA, not Dutch at all. Local destributor confirms it. Build Quality and Q control is very low from what I saw, and when I turned it up, it works for 5 seconds and then died. Distributor said "it's normal due to the some safeguard thingy" - but I'm myself coudn't make it back to life so I returned it same day.

Can you imagine what design it has if it considered "normal" to stop working when you on set?

Also in the box there was no manual, nothing. Only thing itself and super-short "buy-whatever-lenght-you-need-afterwards" power cord.

Maybe I will give it second chance if they give me some rational explanation so I can write little more positive things (obviously great TLCI \ CRI \ relatively cheap etc.)
 
The fact is early adopters are essentially guinea pigs for a relatively immature technology, so while I'm sorry about your experience, I'm not overly surprised.

Are you going to get a second unit? Let us know how it goes.
 
Anyone else here own this light? I have heard good things about it. Yes it's made in China, and so is aputure's products. Getting tired of waiting on Aputures 300D..They keep pushing the release back..ridiculous. Still on the fence about getting Aadyntech's Jab Daylight versus the Rayzr 7 300. The Jab has a impressive 2500fc @ 10ft and is american made:)
 
Creative C said:
Anyone else here own this light? I have heard good things about it. Yes it's made in China, and so is aputure's products. Getting tired of waiting on Aputures 300D..They keep pushing the release back..ridiculous. Still on the fence about getting Aadyntech's Jab Daylight versus the Rayzr 7 300. The Jab has a impressive 2500fc @ 10ft and is american made:)
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I'd rent the Jab before committing to it. I've used the Eco Punch a few times (awful color rendering, but bright as hell), and I recently used the Jab. I was super disappointed by the output.
 
Here's my updated review and impressions about Rayzr 7 (the second one works fine):

Overall, this light is real deal. Of course, don't expect build quality of Arri for the money of Rayzr. But it works great. The light is so powerful it's not even funny. It's so much easier to work on you set if you have really strong and bright LED light like this. It makes everything so much easier, I can talk about it for long hours:)

Whenever you have to shoot, I've just point it on the wall where I need to have my key and dial apropriate amount of power... Here's quick example: http://take.ms/oDN9d (in this example it points at me directly (key) and it set to 11% of power). If I set it on full power, I would just burned away from this composition!

The controls are very intuitive too once you get "set" button:)

Overall I have to say is great priced product for those who need bright light (not 100W LED toys like most of my Westcotts (Skylux and Flexlight - althoght they're greatly complimanting my Rayzr now, they by themselfs are just simply not enough like many others on youtube said)... but don't have money or need WEIGHT and PAIN IN THE ASS of Arris. I feel like the light quality may be better then ARRI's. Based on other independent reviews. To my eye the light quality is 100% lived to my high expectations. And I'm very sensitive to BAD LEDS. It has equal or better light qulaity then Westcotts. And 3+ more powerful then Skylux, being just 1,5 times more expensive. Btw, westcotts QC is pretty low too.

Just don't buy blindly, be sure to check your unit before you buy, otherwise you, like me, can face problems with poor quality control. Like I said earlier, my first unit just went complitely dead on it's first power on.

More importantly, it's heavy but don't require special stands like Arri's eqivalents. It's heavier then any of my lights but it could easily be held and moved be one-man's crew.

I don't have any accesories, just naked version, and I could do wonders with it now on my set. It just opens so many doors because of it's brightness.

P.S.: The fan is louder then on Skylux, but I don't have any problem with it shooting my videos. It could be set at LOW mode so it will sounds lower in terms of freq-s and you can cut it more easily in post if you need. But I didn't worry about it at all. Street noises are much louder with my windows all closed (and I don't have very noisy street near me). So some could discard it because of fan noise, but that's not me. F**k perfectionalism.
 
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