I recently got to work with the big Astera AX10 pars. I was gaffing a movie. The director of photography brought 10 of his AX10s.
The AX10s are not new, but new to me. I'm guessing they have been out for at least a couple years. This was my first time working with them.
I'm familiar with Astera lights. I own Astera AX1 tubes and AX5 pars. I've also worked with the little Astera AX3 puck-light-like pars, and the Titan tubes.
The entire Astera line is great to work with. They all are wireless, battery-powered lights, that you can control with their software on a tablet. (I even have the software on my iPhone, in case something ever happened to my tablet.)
My first impression of the AX10s is favorable. I think in the future, I would almost automatically add 4 or 6 AX10s to any movie lighting package.
It is a huge time saver being able to place these lights without having to run any cables, dial-in any color I want, and adjust the brightness from anywhere on set.
An issue with any light with multiple sources are unnatural shadows with multiple edges. The optics of the AX10s are well designed. I never noticed any issues with shadows.
The AX10s come with diffusion discs that clips over the lens. I have seen 2 options. One I would guess is similar to 250. The other is similar but has a grid like Tough Silk. The diffusion disc spreads the beam on 1-axis. A great feature, but limited by the way the disc clips onto the light. It cannot be rotated.
An interesting look from the AX10s: I often placed them on the ground as up-lights bouncing off ceilings; around corners, and behind columns. When actors walked by them, there were great film-noir like shadows on walls. Inadvertent, but it looked great. Perfect for a suspense movie. I'm going to file this effect away and use it in the future.
Here is a night scene with 4-AX10s on the rooftop and 2-AX10s are on the ground. There is an high bounce with an M18 in it giving an overall base. We also had a couple Gemini 1x2's with softboxes brought in as needed for close-ups (also on batteries).
Another angle of the same scene. It seemed like it only took minutes to rig the AX10s on the rooftop. If I had to run power and maybe DMX cables, this would have taken much longer. Speed is a huge advantage of these battery-powered, wireless lights.
There is one downside to these, and all battery-powered lights; it is keeping them charged. It takes some time at the end of the day--which is typically very busy to begin with---to find a place to charge the lights, and get them plugged-in. I sometimes have to take lights home, or to my hotel, and charge them overnight.
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| Astera's AX10 Par |
The AX10s are not new, but new to me. I'm guessing they have been out for at least a couple years. This was my first time working with them.
I'm familiar with Astera lights. I own Astera AX1 tubes and AX5 pars. I've also worked with the little Astera AX3 puck-light-like pars, and the Titan tubes.
The entire Astera line is great to work with. They all are wireless, battery-powered lights, that you can control with their software on a tablet. (I even have the software on my iPhone, in case something ever happened to my tablet.)
My first impression of the AX10s is favorable. I think in the future, I would almost automatically add 4 or 6 AX10s to any movie lighting package.
It is a huge time saver being able to place these lights without having to run any cables, dial-in any color I want, and adjust the brightness from anywhere on set.
An issue with any light with multiple sources are unnatural shadows with multiple edges. The optics of the AX10s are well designed. I never noticed any issues with shadows.
The AX10s come with diffusion discs that clips over the lens. I have seen 2 options. One I would guess is similar to 250. The other is similar but has a grid like Tough Silk. The diffusion disc spreads the beam on 1-axis. A great feature, but limited by the way the disc clips onto the light. It cannot be rotated.
An interesting look from the AX10s: I often placed them on the ground as up-lights bouncing off ceilings; around corners, and behind columns. When actors walked by them, there were great film-noir like shadows on walls. Inadvertent, but it looked great. Perfect for a suspense movie. I'm going to file this effect away and use it in the future.
 |
Another angle of the same scene. It seemed like it only took minutes to rig the AX10s on the rooftop. If I had to run power and maybe DMX cables, this would have taken much longer. Speed is a huge advantage of these battery-powered, wireless lights.
There is one downside to these, and all battery-powered lights; it is keeping them charged. It takes some time at the end of the day--which is typically very busy to begin with---to find a place to charge the lights, and get them plugged-in. I sometimes have to take lights home, or to my hotel, and charge them overnight.