Sola 6/12 and ARRI 7-Series

Daryn Williams · September 23, 2011

I work in the RTVF Department at The University of North Texas (home to the 2011 winner of the US National Kodak Film School Cinematography Competition...We're not proud or anything...)

It is dangerous for us as a state entity to be on the cutting edge of technology (since whatever we invest in we are stuck with for a long while)... We are however at a small crossroads of sorts... Some of our gear is getting to the replacement point (Do we really want to spend $8K to replace an HMI ballast?) and as always we have a limited budget... Since LEDs fall under "green technology", there are grants that we can work for to help us with a transition... LEDs aren't the end-all/be-all for everything... We actually invested about 10 years ago into a couple of different flourescent techs, with varying results...

I know both the 7-Series and Solas are new, and if I’m not mistaken, they aren’t even shipping yet… At some point, we need to see and feel the fixtures to evaluate their performance and durability… I've tried to do my due dilligence by reading as much as I could, watching the various videos on-line(I wasn't able to attend NAB or CINEGear) and talking to people... Now I come to you all...

I was wondering if anyone would be carrying these lights, either as a dealer or as a rental house, OR if you knew who to talk to about getting in the queue to get some demo versions for us to evaluate…

I would be eternally grateful for any help anyone could give…

Thanks for the help...

Daryn

Michael E Brown · September 30, 2011

I consider the Sola series to be useless for the price they are demanding. They claim the 6 is equivalent to a 650w fresnel, yet at the spot setting (and the Sola is actually narrower), an Arri 650 Plus is over 2x their claimed fc. At the flood setting (this time the Sola is wider) the Arri is 4x brighter. Unimpressive. I don't know exactly how it works, but it's not actually a fresnel fixture so I'd guess the zoom quality is unimpressive also.

The Arri L series on the other hand is quite impressive. For about $500 more than the Sola 6, the L7 (fixed color temp) is pretty much an exact photometric clone of a 1000w fresnel, from spot to flood. Sharp beam, workable zoom range. The bi-color fixture is neat but at the expense of output. The Daylight version is impressive also, providing a good bit of usable light for quite a bit less money than a comparable HMI fixture (which there isn't one in that size really, it's brighter than a 200w fresnel but not quite a 575w). I believe the current timetable for shipment to general users is by the end of the year. Your best bet for a demo unit is to get with either your local rental house or Arri dealer.