American DJ Gobo Projector LED User Review
Let me start by saying that I own and use a Martin PR1 for gobo projection. It is a great unit with sharp optics and great output but… it is bulky, heavy and has a fan to cool it which creates unneeded noise. It also has a 250 watt halogen bulb which sucks a lot of power from the wall. It has a very wide beam angle which makes it perfect for projecting a custom gobo on the dance floor if it’s right in front of you. With that being said, I wanted to find a small, lightweight, energy efficient projector with a narrower beam spread to shoot images far away without having them get too huge; enter the ADJ Gobo Projector LED.
I received the ADJ Gobo Projector LED and really like it. Here is a short list of what I like or don’t like about this fixture.
Pros: It is very well built, like a little tank! There is a hook where you can attach a safety cable. The fixture is very bright. I am fairly sure that it will be ‘more’ than bright enough for general use. It is dead quiet as there are no fans. If you set it to rotate, you hear just a slight whir of the gears turning. The gears are all metal for long life. Changing the gobo is VERY easy with it’s removable gobo holder. There is a switch to set the gobo to static or rotate. It is very easy to focus and produces a very sharp image. It comes with four gobos and four color gels. The wedding gobo is nice and will get lots of use.
Cons: There is no on / off switch which is not really a con but I thought I’d mention it. I wish there was a switch to reverse the rotation of the gobo as it only turns counter-clockwise. It turns in that direction so that any text on the gobo will scroll the right way making it easy to read. That’s fine and dandy but for gobos without text, I like to have them spin clockwise, it just looks better to the eye. The fixture’s lens is set up wrong. They mounted the glass lens at the front of the barrel which really limits the focusing distance to a max of having the image maybe 15 feet away. By removing the lens (see ‘Mod’ note) and mounting it to the rear of the barrel (very easy to do in a couple minutes) you are then able to focus the image from close up to far away, as in across a banquet room; awesome. ADJ should sell it that way, I think they screwed up. Don’t let that deter you though, as this only takes a couple minutes to correct.
Mod to correct focus issue: To change the lens position to obtain maximum focus range, all you do is unscrew the lens, run a small blade around between the tube and the retainer spring and pop out the lens. Then just place the lens in the rear end of the tube, flat side out and replace the retainer spring. That’s all there is to it!
Conclusion: I love it, so much so that I will be ordering a second unit. I will us the pair to project rotating stars up on the 60 foot high ceiling of a venue that I play at quite frequently. I will also use this projector for whenever I have to shoot an image across the room like I do when Grad (Prom) season rolls around and I project a ‘Class of 2012’ gobo up on the wall. Now go buy one!
Let me start by saying that I own and use a Martin PR1 for gobo projection. It is a great unit with sharp optics and great output but… it is bulky, heavy and has a fan to cool it which creates unneeded noise. It also has a 250 watt halogen bulb which sucks a lot of power from the wall. It has a very wide beam angle which makes it perfect for projecting a custom gobo on the dance floor if it’s right in front of you. With that being said, I wanted to find a small, lightweight, energy efficient projector with a narrower beam spread to shoot images far away without having them get too huge; enter the ADJ Gobo Projector LED.
I received the ADJ Gobo Projector LED and really like it. Here is a short list of what I like or don’t like about this fixture.
Pros: It is very well built, like a little tank! There is a hook where you can attach a safety cable. The fixture is very bright. I am fairly sure that it will be ‘more’ than bright enough for general use. It is dead quiet as there are no fans. If you set it to rotate, you hear just a slight whir of the gears turning. The gears are all metal for long life. Changing the gobo is VERY easy with it’s removable gobo holder. There is a switch to set the gobo to static or rotate. It is very easy to focus and produces a very sharp image. It comes with four gobos and four color gels. The wedding gobo is nice and will get lots of use.
Cons: There is no on / off switch which is not really a con but I thought I’d mention it. I wish there was a switch to reverse the rotation of the gobo as it only turns counter-clockwise. It turns in that direction so that any text on the gobo will scroll the right way making it easy to read. That’s fine and dandy but for gobos without text, I like to have them spin clockwise, it just looks better to the eye. The fixture’s lens is set up wrong. They mounted the glass lens at the front of the barrel which really limits the focusing distance to a max of having the image maybe 15 feet away. By removing the lens (see ‘Mod’ note) and mounting it to the rear of the barrel (very easy to do in a couple minutes) you are then able to focus the image from close up to far away, as in across a banquet room; awesome. ADJ should sell it that way, I think they screwed up. Don’t let that deter you though, as this only takes a couple minutes to correct.
Mod to correct focus issue: To change the lens position to obtain maximum focus range, all you do is unscrew the lens, run a small blade around between the tube and the retainer spring and pop out the lens. Then just place the lens in the rear end of the tube, flat side out and replace the retainer spring. That’s all there is to it!
Conclusion: I love it, so much so that I will be ordering a second unit. I will us the pair to project rotating stars up on the 60 foot high ceiling of a venue that I play at quite frequently. I will also use this projector for whenever I have to shoot an image across the room like I do when Grad (Prom) season rolls around and I project a ‘Class of 2012’ gobo up on the wall. Now go buy one!
