Martin ERA 800 Performance

I'll admit at the outset without a beat that the ERA series from Martin is something that has been crossed off for me in advance. Despite the fact that I did not have the opportunity to work, immediately my head was firmly closed to this series.

This is due to the opinions of others, lack of time to look at the device more closely and poor availability (at the moment there are 24pc in rentals in Poland). At the end of December (after 3 years since its release) I finally had the opportunity, so I agreed to ERA 800 Performance, instead of Quantum during the carol concert of the band Enej, I do not regret this decision. The equipment was supplied by Ragtime Technika Estradowa.

Profile, Spot, PERFORMANCE?

The Martin ERA 800 comes in two variants - Performance or Profile - unfortunately, you have to decide at the time of purchase. The first is equipped with a set of rotating framing blades, in which case the devices are called "Performance". The second option is a third gobo disc and then we have the ERA 800 "Profile".

For me, a little strange, because I always thought that the "Profile" type device characterized the cutters, but Martin has his flights with these nicknames. What do you do if you don't do anything. This is the only difference between them - because even the manual they have the same.

The head itself is equipped with an 800W LED engine with a color temperature of 6500K, it emits a declared beam of 34k lumens which can really close your eyes (I know, because I checked).

A juicy lens with beautiful optics!

This is the moment, you know which one... The zoom on this device is truly sensational. It works in the range of 7° to 56°, that's really a lot. On top of all that, for such a range it is really fast! I didn't have to slow down any zoom effect, and I have a moment where I go from wide to narrow in 2 groups and a pace of about 130bpm in the pulse.

On the front like the icing on the cake is a huge 160mm lens, which, in addition to its obvious optical properties, adds charm to the whole design. Even put out, it looks leggy.

The only thing I noticed is that on the largest and smallest zoom I was not able to sharpen the gobo at about 12-15 meters, but if we cut ourselves about 5% from the upper and lower values, the sharpness returns. Still, even with the range cut down to maintain focus, we have quite a spectrum of action. Such a downside, though not entirely.

Color me the world!

You can choose between linear CMY blending, a color dial with 6 filters plus an open one, and CTO correction from 6500K to 2700K. I used CMY - to the eye it agrees, the colors are saturated. I had the preset values recloned from Quantum and in general I didn't have to correct anything.

Why do I mention this eye? Because the color rendering index (CRI) is specified as ">70" and, of course, I'm an inquisitive beast, so I looked up the photometric data for myself. They turned out to be a bit of an Achilles' heel of this device. Without the "CRI Booster" (Optional overlay thrown in the gobo shield for 100 euras) the coefficient came out at 68, when you add the optional booster it comes in at 78. However, with the overlay you lose almost 10k lumens of output.

I'm a weak TV expert, but from the theory I think it can come out pretty pale. (TLCI is at 57...).

Enough of the lamentations!

Not to mention Martin gobos is like not adding yeast to yeast. Available on two dials (One rotary, the other indexed) in the Performance version, and on three in the Profile version (the third also rotary).

On both, which are available in each variant, you'll find, of course, the famous Ray Brush, Limbo Glass, Dot's in Space, or Sonar doing beautifully in space. The bad news is that Spidey is on the third dial, available only in the Profile version. But as they say, something for something.

Two rotating prisms, 6-arm linear and 4-arm circular (rotation on a separate channel as something). Animation dial, two times Frost - soft and hard, iris and other wonders of garland on 42 channels (Performance) and 36 channels (Profile). With the option with knives we get 4 of them, each with rotation and full beam aperture.

A few words subjectively

Now yes - again on the promotional video you can see the slogan "compact and lightweight housing". I don't know anymore if I'm some kind of abnormal, but 41kg of live weight of a device whose height in the standing position is 80cm is not very compact for me.

Behind this compactness, of course, also goes not very fast movement, but let's agree, with such power and the number of functions will not be miracles. On the other hand, the device is not sluggish in any way, I would describe it as sufficient movement speed, adapted to the type of device.

A very big surprise for me was the jumping into strobes (yes, carols and strobes...). It really went cosmically fast from fastened color, gobos and shutter 0 to open color, open gobo and shutter strobe. In the other direction, too. It looked very aesthetically pleasing, I will point out that everything but the color was on snap, without MIB. (Below the video, you can see the skipping and also see the zoom speed)

As a whole, it seems to me that I did not mention a rather important issue which is the possibility of adjusting the operation of the device for theatrical use (where it will certainly work great). I am referring to the fan adjustments for the "quiet" mode, but it is quiet even on the regular mode.

As for me, "cool."

Honestly, finishing this text and reading it, I'm not sure whether it came out positively or negatively. Somehow I'm aggressive after this Christmas break... For the record (and it's bright, hehe). Personally, I had a very good "feeling" with this device. I worked on it very well and I didn't miss anything about it. Not counting Spidey, because I had the Performance version.

And now you will probably say that Stage Source paid me for my opinion, but no - although if anything, I can provide the account number... I believe that this is a device for an informed user. For someone who knows what he wants and knows what limitations and possibilities this device offers. It is certainly not a device from the series "I will insert it everywhere". More from the series "I know how to use it, it meets my expectations and it will be shtick".

Is the ERA series device a good choice?

I had the devices themselves taken out of a fresh delivery from a cardboard box, only purchased by Ragtime. Taking the opportunity, given the small number of this device in the rentals in Poland, I asked Janek from Ragtime why exactly the Era 800.

The company invested in Martin-branded equipment many years ago, the vintage and very deserving MAC 700s went out of business after many years of service, and some changes had to be made. The plan, of course, was to buy Martin MAC Quantum, and probably would have done so had it not been for the downtime caused by the pandemic. In the meantime, the ERA 600 and 800 series devices were made available to us for testing. Which raised the discussion whether it made sense to invest in a device that is more than a decade old, or to bet on something fresh.

It turned out that, in our case, the Performance version of the ERA800 had everything we needed. Most important for us was a powerful light source, a well-functioning zoom, an animation dial and framing knives. The whole thing was complemented by an attractive price, which resulted in the purchase of 12 units. I am sure that this is a purchase for years to come, which will fulfill the intended functions.

More information such as control options, etc., of course, on the distributor's website here, or the manufacturer's here.

PS Of course, I'm a poor reporter and didn't take my own photos from the play, so I'm reinforcing others.