new [old] hazer ROCKS!!!

[CountFunkula]

I picked up a used LeMaitre Neutron Pro X hazer (c.1999, I guess this was what they called the Neutron XS before it was the XS?) that needed a little work and TLC, but the price was VERY right!

These are GREAT hazers! The Neutron series is the predecessor to the insanely awesome Radiance line. Just like the Radiance, it's water-based (even uses the same fluid) and VERY quiet. Don't get me wrong, DF50s are amazing, but the compressor is noisy and I REALLY don't want to run an oil-based hazer in my apartment on a regular basis.

After getting the hazer into top-notch running condition, what better way to try it out than going old-school and trying to do something cool with <10mW of Argon and some basic optics?!
I ran the hazer for about 10 minutes and had a serious pea-soup atmosphere! The smoke detector was wearing a shower-cap just to be on the "safe" side


I set up a SP-161B with about 6-8mW of 488nm (had to trust the PSU readout, my LPM doesn't resolve power that low too well) bounced into a parabolic mirror. The expanded beam from the parabolic went to a 12" mirrored ball on a T-stand.


Then I put the beam through some burst grating film


...Even though it was less than 10mW, I still wore safety glasses
Mirrored ball effects are sweet, but can be tricky to pull off safely. At one point I had a "double-bounce" mirrored-ball effect going (expanded beam->rotating mirror hemisphere->disco ball), but didn't get any pictures that did it justice...Maybe another night.

More to come! I have yet to try this hazer with some higher power, multiline, scanned effects, and maybe even break out the cyberlights...y'know...just for funsies!

A good atmosphere can make ALL the difference!