Gaffer & Gear 288 - Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL

[@meetthegaffer]

Thank you for the review. Seems like a solid choice.

[@Cartercaramel]

Great review. Very interesting piece of gear for someone like me, who is typically a one-man-band videographer. Popping this up instead of a 220 or 300 with a 4ft softbox would save a lot of time. And price seems pretty good too. Might have to pick this up soon. Thanks!

[@jackson3967]

An observation about the ball mount. I just picked up a couple of 120C's and within the first 5 minutes I'd managed to strip the threads of the tightening knobs on both mounts! I wasn't doing it any tighter than I would have thought reasonable (It's possible I got a couple of sub standard ones). However, the point is, I replaced the knobs with a couple of adjustable lever handle type knobs that I had, they have brass threaded inserts. the mounts now work really nicely and seem to hold very firmly. Not tried with a 240CL though.

[@igetitlitsoicansit2950]

Kipp handle type?

[@jackson3967]

@@igetitlitsoicansit2950 Yes, with a 30mm lever/handle, M6 thread. Kipp don't seem to do anything that size but other brands are available, mine came from Berger tools. GN603. I used an additional washer to prevent the thread from bottoming. I'd be interested if anyone else tries this and feels it's a big improvement! I think in my case the original fitting must have been faulty.

[@eleo-cj9fy]

Thank you for the review, so great

[@BrisCassa]

I understand the cable tie solution, but with all those mounting holes in the centre surely someone has made a locking clip that could go there instead?

[@lawrencegress9831]

As always great review.

[@efleschner]

We have old 4’ Kinos at my work. I’m trying to convince them to replace the Kinos with these. I think it would be great for studio work. Plus, the number of times I’m in the field and need a big, soft source, I often need to set up a 3x3 or 6x6 and push light through that. (I don’t have a large COB with Bowens softbox). This would be a nice and fast alternative to that setup.

[@BenjiSchwimmerDance]

This really speaks the deal for me. Been debating on the godox vs intellytech vs gvm. I love the pop out feature

[@maclroytv]

Solid gold.

[@thelightpainters]

Great review as always! I own a pavo 120 which has a very similar ball adapter (minus the handle of course). I've not looked at this but the balls from memory are textured. I wonder if you opened one of those adapters up if you could get in with a Dremel and roughen the sockets up so that the ball and socket joints had a bit more friction with each other. Thanks for the review! :)

[@gaffergear]

@@thelightpainters it's worth a shot, but it's solid metal, not like the plastic balls on the old kinoflow. Definitely worth a shot

[@thelightpainters]

@@gaffergear I've got one of the 240CLs on the way so I'll have a look. It's a shame as I think Nanlite buy a lot of their grip accessories from Kupo and I'm pretty sure that Kupo make more beefy ball and socket accessories. I think they've been onto a good thing with this pavoslim design as it's a bit rinse and repeat with the different sizes and materials that they're using but there are obviously some elements that they need to change up between models that they're not thinking about.

[@LAEntTVPodcastVlog]

Nice!

[@joewebb5138]

Hey Andrew, Great Review. I’ve yet to purchase any of these Pavo slims. I love the form factor. The Engine feels similar to the Amaran panels. Love them; use on all my Small movie shoots. Hate the Amaran CRMX-less control box and extra stuff I need to make them work on my CRMX IPAD infraestructura… But honestly my main complaint with the Amaran is that they are really too bright for dark lit movies. 1% is as low as they go and it’s too bright. How is the low end on these panels? With CRmX can you dim it pretty low if you go 16bit?

[@gaffergear]

@@joewebb5138 I've only got 8 bit and I go below 1% so I would assume you have more on 16 bit

[@cfl4286]

Put some ND gel or Bobinet over the light. On a movie a year or so ago we had a few amaran mats that basically always had some ND clipped to the softbox.

[@scott_stevenson]

I spent almost $5,000 on Lite gear spectrum not I'm seeing this option in the market.😢 I barely use the pixel mapping function. Build quality on the nanlux metal actually seems stronger and more robust than the plasticore litmat.

[@gaffergear]

@@scott_stevenson if it's any silver lining my spectrums are 5 years old and the heads are still as good as day one. They are more robust than they look.

[@scott_stevenson]

@@gaffergear yeah Im sure it will last. It is just crazy how fast the gear is improving and the costs are lowering.

[@jackson3967]

Nanlite are clearly listening to you (and rightly so). You asked for this form factor very recently! But they seem to have rushed this to market without checking back! The cable tie safety solution looks workable, but shouldn't be necessary. The ball mount is embarassing in this case, and they should have realised that. I'm seriously considering this light and I'm assuming I would just use the pin mount, the only thing I'd lose is the handle (I think I can cope!) Are there other issues with this thought?

[@gaffergear]

@@jackson3967 No weather protection is probably the only things I didn't mention. I just purchased 3 with my own money, so I feel confident in the product

[@h4328]

I hear low-end dimming isn't great either - Bobbinet should fix that issue and CTO/CTB to fix the lack of spectrum level CCT-Range should solve it.

[@auroraborealis7472]

I swapped the carry handle to have the pin attachment instead of the ball mount.

[@gaffergear]

@@auroraborealis7472 That was my 1st thought. The handle hits the grip head.

[@auroraborealis7472]

@@gaffergear When you use the light horizontally the handle is out of the way. Vertically you need reorient the grip head as well which is annoying but still helps carry the weight with micro adjustments.

[@jackson3967]

Obviously, the other thing is the eggcrate, They really should understand the importance of this. And how it is used.

[@VLK2024]

Pavoslim VS Infinimat 😅

[@Cinegavo]

team pavoslim 💪💪

[@joewebb5138]

With all around weather protection and low end dimmering. I might just hold out for the INFINIMATs.

[@weareheretodie]

When is the new aputure storm 80 and 1000 review coming out?

[@gaffergear]

@@weareheretodie definitely not this year, hopefully February or March. I had so many commitments