Martin Professional recently added two new versions to its Magnum family of foggers: the Magnum 1200 and Magnum 1800. Each of these machines has similar features, including the way they look, an aluminum carrying handle on top, a storage compartment on the side of the unit to store accessories and a remote timer control.
They have what I consider to be a well-built black housing with silver air vents to properly ventilate the machine so it doesn’t wind up in the repair shop after the first week on the road. Both of these machines are convenient to transport.
The Magnum 1200 comes with a flying kit that allows you to rig it to truss. It has an 850-watt heat exchanger, and it takes eight minutes to warm up when it’s first turned on. There’s a display on the top of the unit that indicates when it’s ready. There is no DMX512 input. The machine has a continuous output of 290 cubic meters per minute, and the 2.3-liter fluid reservoir (slightly more than half a gallon) allows it to run for long periods of time. And it does put out quite a bit of fog. I filled up my entire house with this machine!
The larger unit of the two is the Magnum 1800. It has an 1150-watt heat exchanger, and it outputs 580 cubic meters per minute. It has a 3.8-liter (one gallon) fluid reservoir and a 3-pin XLR input for an optional DMX512 interfaced module. The DMX address is set via dip switches. It takes nine minutes to warm up before it’s ready to use.
I tried three fluids: the Pro Smoke Super, the Pro Smoke High Density and the Regular fluid. Each is available in U.S. 2.5-gallon containers. The Pro Smoke Super uses a standard fluid, which is the most commonly used fluid of the three. This fluid provides a dense white fog with a medium-length dispersal time. The Pro Smoke High Density fluid generates a high-density fog, but with a slower evaporation rate. It shows up very nicely, especially when strobes are involved. The regular fluid generates a medium-density fog.
I used both the Magnum 1200 and 1800 in my living room and onstage. The manual control is very responsive. On the 1800, the fader on the console also responds very well. The remote timer has a long enough extension that it can be used far away from the machine, and a stage tech can make adjustments without being seen onstage. I kept the Pro Super Smoke mainly in the Magnum 1800 for an overall fog, and I used the High Density smoke in the 1200 for my strobing effects. The soft-start feature controls the output electronically so that it minimizes the burst of output and prevents those loud noises from the stage that we always hear.
It was fun using the machines, and at the end of the night, the storage bin on the machines worked great for storing accessories without having to worry about digging up a road case. The exterior housing looks to me to have the durability of a road case itself, though I wouldn’t recommend transporting it without a case.
The new Magnum 1200 and Magnum 1800 are both nice additions to the Martin family of fog machines, and I predict that they will be popular. Both units travel well, they are road ready and I like the assortment of fog fluids for them. The Magnum 1800 retails for $620 and the Magnum 1200 retails for $485.
Martin Professional is based in Denmark, and they have distribution all over the world. In the United States, their offices are located in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Sunrise, Fla. For more information about these fog machines and other Martin products be sure to check out their Web site at: http://www.martin.com.
Give both of the machines a try; let me know what effects and unique applications you come up with. You can post your responses on my blog, “The Notebook,” at http://plsn.com/wp.
Tony Caporale is a freelance lighting director based out of Baltimore, Maryland.
