Bowens lighting - advice needed

Garry Edwards said:
So, the failure rate of many of the Chinese made lights is way higher than you think
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Thank you Gary for warning us about the Chinese made lights Lencarta sell. I will look elsewhere.
 
Garry Edwards said:
It's pretty clear to me that you're happy to evade import duties and VAT by buying from dodgy foreign sellers - OK, that's just a morality issue, we aren't all the same.
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I think I need to address this point by Garry, it is of course quite possible to purchase from Chinese dealers and pay the import duty, VAT etc. and still make a saving on equipment (no evasion and totally legitimate for tax purposes) but getting harder. I have done on a number of occasions and that equipment was made in the same Factory where Lencarta and others source their equipment from. Yes there are risks, I have had a couple of batteries fail on me, however in some instances the savings have been so great that I could afford to throw some of the kit away and buy again from those same dealers and still have made a saving compared to buying from a UK dealer. I am in the fortunate situation that my photography pays for this.

Question is would I recommend that as the preferred option for many others and the answer is NO. I have had good service and advice from Lencarta and Garry and I have also had the same from a number of other dealers as well. I would say that if you are starting out it is extremely important that you start with good support for the equipment you purchase and when you have the requisite experience and the financial capacity you may be in a position to take the risks I have.

My preferred light of choice is the Godox AD600B and if you compare the price from the main dealers you will find that you can save but if it then attracts customs, VAT etc. you will actually be about the same and will not have the dealer support and warranty by buying from a UK dealer.

The point is that if you want the support of a dealer then you have to support the dealer.

Mike
 
redsnappa said:
Thank you Gary for warning us about the Chinese made lights Lencarta sell. I will look elsewhere.
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Where is the buffoon button?

By buying from a UK dealer if there are issues you have a place for recourse, try that with a china based reseller.

Mike
 
One point that I forgot to mention in my long post about how business actually works - it's an obvious one but some people on here seem to miss the obvious...
The manufacturers aren't photographers, and whatever they may say to the contrary they don't respect photographers. They're businessmen, and one of the most successful used to be a banker, so they know little about the real world use of their products and care even less.
Sometimes, they come up with a lemon. Usually, these products sell very well because they are highly speced and have all the gadgets, but they may have design faults that simply can't be fixed (they often overheat for example) and when that happens, and when we find that it's just a bad product that will never be right, we discontinue it. We lose a bit of money because of the cost of after sales service, but losing a bit of money is better than continuing to run a product that won't have a long life.

Obviously, the factories learn about the problems, but it isn't in their interest to discontinue them, and they sometimes run them for years. I'm not going to name names, but there was a portable flash system a few years ago that was too highly stressed, and every single one of the first batch failed within about 4 weeks of use, but the factory carried on making it until, eventually, they brought out a new model to replace it
 
Why am I getting the personal insults?
It was Garry Edwards from LENCARTA who said: "
Garry Edwards said:
the failure rate of many of the Chinese made lights is way higher than you think.
Click to expand...
 
I use mainly lencarta lights in my studio (also have Bowens) and all my modifiers and stands etc are lencarta.
I've used others in the past such as lastolite.
I can honestly say the lencartas are fantastic and have been in use solidly for over 5 years.
In that time there have been a couple of minor problems such as on/off switches wearing out. These have been sorted under warranty in a matter of days.
Definitely worth the money, future replacements will be lencarta!
 
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