Lencarta is the other brand that gets a lot of coverage, though only in the UK and partly due to Garry Edwards' helpful presence on here. They're made by Godox, available under that name and several other over-branded labels internationally. Lencarta is strongest at the entry-level end, but their products are very good indeed and exceptionally well priced.
Not totally right. There are at least 2 other companies in the UK selling Godox re-branded lights, but they are just re-brands of the Godox models on which ours are based, ours are different and with much higher performance and specs.
Before getting involved with Lencarta, I've used most other brands, mainly Elinchrom. I would say that in the mid-price, pre Lencarta era, Elinchrom always produced high performance, reliable products, with Bowens beating them on build quality but less good on light quality and innovation. Another make to consider has always been Hensel, although they don't have much of a presence in the UK. I consider Hensel to be under-rated.
I would say that today, Bowens have lost their build quality edge (according to things I hear, I have no personal experience of their current product range) and Elinchrom continue to produce decent build quality and decent innovation. For many years, Elinchrom has been owned and managed by the same family and this has to be a good thing. Bowens has changed hands several times and doesn't have the support and commitment of a family. I would say that Bron (or at least the high end models actually made by Bron) and Profoto are the lights of choice for top end pros, but neither have popular appeal due to price. Profoto seems to sell mainly to rental outlets.
At the lower end of the market, there are a host of new players from the far east, covering a wide spectrum of prices - but most are best avoided.
At the end of the day, the most important factor for most people is the quality of the service and customer support, because things can and will go wrong with any product, and the higher the spec and performance, the more likely it is to go wrong at some point. If you stick with a Company that provides good customer support you won't go wrong, whether that Company (in alphabetical order) is Bron, Elincrom, Lencarta or Profoto.
