Portable studio lights chinese ebay knock offs

daz103

daz103

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Darren
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I really want a portable studio light to use on location and I am obviously aware that the Elinchrom Quadra's and the bowens equivalents are the tops, I have also had a look at the Lencarta Safaris which also look quite good, but they are all a little bit out of my budget. So I have been looking at the chinese knock offs on ebay. £218 will get one 400w head and a battery pack. Anyone had any experience with these. Would it be worth a punt do you think. I have never ordered such things from ebay so I am unsure of the quality (I am aware it probably isn't great).
 
My personal thoughts on this.

With eBay there are good and bad ones. It's really a matter of lottery, because seller wouldn't know/tell you the make or quality of vital components such as main capacitors and flash tube. Also there's the question with build and consistency/reliability.

At the end of the day it all boils down to support and service. These people are box shifters. If you get a lemon you'd have to return it all the way to China. If there are faults you may not get spare parts or repairs done. There won't be much, if any support on operating the equipment, should you have any queries.

Plus there will be 20% VAT + 4% duty added to the price, charged by the courier on the Custom's behalf.

I'm including my signature below, to highlight my "vested interests". But I genuinely see these as fair comments.
 
Lencarta said:
My personal thoughts on this.

With eBay there are good and bad ones. It's really a matter of lottery, because seller wouldn't know/tell you the make or quality of vital components such as main capacitors and flash tube. Also there's the question with build and consistency/reliability.

At the end of the day it all boils down to support and service. These people are box shifters. If you get a lemon you'd have to return it all the way to China. If there are faults you may not get spare parts or repairs done. There won't be much, if any support on operating the equipment, should you have any queries.

Plus there will be 20% VAT + 4% duty added to the price, charged by the courier on the Custom's behalf.
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These are all valid points and ones that I have considered myself. Thats why I wanted to see if anyone had experience with these lights.

You don't by any chance some ex demo or random spare Safari sets lying around do you Harry :naughty: ( got to try)

I used to promote Lencarta when I worked at Jacobs as an alternative the usual suspects (not even sure we could get hold of them).
 
daz103 said:
I really want a portable studio light to use on location and I am obviously aware that the Elinchrom Quadra's and the bowens equivalents are the tops, I have also had a look at the Lencarta Safaris which also look quite good, but they are all a little bit out of my budget. So I have been looking at the chinese knock offs on ebay. £218 will get one 400w head and a battery pack. Anyone had any experience with these. Would it be worth a punt do you think. I have never ordered such things from ebay so I am unsure of the quality (I am aware it probably isn't great).
Click to expand...

I'm not at all sure that this is right. I think it's fair to say that a lot of people regarded the Quadra as top in its class until the Lencarta Safari Li-on became available, but the real life group test in Advanced Photographer put the real performance figures in perspective, with the Lencarta Li-on winning by a country mile, the two Elinchrom models coming 3rd and 4th (from memory) and only the Profoto getting anywhere near the Lencarta Li-on. And Bowens came joint last from memory, it's a good product but it's a studio flash that can be used on location, rather than a location flash.
 
daz103 said:
You don't by any chance some ex demo or random spare Safari sets lying around do you Harry :naughty: ( got to try)

I used to promote Lencarta when I worked at Jacobs as an alternative the usual suspects (not even sure we could get hold of them).
Click to expand...

Not anymore I'm afraid Darren. We've had a couple of ex-demos kits at Focus, and they were all snapped up (with an early bird queue) within the first 15min when we kicked off a sale at 3pm on the last day.

Thanks for promoting us at the shop. I really appreciate your support. We owe a lot to happy users who help to spread the name around. Without your support we'd never have got to where we are now (and further afield).
 
Darren, I've got two 600W versions of those heads, had them both for nearly two years and they're still working fine (used on average weekly on location shoots for newspapers and magazines).

I'd echo what Harry said about quality control, one of the chargers failed after a few months and the only option was to send it back to China for a replacement. I had an electrical engineer friend have a look and he said it's non repairable without detailed schematics of the circuits.

The build quality isn't great as the body is plastic with a metal mounting plate (which is screw fit only onto a light stand). The light quality is fine for location work but I wouldn't trust it for commercial pack photography as the colour shift can be +/-200K. Large light modifiers won't inspire you with confidence either (the umbrella mount is in the wrong place and you'll find the light won't hit the centre spot giving a very uneven fall off of light).

Contrary to what Harry said I didn't have to pay VAT or custom charges, but I wouldn't promise that as a standard!

But then these lights cost dramatically less than other portable studio light systems. In fact they're cheaper than a cheap speedlite solution. The price you pay though is the customer service and backup, as Harry said.

Money no object the best studio lights I've used are Profotos with Elinchrom second. I personally don't rate Bowens. I've also got a set of Alien Bees that I find excellent for location work - unfortunately the UK price makes them too expensive I think.
 
daz103 said:
Ok these are the options

Option one

Option 2

Option 3

These are the only ones I have found so far. If you have any recommendations, I am all ears.
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There is a Dutch company that sells these products so you'd not pay import tax or vat (if you pay the tax at purchase ) plus you'll have bought the product in the EU.

I've had Chinese lights for about 6-7 years now and they still work perfectly
 
Thanks for that guys.

POAH said:
There is a Dutch company that sells these products so you'd not pay import tax or vat (if you pay the tax at purchase ) plus you'll have bought the product in the EU.

I've had Chinese lights for about 6-7 years now and they still work perfectly
Click to expand...

What is the dutch company called? I will check it out.
 
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