Review: Neewer 250DI (the ebay special kit)

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stratocaster72

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Hi

Well, i keep seeing these mentioned, lots of people ask about the cheap ebay kits, sometimes good comments, sometimes bad.... only one way to find out.... buy them and see. So thats what i did.

I got the 500w (2 of the 250 strobes) kit, this includes two softboxes, reflective umbrelllas, a barn door and gels, reflectors and a wireless trigger set.

It all comes in a nice holdall, the holdall impressed me before i even took the lights out :)

The lights themselves: quality seems good, nice finish, look very decent, all the necessary controls are on the back (modelling light, power, slave on off etc).
The only thing i would question is the power input jack, seems a little wobbly, but works perfectly fine, not really an issue.

Both softboxes are decent enough, easy to assemble, includes the inner baffle diffuser, not too heavy. They are not big enough for full length portraits (unless you move them back... which loses the softness), but perfect for head/shoulders, product shots, children, etc.. i had reasonable results at full length using two of them but ideally you need a bigger softbox for serious full length shots.

The reflective umbrellas are the same as any others ive seen :) both are very good.
The stands in the set are reasonable, seem sturdy enough for the lights and softboxes. I wouldnt use them outside, someone could topple them if they tripped on a cable. Also, they tighten very nicely but i would be careful you dont overtighten... i can see that they could break if you push them too far.

The barn door.... will i use this? Actually i did :) with the gels, for some background lighting and a little hair light... maybe not ideal for either but it turned out ok. the gels are quite good, ive used them on my other flashes for a bit of colour effect.

Also comes with a pop out refelctor set, the usual kind, medium sized, quite a nice extra.

Quality of the strobes: Well, i tested with my light meter and found them to be consistent each time.... you have to do a test flash every time you make a big adjustment to the power as it seems to store it at the previous setting until after the first flash, i think this is normal though.
Colour... i think its ok, this is something i am not great at noticing, it appears to be consistent to my eye, but maybe someone with more experience than me would notice something i cant. I read that colour temp variance is the main issue with cheap strobes so i was watching for it. If im honest then i have to say i dont notice it so far, all the test pix i took seem to show the same results with no noticeable difference after each flash. Once in about 20 flashes i did notice that one would fire slightly before the other, but think this is more to do with me losing the wireles signals by moving out of range of the camera or the flash to camera.
So, i cant really fault them on performance....... the modelling light is great, power of the flash is great, construction seems very good.

Obviously everything in this set is cheap, and you can tell...... the strobes actually are the best part, they look a lot more expensive than they actually are, all of the accessories are of a visibly cheaper build, but.... all are totally functionable, work as described, strong enough to stand up to a bit of abuse and incredible value for money......

Like i said, i wouldnt use the stands outside, not would i take this setup to a studio and expect it to compete with something costing thousands of pounds, there are probably little variances in power or colour temp that im not noticing that would be exposed by a real professional with a better kit.

But, for my home studio, these are perfect, why would i pay more? I mean, if they break i can buy a whole new set for less than the cost of a flash bulb on a bowen :) If the strobes last me a year i will consider them to have done ok, anything more than a year is a bonus at this price (works out at about £40 for each of the 250w strobes).

Final note on the wireless triggers.... the set included with this are better than the ones i had previously purchased seperately. Ive been using them quite a lot and apart from the odd time when i put myself out of range (i was epxerimenting quite a bit... behind doors and stupid stuff), they have worked flawlessley...... these alone are worth a good £40 i reckon.
 
Oh.. and they impressed my mate who came round :) and also my model who thought i had gone all pro after just a month with a camera lol....... So they do look quite good.

I think the set was £140 for the lot, the cheaper set (i think has 120 power strobes) do not have a modelling light, and the more expensive 300w strobes apparently have the exact same gn as the 250 strobes (according to some site or other) so these seem to be the best bang for the buck overall.

Quick note on the stands.... they go to about 7.5ft, but are a bit wobbly at that, they are better at 6ft. If you wanted to have the softbox above the model looking down you will need better stands, unless the model is sitting or kneeling/lying etc... the stands seem perfectly fine for the weight of the strobe and softbox up to 6ft like i said, but i would be wary of extending them to the full height, theyre not really sturdy enough to take a knock at that height.
 
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Thats a much needed review!
Ive been intrigued by these kits recently and the fact someone has gone out and bought one AND given a review has helped massively!

Any chance of showing some pics straight from camera? and possibly just a general setup shot?
 
Hi.
Yeah, i will post some tonight (now that ive got my new 60D :) )

The main concern that i see posted about these is safety, but ive never found anyone on any forum yet that has had one of these blow up on them :) im sure there would have been lots of posts if that has happened.
Thats not to say they wont/cant go pop, but it would appear to be less of an issue than sometimes suggested.... In any case i do take precautions, they are on an anti surge strip, i dont keep them on for hours at a time and i treat them like i do with my expensive (fragile) valve amps... carefully, no bumps, no thumps and keep an eye on temperature etc..

So far, so good.... but its only 2 weeks in :) as soon as anything happens i will let you know :)
 
Yeah likewise, ive seen a few people moan they feel cheap and nasty on some kits but i havent read a review once, saying they have blown up or set on fire etc. I think the closest ive come to seeing something on the lines, was that a modeling bulb didnt work on arrival.

Just out of curiosity, Im guessing these heads dont have any form of fan or cooling?
 
I dont think they are fan cooled........ im not sure to be honest.. i will check tonight.
They dont seem to get very hot when they are on though, and i havent had any complaints about the modelling light being too hot for anyone.
There are vent holes on the front and back.

Like i said, i tend to use them for two hours or so at a time, i have been doing some shots using the strobes, then turning them off and doing different setups using the hotshoe flash or my little flashes, so i havent ran them for really long periods at a time, no problems at all using them so far :)
 
stratocaster72 said:
I dont think they are fan cooled........ im not sure to be honest.. i will check tonight.
They dont seem to get very hot when they are on though, and i havent had any complaints about the modelling light being too hot for anyone.
There are vent holes on the front and back.

Like i said, i tend to use them for two hours or so at a time, i have been doing some shots using the strobes, then turning them off and doing different setups using the hotshoe flash or my little flashes, so i havent ran them for really long periods at a time, no problems at all using them so far :)
Click to expand...

You were going to double check if they had any fans?
 
im moving house today lol :)
short notice as the keys were handed over so been a bit hectic...
will check as soon as I'm in.
 
Still intrigued by the results if you have any images to show us.
 
Might be worth getting the mods to move this to the reviews section so it doesn't get lost :)
 
They dont look bad. Would be intrigued to see a few various setups when you get the time.
 
I think there are a lot of these studio light kits out there with different names on them, I purchased a set of the 300 watt ones " 300di" and have been using them both under and above my plexiglass table with some success photographing stuff with a white background, as well as a bit of portrait stuff..what I have found with about them is that it has been a job to get them to turn down enough and at times so i have had to use them with nd filters..the other problem that I had was white balance, I found that I could set the lights up using a light meter etc take a few shots on the table which would be ok, then take a few more with out any adjustments and the white balance would look totally different, this could usually be sorted out in raw...but still a pain..
The final straw was friday evening when one of the heads made a loud pop then gave of a awful smell, and after taking the softbox off for inspection I found the red hot reflector/lamp holder was hanging out on it's wires inside the soft box.( luckily not touching anything, and my house didn't burn down )

I slung that one out and sent gary from lencarta a PM (who I have had no contact with before ) and after a conversation via PM's and a phone call, I found him to be very knowlegable and helpfull and have since ordered a Lencarta 300 elite pro as a replacement, and will be ordering another two later in the month..

my final thought is although I have managed with them ok and they have done the job that I purchased them for.( and they were very cheap )...I do think you get what you paid for...
 
A quick add on to my above post..these strobes haven't got any fans built in, so dont leave the modeling lamp on to long otherwise things get mighty hot..

below is one of the remaining two that I have left, excuse the shadows at the bottom of the image, but without the one being photographed I was down to one strobe..

flashhead.jpg
 
I would recommend anyone considering eBay flash to ask the seller for a copy of its CE certificate. A lot of these Hong Kong imports don't meet EU safety standards, and some are simply just dangerous. It's less of a problem if it's say a battery powered radio trigger, but with studio flash, we are talking about 600-900 volts of internal triggering voltage inside the case!

They all look the same apart from the brand name, because the tooling are what they call "public mounds" in the Far East. Any workshop that pay a small fee can hire the tooling for a few weeks, which makes economic sense for things like kettles and thermal flasks. There are even brokerage companies that broker these. A flash go inconsistent or go bang because of poor quality (or fake, or recycled) main capacitors. What goes into these is anyone's guess.
 
I think it is great you have published this. I think we all look for a bargain and there is a reason why quality costs in some cases. With electrical safety it is so important.

I have been following many major brands of lighting recently trying to decide what to go for and posts by Michael Sewell and Garry have been instructive, constructive, helpful and enlightening. One of the reasons why I am leaning more and more towards Lencarta...
 
My lencarta 300 elite turned up today as promised ( thanks gary) the first thing I noticed was build quality ( Superb)..I thought the 300 DIs that I have got looked quite tidy in the build quality department, ....but the lencarta is the real deal, on first use I noticed that the syc lead that come with the lencarta does not fall out of my light meter which is unlike the one that comes with the 300 DIs ( as they dont stay in the light meter at all unless you keep your thumbvon it ), second big difference was no need for ND filter when I wanted to turn the power down ( unlike my 300DIs ) and all of the controls are superb and silky smooth, and the light is consistent ( definatly feels like quality )... all in all I am very pleased with the lencarta 300 elite and will be replacing my other two lights with them in the near future..

I purchased the 300 DIs because I wanted them in a hurry and didnt have time to do any research, and also obviously wanted to save a quid or two..but in the long run I would have been better off doing a bit of research and spending a bit more for the extra quality..

steve
 
Mine are still going strong :)
Used them about a dozen times now, i have been careful not to leave them on too long (never more than 3 hours) and i havent noticed any heat build up.
All my recent flickr pix were taken with them.

I would add that i have a lot of other flashes too, but still find these to be very good for the price.

Regarding safety, i do keep an eye on them, just in case.

However, i am eyeing up the lencartas too, nice price on those, and will buy one to compare.

The only negatives i could mention are that they need about 4 seconds to get back to the correct power level after a shot (which doesnt bother me too much). If i was doing a professional shoot i would use these as a backup rather than the main lights.

The rest of the kit that came with them is pretty good, ive used the stands and other bits quite a lot and they have been very useful.

Dont worry, if they go bang i will be on here to let you know....... Having read around it seems that the neewer badged ones are more consistent compared to the numerous other branded (and unbranded) ones.... so maybe they are the ones to go for :)
 
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Hi, I know this is quite an old thread but I wonder if any of you could answer a question for me about these heads. I was recently looking for a cheap studio setup just for photos of my grandkids etc., and managed to buy a used 300di two-head set complete with wireless triggers, stands and modifiers for just £35 on Ebay. I was so impressed with the performance that a few days ago I bought, again on Ebay (this time from a registered business seller) what was advertised as a 250di head. What was delivered however, was a 250c head which appears to have exactly the same spec as the di model except that the variable power dial, whilst still stepless, has markings for 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 power. Is the 250c model effectively identical to the di model in all other respects, or are there other differences ie., in component quality etc. between the models. I'm not making a major issue out of this with the seller as after all, I only paid £32 for the head which was brand new, still in retail packaging and works faultlessly!
 
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