Used Bowens or new Lencarta?

That's great, thank you.
 
Just another factor to look at when making decisions is a resale value...

Bowens' lights don't drop too much in value once used, especially if you're looking after them. You can buy on eBay today a 500/500 Esprit kit (which must be at least five or six years old, more like eight or nine) for around 500-600 quid.

A brand new 500R kit is only £850 - so you can get some real value out of them for little loss in value.

Also, if you buy a second hand kit, then the chances are that you will be able to re-sell them a the same price anyway.

Don't know how that applies to the other brands, as I've got ten Bowens heads (a mixture of Esprit II's, 500Rs and 500PROs) and have been extremely happy with them
 
Nothing but praise for Lencarta lights, support is great too.
 
I decided to buy one 300ws elite pro for now. Most of my day-to-day work only needs one studio light as key and speedlights for hair, rim etc.

Buying new just has to many advantages in my mind.
 
+1 Bowens.

Had awesome customer service from them.
I have had x2 flash tube replacements out of warranty period. Collected by courier and returned within days.

They are also nice solid units.
 
I've got a similar dilemma to Dean, sort of.

Not so much which brand, more what to buy. Lets be clear, I don't need to buy anything just yet. I have a bit of money left over and am thinking of the future. However, I have zero knowledge and experience of studio heads etc, and have only used speedlites to date.

Now, I was quite set on buying a couple of Lencarta Elitepro 300's, but now I'm not so sure. They would mainly be used indoors in a studio but I would like to keep my options open and can see them being used outdoors on location too. I didn't know you could power these heads with a portable battery pack until this thread (and the link posted earlier) so that's interesting. I can't stretch to the Safari kits but was thinking a couple of Elite Pro heads and buy one of these battery packs (when the Lencarta one becomes available possibly) but are the 300's going to be powerful enough on location or not. Remember I'm coming from a speedlite background, they sound really powerful to me! Do I need a 600? 1 x 300 and 1 x 600 sounds like a good compromise or am I wasting my money and will I find two 300's more than enough...? Do I need two heads? I still have my speedlites, maybe just one 600 as a main light and use the speedlites for fill/hair/rim lights etc...:nuts:

I don't know what to do. There isn't any kind of rush, the money is sat waiting (but will evaporate over time...) but I know if I don't get something nowish and further down the line when the need arises I probably won't have the cash spare then.
 
If it's location work you can't really have too much power, especially if you want to overpower the sun. My decision was based on what I need for the work I do now.
 
Ste Manns said:
I've got a similar dilemma to Dean, sort of.

Not so much which brand, more what to buy. Lets be clear, I don't need to buy anything just yet. I have a bit of money left over and am thinking of the future. However, I have zero knowledge and experience of studio heads etc, and have only used speedlites to date.

Now, I was quite set on buying a couple of Lencarta Elitepro 300's, but now I'm not so sure. They would mainly be used indoors in a studio but I would like to keep my options open and can see them being used outdoors on location too. I didn't know you could power these heads with a portable battery pack until this thread (and the link posted earlier) so that's interesting. I can't stretch to the Safari kits but was thinking a couple of Elite Pro heads and buy one of these battery packs (when the Lencarta one becomes available possibly) but are the 300's going to be powerful enough on location or not. Remember I'm coming from a speedlite background, they sound really powerful to me! Do I need a 600? 1 x 300 and 1 x 600 sounds like a good compromise or am I wasting my money and will I find two 300's more than enough...? Do I need two heads? I still have my speedlites, maybe just one 600 as a main light and use the speedlites for fill/hair/rim lights etc...:nuts:

I don't know what to do. There isn't any kind of rush, the money is sat waiting (but will evaporate over time...) but I know if I don't get something nowish and further down the line when the need arises I probably won't have the cash spare then.
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It's really one of those 'how long is a piece of string' questions...

Used close up and with something like a beauty dish or a standard reflector, the 600 ws ElitePro (or the Safari, which has the same power output) definately has enough power to overwhelm the sun regardless of the lighting conditions - but 300 or 400ws gets a bit iffy and won't be enough when the sun's bright. But used with something like a large softbox, 600 ws sometimes isn't enough either, so the choice of modifiers and the distance they're used at is important.

Generally, shooting outside in the sun, the lighting is used in 1 of 2 different ways. It's either used as fill, supplementing the sunlight, or it's used to overwhelm the sunlight - but whichever way it's used it isn't normally necessary to use the same types of light modifiers that are used in the studio, when it's the only light source, and personally I only ever use 3 types of modifier outside (I take a car full but never use them):) and tend to use either a beauty dish to define the shape of the face, a high intensity reflector to get the maximum light output or a strip softbox, often without any diffusers fitted, to produce a rimlight, and all of these have power in hand even in bright sunlight.

If you have zero experience of studio lighting you might want to spend a day here on one of the Lencarta lighting workshops (next one is 14th August) or if you don't want to do that you can always pop into my studio by arrangement and have a play with the various equipment - after all you're only just down the road.
 
I went for a set of the lencarta 200w heads, mainly on price because the like of bowens was simply out of reach, i hadn't considered second hand at the time.

Saying that, now i'm not sure i would bother looking at the more expensive offerings if i wanted more/new lights, i don't see what they offer, other than a name.

A while back i had a large shoot where i needed more then three heads, so i borrowed a friends pair of bowen 200w heads. Could not tell them apart, both performed flawlessly.
He himself, who had bought into the Bowens said he would be considering the Lencartas in the future.
 
Garry Edwards said:
It's really one of those 'how long is a piece of string' questions...

Used close up and with something like a beauty dish or a standard reflector, the 600 ws ElitePro (or the Safari, which has the same power output) definately has enough power to overwhelm the sun regardless of the lighting conditions - but 300 or 400ws gets a bit iffy and won't be enough when the sun's bright. But used with something like a large softbox, 600 ws sometimes isn't enough either, so the choice of modifiers and the distance they're used at is important.

Generally, shooting outside in the sun, the lighting is used in 1 of 2 different ways. It's either used as fill, supplementing the sunlight, or it's used to overwhelm the sunlight - but whichever way it's used it isn't normally necessary to use the same types of light modifiers that are used in the studio, when it's the only light source, and personally I only ever use 3 types of modifier outside (I take a car full but never use them):) and tend to use either a beauty dish to define the shape of the face, a high intensity reflector to get the maximum light output or a strip softbox, often without any diffusers fitted, to produce a rimlight, and all of these have power in hand even in bright sunlight.

If you have zero experience of studio lighting you might want to spend a day here on one of the Lencarta lighting workshops (next one is 14th August) or if you don't want to do that you can always pop into my studio by arrangement and have a play with the various equipment - after all you're only just down the road.
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That is a very useful and informative answer, thanks Gary. I realise it is a 'how long a piece of string' question.

I tend to like a nice simple approach to lighting so I'm thinking just one head will do me for now, you've helped me decide and I think I'll go for a 600, I can always add to that later. I mainly use speedlites in softboxes at the moment, but would like a beauty dish so will probably go that route too.

As for the training days, I probably will attend one at some point! Time is at a premium for me at the moment.

Thanks again.
 
It is a bit of a balancing act, I have 200ws head which give f44/ISO100 @ 1 metre (standard reflector) and these cannot 'overpower' the sun - great in shaded areas and on dull days though. However yesterday, I was doing some glassware on the product table and I had the opposite issue needed to set them to the absolute minimum, with a softbox and then shoot through a diffuser as well to get the levels right - just 5ws output at minimum.

As for the original 2nd hand Bowens vs New Lencarta question, I've used Bowens and they were OK (robust, well built...) but I have to say the one feature I really liked was the 'L' arm mounting bracket, but that isn't a good enough reason to buy into a brand TBH. I've never used or even seen a lencarta product (apart from a speedring adaptor I bought - super fast service) so can't really comment on them, but I suspect all the major players will supply reasonably quality units that do the job.

Before everyone had an opinion on the net, you had to go and try for yourself and it was a balancing act between; price/look/feel/specification and I suspect sales staff & the environment. I really do believe you could take a punt on any brand with a reasonably long track record and get something that will provide years of service - but if you've got the time, go and try them and see which 'feels right'. The only reason to buy second hand IMO is to get something of a better specification that you wouldn't/couldn't afford new!

Paul
 
bass_junkie83 said:
I went for a set of the lencarta 200w heads, mainly on price because the like of bowens was simply out of reach, i hadn't considered second hand at the time.

Saying that, now i'm not sure i would bother looking at the more expensive offerings if i wanted more/new lights, i don't see what they offer, other than a name.

A while back i had a large shoot where i needed more then three heads, so i borrowed a friends pair of bowen 200w heads. Could not tell them apart, both performed flawlessly.
He himself, who had bought into the Bowens said he would be considering the Lencartas in the future.
Click to expand...

I guess like everything, if it does what you need then there's no need to change it, or pay a premium.

We use nothing but Bowens in the studio, until I went on a spending spree of brand new 500PRO and 500R heads recently, we had one old set of Esprit 500's which must be around eight years old now. They have been in use seven days a week often for many hours a day and they still perform brilliantly and consistently.

One head needed new capacitors, so it went back to Bowens in Clacton, cost me £120 and was as good as new when it came back, they even replaced the flash tube FOC and the process took just a week.

To get this kind of hammering in what must be, literally, millions of flashes over the years, I think is great value for money.

But if you're only taking shots once or twice a month, the perhaps such resilience is overkill.
 
Certainly it's worth buying quality, but I think there may be an assumption in your post that ONLY the most expensive heads can be used all day every day, and that just isn't true.

Lencarta has one particular customer, right in the centre of London, which uses a SmartFlash head to photograph every single customer who walks through their door - that's 5000 flashes eery day, don't know whether that's 6 days a week or seven but even if it's 6...
And there are plenty of other customers who are event photographers, again these guys work their equipment extremely hard.
 
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