Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: inthesouthofireland on November 01, 2009, 11:02:14 am
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Hello Everybody,
After years of using Bowens flash I'm becoming somewhat disenchanted. Back in 2003 when I had to send an Estime AMF generator in for repair the policy for turnaround was 5 working days plus shipping (when sending the equipment directly to Bowens). Good. I was a happy camper.
About six weeks ago I bought a set of three Bowens Gemini 750+. One unit gave up the ghost after just about 200 flashes, going up in smoke and spilling toxic electrolyte liquid on the floor.
Bowens received the unit for repair on October 6th and they sent it back out on October 29th. In the meantime they were doing what? Waiting for a spare part!
If I'm not mistaken, the Gemini 750+ was only superseded by newer models this year. And Bowens do not bother to keep spare parts in stock???
I had a look at other makes and I'm gravitating towards Elinchrom. A week ago I contacted Elinchrom via their website, asking just two questions:
1) How many days is the turnaround for repairs?
2) For how long do they provide spare parts for products after they have been discontinued?
One week on, no reply!
Mid-week I put the the same questions to the German Elinchrom distributor, Profot. They replied. However... with regard to question 2 they proposed I ask Elinchrom directly. And with regard to question 1 the reply was that "all service partners are requested to perform repairs as quickly as possible." An answer as solid as a pudding!
I am sure I can get more meaningful responses here on this forum. I noticed there are a good few European pros here using Elinchrom, so I'm looking forward to hearing about their experiences. But I'm also interested to know how other brands such as Hensel, Broncolor, Richter etc. fare when it comes to service and repairs.
Best regards
Roland
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Call up the Flash Centre in London and ask them about Elinchrom repairs?
They do repairs locally I believe, and stock spares and provide loaners.
http://www.theflashcentre.com/service-department-c86.html (http://www.theflashcentre.com/service-department-c86.html)
My impression is that the old units at last were made to last forever. I have no experience of the fancy newfangled digital stuff.
Edmund
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I just had one of my Profoto Acutes worked on by Luminary Lighting. It took a full week for a simple fix, cost me £180 including shipping. They didn't want to ship it, they wanted me to arrange my own courier to pick it up from them. They said they rarely ship stuff back. I asked to have them ship it anyways; they charged me £40 and didn't pack it very well. The box arrived "round", all the edges were rounded off and now the pack doesn't self dump when turned off. I might be looking for alternatives next time.
R
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I use Elinchrom which I buy via the Dutch importer. I have been using them for 6 years now and quite intensive. I must admit I am fairly anal about taking care of my equipment. I have only experienced one failure, a handle broken off. This was repaired (new casing) within a week. Even better it was cheap to get it repaired! (100euros ex VAT incl shipping).
Due to my good relation to the importer (I am a good client that pays his bills fast and buys regularly) I have never been in a situation where I could not get something on loan if I needed to. I know many of his clients still use older stuff and it appears these things just keep on going. I have never felt the need to deal directly with the Swiss.
I use RX's, FX's, Rangers AS and recently quadra's as well. I am looking to get a Micro AS3000 in the near future.
OTOH A friend of mine has had nothing but misery with his Rangers, he sticks with Profoto I believe. I must admit I do like the Profoto's a lot but sofar I have not been able to come up with an economic reason to get them besides pure lust.
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I bought all my Profoto gear at one dealer here in Munich (Haedler&Haedler). in those very few occasions when I had trouble with it, the dealer gave me his rental kit for free while it went to repair. I wouldn't even think of buying somewhere else even if I could save a few pennies.
it might help that i spent probably more than 50 000 € with them...