Any ideas on repair stations for Bowens flashes? The college at which I teach has 8 Bowens 750ws monolights in various states of repair. I've searched the web for resources on repair facilities and am coming up empty handed. Any ideas for repairs on these?
It would help if you’d post where you’re located. In conjunction with that, just recognize that Bowens (the company, not the mount) no longer exists, so any (doubtful) lingering warranty fulfillment will be handled by another outfit.
Best bet is to think of cobbling parts from the remaining working lights to get a couple working, while you start making the transition to Godox or some other brand.
Thanks @jlafferty for your response. We are in Kalamazoo, MI, midway between Detroit and Chicago as noted in my profile. Our lights are far out of warranty and in the past we’ve used an independent repair station in Arizona (New Mexico?), but they’ve vanished as have the facilities in both Chicago and Detroit that I’d relied on over the years. I’ve found http://www.khbphotografix.com located in Welland, Ontario but dread the thought of the institutional and governmental paperwork likely involved to ship and repair outside the US. Any further thoughts greatly appreciated.
Time to start replacing the strobes with something supportable. The Bowens mount is common. If you get your new lights with a Bowens mount speedring, your existing modifiers will work. Possibly look at Paul Buff as another potential. They have good support of their products and have a variety of light models. Maybe you can slave your working Bowens to the new system or visa versa as you replace your old lights.
@story_teller Thanks for your response. New strobes are not in the budget at the moment. We've just spent $11K on new Arri continuous lighting, so we'll have to wait for the next budget round. If the Bowens totally fail, I've assembled a good sized reserve of Speedo Black that can be brought into service. These won't be phased by student use.
@Mitch60 - Thanks for your response. The Bowens have endured 10 years of student use. We want to continue with them if possible as all our modifiers have been fitted for Bowens mounts, though of course we could swap inserts to match other systems. Good idea for an electronic tech. I'll continue looking.
Godox, and others make lights with Bowens Mounts. Your Bowens mount modifiers should have no problem working with the Godox lights.
I changed out all of my old studio and field strobe lights with Godox or Flashpoint ( A Rebrand of Godox) lights about 4 years ago and I have been extremely pleased with my decision. Their X system of light control is the best that I've ever found or used. All of their new lights have the X receivers built-in and they work extremely well with the X Pro flash control transmitters, up to about 300' distance. Buy the transmitter that is designed for use with the camera brand that it will be used with, and then any light or speedlite that has the X receiver built into it will work fine. They even sell external X band receivers to make other brands of lights controllable from the Godox X Transmitters so you may be able to continue to use some of the older lights along with the new additions. All are reasonably priced too. The latest X Pro II transmitters are only $89.
I'm just a very satisfied user. No connection with Godox or Flashpoint otherwise.
@ CharleyL - Thanks for your response. Quite familiar with Godox and the Bowens mount as I own a few personally and really value the convenience of their controllers. Again, we simply don’t have budget to simply replace the Bowens units at this juncture and frankly I couldn’t recommend Godox for student use. I don’t feel it’s robust enough to survive student use. Even though we continually demonstrate safe and proper use of equipment, you wouldn’t believe some of the things we see. How in the world can one bend a C stand?
@justashooter - criscam was kind enough to respond to my email and indicated they no longer service Bowens, nor are they aware of any facilities in the US who do. Thanks again for the lead, it was worth a try.
I don't know of anybody in the Detroit area (or Michigan for that matter) that does strobe repair any more. The last place was Keith Murphy Electronics that repaired various brands, but he went out of business 10-15 years ago. He repaired many Speedotron packs for the sport photographers in the area.
Tom Brayne wrote:
@story_teller@ Thanks for your response. New strobes are not in the budget at the moment. We've just spent $11K on new Arri continuous lighting, so we'll have to wait for the next budget round. If the Bowens totally fail, I've assembled a good sized reserve of Speedo Black that can be brought into service. These won't be phased by student use.
one can assume that you can buy a 600ws NON-ttl bowens-mount strobe for less than cost of repair ( some simple Godox will cost like $150-180 for 600ws model = https://www.amazon.com/Godox-QSII-QS600II-Modeling-Temperature/dp/B078MQF3S9/ ) - you still have a budget to repair it seems ? will that strobe survive for long time ? surely not - but probably last till next budget... even if you do not like Godox for college purposes, it is cheaper to buy them new than to repair Bowens OEM strobes and you get what 1 year warranty - some will survive more than 1 year... and if you can live with less than 600ws even cheaper.
@exdeejjjaaaa - Thank you for your response. Unfortunately we draw from different budget sources for maintainence and repair than we do for new equipment purchases. Those expenditures are closely folowed by administration. I'm accepting that these Bowens units have become orphans and will likely be swapping out from our reserve of donated Speedotron Black gear.
Tom Brayne wrote:
@exdeejjjaaaa@ - Thank you for your response. Unfortunately we draw from different budget sources for maintainence and repair than we do for new equipment purchases. Those expenditures are closely folowed by administration. I'm accepting that these Bowens units have become orphans and will likely be swapping out from our reserve of donated Speedotron Black gear.
TB
some creative accounting then - claim that you purchased them new for spare parts to fix OEM Bowens
If anyone tells you they service Bowens equipment, be very sure you specify exactly which lights you're referring to. Since the "Bowens" name is back in use, they may really be only offering service on the Godox manufactured lights now being branded as "Bowens".
Good point that I hadn't considered. Thanks for the tip.
Presently the only place that's indicated they could undertake a repair is https://www.silvinosproflash.com I've no experience with them but have heard of them over the course of many years and would tend to trust them.
Flashpoint is a rebrand of Godox. Adorama in New York City sells the Godox line, under the Flashpoint badge, and they provide service for Flashpoint equipment sold by them. Most, if not all of the Godox line is available under the Flashpoint brand name through Adorama. If you will need service, go with Flashpoint from Adorama. In 3 years since switching to Godox/Flashpoint in my field kit and studio, I have only had one modeling light bulb failure and 2 blown fuses (turn off power before adding/removing reflectors or soft boxes and fuses don't blow). If I have a Godox unit fail that I can't repair, I'll just trash it and buy new as their cost to repair if out of warranty would likely be more than a replacement would cost, but I'm not an institution with separate buy/repair budgets. Most of my studio lights are Godox SK300 and SK400, but I also have some MS300 and all of these have proven to have more than enough light for studio use. The SK series seems a little more robust than the MS, (a little longer too) but I haven't had any problems with either.
I have purchased two replacement flash tubes and3 modeling light bulbs for my Godox and Flashpoint lights to keep as spares in my gear closet. These were purchased through Amazon. Only one modeling light bulb has been needed in the last 3+ years. Each studio strobe came with spare fuses, so I have plenty of them left.
