Bowens Estime 3000W Information

  • Thread starter Deleted member 95430
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acrobatic_Citron said:
Anyone have any information on these pack and heads? I imagine some of our seasoned pros have come across them in their time

Is the pack 3000W total or is it 3000W per head, the description isnt very clear,
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If memory serves, Estime was meant to be Bowen's replacement for their Quadmatic line, you'll note the packs are relatively small and it features much smaller power connectors, there was also the Traveller range which had some similar features. I don't think the range did as well as they would have liked so they went back to Quadmatic.

The pack is 3000 Ws total and the heads can handle up to 3000 each, for the right price it might be useful but £900 for a pack and two heads? You could probably source a Profoto or Broncolor pack and heads with 20 years less baggage for that kind of money.
 
The old Bowens quadpacks were pretty decent back in the day, the biggest drawback though was the cables had to run from the pack to the light, so placing lights for the background might be an issue. Some of the modern "cheapy" one are pretty good now, a mate bought a set of flebay and they were pretty good for a few hundred quid. Personally I'd be wary of old flashes, if they break you might have a job getting a repair or parts.
 
Interesting. Back in the day, although there were a lot of small manufacturers, the choice in the UK was basically Bron, Bowens or Elinchrom when it came to generator flashes.
Patrick Lichfield, the Queen's cousin, had Bron, but then he could afford to:)
Bowens was known for their engineering quality, they had their own metal shaping/forming machinery and everything was made from sheet steel and built to last, but they weren't too keen on product development and new innovation. Elinchrom weren't made as solidly but were pretty good, and had much better flash performance. I moved over to Elinchrom in the 90's.

From memory, the Bowens Quadmatic had slow recycling, long flash durations and wild colour shifts at different power settings. The main problem though was with the connectors, where the heads plugged into the generator unit. The problem started with mild hissing and crackling noises, which would get worse over time, and which would then develop into serious electrical arcing inside the connectors. Eventually, there would be a dramatic and expensive bang. The problem reminded me of the old distributor points on cars of that era, where arcing would occur and wreck the contact points, but there was a difference because a new set of points could be bought anywhere for very little money, and fitted in 10 minutes . . .

The Estime was meant to be a new model, but I think, again from memory, that the performance was even worse. "Estime" may have stood for "Estimated time until ready to fire" and I think that its main selling point is that, in theory at least, it could be run from car batteries, with even slower recycling.

And, finally, 3000j was very middle of the road back then. Compared to modern units, the output was probably much lower, partly because of resistive losses from the connecting cables. Back then, many pro studio photographers were shooting on large format cameras, usually at f/45 - f/90 and ISO 50 or 100, so high power was needed. I remember that I had 6x Elinchrom 2400j flashes, a 6000j and a 1500j flash, plus a few 600j ones. Those days have gone.
 
Seems alot of the Bowens stuff is over in the USA at the good prices. Constantly on the hunt for more power for LF
 
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