Bowen’s Esprit

Messages
415
Edit My Images
Yes
I’ve got a chance to purchase some Bowens Esprit 500 heads from my works photography department, any idea what sort of price I should be offering for them? I suspect they’re well used...
 
You'd be better off investing your money in some better and more up to date ones. You'll probably find modern 200 or 300s would be far better anyway. (y)
 
Not absolutely sure I’d have much use for them, but I think they will be very cheap (if not free!) so might be worth having.
 
Free is good, but I wouldn't part with any cash for them personally - I'd just offer to 'dispose' of them free-of-charge. ;)
 
There's a few different versions of the Esprit (1, 2 and Gemini) and a good working copy should run about £50, £90, £100-120 respectively.

They are however all extremely old now, I think the Esprit 2 Gemini is a perfectly good basic monoblock but the age means you're guaranteed nothing, I'd happily pay £100 for a kit any day especially with accessories.
 
I use Gemini 500's with my Godox AD600's and they work fine for background / fill lights, take the same modifiers etc, if they are for free then worth having as spares.
 
If free / v cheap then worth a punt.

but I wouldn’t buy at regular s/h prices as you can buy new for similar money.
 
Just a thought, don't these have a trigger voltage a bit high for some digital cameras? off hand I think it was something like 15v from memory and Canon recomend no more that 6v for some models, I seem to remember Nikons being a bit higher but it was a few years back last time I checked, and I cant remember exactly. Might be worth checking before connecting to your camera.
Dont want to "crispy critter" your camera. ;)
 
Just a thought, don't these have a trigger voltage a bit high for some digital cameras? off hand I think it was something like 15v from memory and Canon recomend no more that 6v for some models, I seem to remember Nikons being a bit higher but it was a few years back last time I checked, and I cant remember exactly. Might be worth checking before connecting to your camera.
Dont want to "crispy critter" your camera. ;)
I think the Canon cameras with restricted trigger voltage are all quite old now (IIRC late 90s film cameras) it was quite a short lived issue.

edit to add
Surely everyone uses a wireless trigger nowadays?
 
I think the Canon cameras with restricted trigger voltage are all quite old now (IIRC late 90s film cameras) it was quite a short lived issue.

edit to add
Surely everyone uses a wireless trigger nowadays?
Yeah it was a while ago thinking about it. Still I wonder what voltage a radio trigger can handle, it's all electronic. There must be a safe limit.
 
Yeah it was a while ago thinking about it. Still I wonder what voltage a radio trigger can handle, it's all electronic. There must be a safe limit.

Optical slaves? I'm thinking about scenario where these are used in addition to something modern like godox
 
Yeah it was a while ago thinking about it. Still I wonder what voltage a radio trigger can handle, it's all electronic. There must be a safe limit.
I’m sure the radio triggers would be fine.

IIRC the ‘high voltage’ was in the hundreds for some cheap and cheerful flash guns.
 
I’m sure the radio triggers would be fine.

IIRC the ‘high voltage’ was in the hundreds for some cheap and cheerful flash guns.
Yes I've still got an old early metz 45 somewhere, used to get a fair shock off the camera hotshoe if the flash was plugged in the pc socket , not reccomended in the wet... and I speak from experience :) I think it was a about 200v from memory, the later ones used a much lower voltage.
Used to look a right nugget in the wet when you touched the camera and jumped up and down for a bit saying naughty words...
 
Back
Top