Studio Strobe Repair Services

[Scott Davis]

Starting a thread for people to post known studio strobe repair services currently in business. I'm particularly looking for shops on the US East Coast, because I have some packs and heads I'd like to get working again, but I don't want to ship them (cost and risk of damage). I'm in Washington DC, but I'd be willing to drive anywhere within the NYC/Richmond/Pittsburgh triangle.

[Neal Chaves]

Depending on the manufacturer of the strobe equipment, you may be better to ship it to a specialist rather than shopping repairs locally. Call Brent Hollister, at Holly Enterprises and he will gladly advise you. M-F 11-6:00 LA time.
http://hollyflash.com/

[Daniel Unkefer]

You might want to ask George Brown, he's in the NYC area.

917-270-2809

He has fixed several Norma shutters for me. Turned around in a couple of days. Might work on big strobes?

I know he refurbishes other electronic photo stuff. Has a huge inventory on hand

[Scott Davis]

Depending on the manufacturer of the strobe equipment, you may be better to ship it to a specialist rather than shopping repairs locally. Call Brent Hollister, at Holly Enterprises and he will gladly advise you. M-F 11-6:00 LA time.
http://hollyflash.com/

For now, for multiple good reasons, I'd rather avoid shipping if possible. When the value of the unit is such that the shipping costs alone are at least half the value of the unit, plus the cost of servicing may exceed the value of the unit, I'd rather try to save the money if I can. That's the case with my Calumet Elite strobes - a pack will sell for under $200. Shipping the pack would run in the $100-150 range for the round trip to anywhere. And given the age of the unit, parts are likely unavailable from the successor to Bowens. Ergo, I have three Elite carcasses from which to salvage parts to get one good unit. Shipping three across country would be truly throwing good money after bad and at that point I may as well just take the money and buy a used Broncolor or Profoto kit.

But if I can deliver the packs to someone who can Frankenstein me a good one within a day's drive of home, then that starts to make economic sense.

[Mark Sampson]

Back to actual service providers.

for Dyna-Lite:
John Prazeres (NJ)
(908) 209-2485

Silvino's Pro Flash Rx
1302 N. McCadden Pl.
Los Angeles CA 90028
(323) 962-7076

I presume that Sivino's services many brands of flashes. They repaired my gear quite well with a two-week turnaround.
John Prazares worked for Dyna-Lite and went independent after the company closed.
He sent me to Silvino's last spring because he had a two-month backlog.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Kevin at KHB is a collector, has a museum of Omega stuff at his place. He is a hoot and a pleasure to talk to, he's an encyclopedia of photo engineering knowledge. And he can fix any high powered strobe. And he sells six different thicknesses of anti newton glass. That's extremely hard to find nowadays

http://www.khbphotografix.com/ServiceParts2.html

[Neal Chaves]

Some of best strobe-related tech advice tech advice is from Brent Hollister at Holly Enterprises. 11:00-6:00 M-F LA time. He knows Norman2000Ds better than anyone on the planet.

[Pieter]

Back to actual service providers.

for Dyna-Lite:
John Prazeres (NJ)
(908) 209-2485

Silvino's Pro Flash Rx
1302 N. McCadden Pl.
Los Angeles CA 90028
(323) 962-7076

I presume that Sivino's services many brands of flashes. They repaired my gear quite well with a two-week turnaround.
John Prazares worked for Dyna-Lite and went independent after the company closed.
He sent me to Silvino's last spring because he had a two-month backlog.

Lucky you. Silvino's had my Hensel head for about a year. It needed a new cable.

[jnantz]

Maybe Stewart Fielder at Fixation UK can make a suggestion.
I was going to suggest the flash clinic
they were in NYC but it looks like they're gone..
have you contacted Bowens to see who they recommend locally?
Bowens used to make some of the calumet flash gear.
regarding a modern flash
you might look into lumedyne, they don't die. im still using a 244 with 2 heads
I bought it used in around 88 .. batteries have been rebatteried but that's it
their new stuff is to die for, worth every 1¢ ...Dj makes great light.

[Scott Davis]

Maybe Stewart Fielder at Fixation UK can make a suggestion.
I was going to suggest the flash clinic
they were in NYC but it looks like they're gone..
have you contacted Bowens to see who they recommend locally?
Bowens used to make some of the calumet flash gear.
regarding a modern flash
you might look into lumedyne, they don't die. im still using a 244 with 2 heads
I bought it used in around 88 .. batteries have been rebatteried but that's it
their new stuff is to die for, worth every 1¢ ...Dj makes great light.

Bowens went into receivership maybe 5 years ago. There's a business in Arizona that took over their remaining inventory. I checked with them a while ago when my first Calumet Elite pack went kablooey, and back then they would not guarantee parts availability for that unit, and I would have to ship the unit(s) to them for them to evaluate if they were even serviceable, and even if not, I would have to pay for the return shipping as well. I wasn't about to pay round trip shipping that could cost more than half the value of the unit in good working order just to find out it was not repairable, or beyond economic repair.

At this point I'm thinking maybe in the spring I'll take a long weekend and drive up to Canada to get KHB to look at them.