Any Britek or Rostronics issues?

J

jchenier

Well-known member
I ordered my Britek lights from 1080av.com and it seems they've pulled a "SaferSeas" and closed shop. I got most of my order, everything except some of the accesories, and when I spoke to Mark Kasserman, on of the contact names I had a 1080av.com (if you do a "whois" search on saferseas.com you'll see he's listed as a contact there as well) he blamed their closure on supply problems with Britek.

I've since gone to rostronics.com and all I get is a "...currently updating our site..." and wondered if they've gone away too.

Anyone?

Justin
www.beyondtimemedia.com
 
They'll deny it, infact Mark got irate with me on the phone when I brought up SaferSeas. Mark blamed Britek for their problems as 1080av.com, saying that they had some management issues and went from shipping hundreds of 1080av.com orders a week to less than a half-dozen. I sent an email to Tom at Rostronics, another Britek dealer, to see if he had a supply, and his reply, an hour ago was:

--------

Right now we are trying to work with Britek. They have changed management and raised our prices so much that we can no longer sell the equipment at the prices on our website. We will see if they come around in the next week or two.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

--------

I guess we lost another lighting supplier. I ordered Briteks because they were the provided me with decent lights at a cheap price. But apprently everything has price.

Justin
www.beyondtimemedia.com
 
I hear Rostronics has some problem sometimes, but resolves them pretty quickly if and when they pop up. I think the guy you wanna talk to is Tom over at rostronics. Overall I've heard they are pretty good and I haven't heard of them closing shop.
 
Slimothy, I just email Tom, as I mentioned in my post above. It looks like Britek lights are going to be hard to come by, judging by Tom's reply, posted above.

Justin
 
Yea, we must've posted at the same time. I was going to buy Briteks, but I just kept hearing horror stories about them. Granted I've heard some people tell me they're awesome too, but I finally just said screw it and forked out the dough for some Arris. So far, I've only got two lights, w/ a third coming very soon, but they'll last forever and if I want to sell them they'll hold their value.
 
jchenier said:
Right now we are trying to work with Britek. They have changed management and raised our prices so much that we can no longer sell the equipment at the prices on our website. We will see if they come around in the next week or two.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Click to expand...
Wow, that sounds kinda big coming from Tom. Britek's ain't cheap anymore? Glad I got a bunch a couple months ago. Hopefully this all gets ironed out.:(
-Ryan
 
That really bites as I was looking to add to my collection (I have 3 right now) and the only thing I see from rostonics on ebay is a 2k on ebay for 175 buy it now. Last week they had some 200's (should have picked up 1 or 2 but was really looking for more 650's). This will suck if the prices go up very much.
 
If you're going to ebay to buy Britek lights, make sure the seller can actually fulfill your order. I've heard a bunch of britek issues on supply.

Justin
 
I've used my briteks on an amateur basis 3 times and the plastic collar on one of the stands has broken. Also, The softbox stitching is coming apart as well as the foil inside flaking off (on both of my softboxes). I was told by rostronics to call britek USA and they (britek) have not been very responsive. The rostronics guy was pretty responsive, but all he did was direct me to britek. If you can afford a little extra, go with some nice lights. I regret ever going for the briteks.
 
listen to aerosolcheese, briteks are not worth any amount of money... if you want lighting and all you have is enough for some Briteks, either save your money for something worthwhile, or spend money on some reflectors, barndoors and home depot worklights. My friend has Briteks and they fell apart within three uses! The 650w never worked right to begin with either! Plus we he contacted Britek they did nothing to help.
 
It doesn't look good with Briteks anymore. Something fishy is going on...I bought 4 lights from Rostronics; Two 300 focusable and two 600/650's focusable. The 300's were fine. But the 600's blew a fuse within a few minutes. I emailed Tom at Rostronics and he was apologetic but directed me towards Britek. Now here is where the fun began! At first, the tech (Peter?) at Britek asked me to look at he socket of the buld and asked me if it was square (rectangular) or round. When I answered it was round, he said that there was a problem with those lights and that I should send it back and that britek would probably replace or at least repair the light. Later they called me back to say that management told him that he was wrong and that there is no problem with the lights. Bottom line is that once they received the light they said
"since the light is under warranty they will replace the fuse free of charge!" Thank you very much, i could have saved the 20 bucks on shipping that they refused to reimburse and bought a fuse for a buck! they refuse to admit that something is wrong with the circuitry if a fuse blows! Nothing ever blew in these outlets before!
 
Rostronics site is back up. So maybe they worked out their issues. As for the problems with the 600/650, I agree. I have put three bulbs in that damn thing since August and they burn out within a few hours. The rostronics guy referred me to Britek and the britek guy gave me a bit of a tap dance. So I'm not sure how to feel. I can't really afford arri lights right now. The briteks are a great value. I guess I should say that they would be a great value if I could get one to last through a night of shooting. I'm hoping its just that bulb issue that was mentioned in another post.

Only time and perseverance will tell...

But then again if it is a general problem with the 650, then Britek needs to step up and take responsibility for it.

Does anyone have experience with the larger britek lights? The 1k or the 2k?
 
I've got a 1k, a 650 and two 200s and they've given me no problems in the year and a half I've had them (I just got the second 200 a couple of weeks ago, but so far, so good).
 
Possible solution to 600w Britek failures!

Possible solution to 600w Britek failures!

This may only apply to instruments that use the DYH globe. I believe the newer ones use DYS - if that's the case it might be a similar phenomenon, but I don't know.

I had a GY-600 that blew 3 globes in a row on a shoot, all within a few minutes of eath other. Visual inspection didn't show any obvious internal or external problems, so - after talking with Tom Rost - I sent it back to Britek.

I did get one email from them accusing me of "modifying" the light, which I responded to rather forcefully after which they called and said I was using the wrong bulb. At first they claimed it was supposed to be a GY9.5 base. I told them to go look at the silkscreen on the bale and tell me if it didn't say "DYH". They then claimed that it wouldn't work unless I used their bulb, so I told them to ship one back with the light, and they proudly charged me $17 for a Ushio DYH. Well, I'm not complaining since that provided the answer to the puzzle... It seems that not all DYH's are created equal:
dyh_legs.jpg


Note that the usable lengths of the Ushio DHY's legs are ~.05" longer due to the form factor of the base. If I'd scanned this at decent resolution, you could also see a bit of charring at the tips of the Osram indicative of an intermittent connection. I should have noticed that before.

All the DYS globes I have right now are Ushio so I can't tell for sure, but the pictures on Bulbconnection's website appear to show similar shape anomalies on the DYS.

If you're having bulb troubles with a Britek 600, I'd take a close look at the legs on the globes - whether it's a DYH or DYS, I'd bet that's where the problem is.

Cheers,
Joe
 
I've got 2 1ks, 3 dual 600/300s, and 2 200w Briteks with softboxes, umbrellas, stands, and barndoors. So far I haven't had much problems with them except for the usual things that crop up with cheap, mass-produced products: I've had to tighten screws and adjust some of the stands. The bridles on one of the 1k lights was put on backwards... but that was an easy fix. I will say that their "heavy duty" stands are just barely adequate to support the 1k lights.

They've seen some heavy use, particularly lately, in some dodgy weather on my latest night shoots, and they're still performing well. I haven't had any of the lamp or fuse problems reported by other people here. I've got a full set of replacement bulbs but haven't had to use them in the few months I've been using the lights. I like the built-in clips they've got on their barndoors. For me, they've been well worth the price.

Your mileage may vary.
 
One of my 650 bulbs burnt out after maybe three or four days' use.

My other 650 has a nasty habit of smoking if it's on for more than two minutes. This started not long after I started using the light (though unfortunately, because I used them only sporadically since buying them, I didn't discover this problem till the warranty was up.

Oh well, you get what you pay for. Next light purchase will be Arris.
 
I just ordered a kit from them on Feb 8th. Havent heard about shipment yet (Gonna email um tonight). Im hoping all goes well!
 
SCREW rostronics they sent me a broken 600 watt light...i sent the light back and they were suppsed to replace it but they never did. all they did was respond to one email and that was it....never sent me anything to replace the britek light. I'll be sure to let the world know that rostronics sux when i'm rich and famous, right now im just whistle-blowing though. ironically, the lights i have are fine minus the factg that they get hot as hell..(1 600w, 1 400w)...sure could use that third light if you're reading this Rostronics.
 
not all briteks are bad. I've been using my 1k for two years and still working great. Depends how you use it....

cheers
g.
 
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