Rostronics - Tom - Britek

My experience is first-person as an owner, not anecdotal. I don't know who you're talking to in your post, but perhaps you just don't want to hear from owners who have had a bad experience? You seem to infer that I have no experience with these lights - therefore you marginalize everything I've said as sensationalism.

In fact... we purchased three fully accessorized lights from Rostronics on March 24th, 2006.

I have two of the 300/600 broad style fixtures and one of the 300w "focusing"
open-face fixtures. Both of the 300/600s blow a bulb upon each strike, the 300 kept blowing fuses and bulbs concurrently every third or fifth strike.

I finally bypassed the fuse on the 300w by taking a piece of copper wire and capturing both ends of a spent fuse - this, which I would definitely not recommend for safety reasons, has seemed to remedy the globes blowing.

Keep in mind that I purchased my fixtures as a back-up interview kit with 24x24" softboxes for all three fixtures and stands and carry case to our Lowel DP kits.

So, there is our experience with the fixtures.

After our first three globe failures within one week of purchase, Tom did indicate that I could send the lights to Michael at Britek - something I haven't done for lack of motivation. In all fairness, that's not Tom's fault in any way.

At the same time, I have written these fixtures off as too comprimised - too big a liability - to count on for any production of consequence.

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hmmm, very interesting. And im sorry i was not clear, but i did not know you owned them, i may have read incorrectly,

But i can tell you this, i have been childishly flipping them on and off at rapid fire rates, over 60 times now, and again after a few minutes, and nothing ahppened.

I also tried removing the one 600 watt bulb that blew, and placing the good one from above, in its place. Then did the flipping game again to see if it was a hardwiring defect. The bulb was fine

Maybe ill have good luck with these guys cause its been alright so far, if what you say is after a few strikes they blew for you.
 
I bought a combo light kit the 500/1000 's. I have blown quite a few bulbs and during our shoot on vengeance one of the switches on the back went out. Leaving the lamp in the 1000 mode completely. I haven't contacted Britek yet but am about to. Luckily we were doing night exteriors and needed all the light we could get. I would have to think real hard about making another purchase from Rostronics.
 
how did that happen, always 1000 watt? We must have different models, because i asked him about that, since i ordered the 500/1000watt kits, but they came with two 600 watt lights, tom had told me that they just upgraded the model, and the switches in my back are two, and activate one single light, therefor if one went out, how does it keep it at 1000 watts, unless one of them is always turned on?
 
I am not sure what happened. One of the bulbs blew. I replaced it and all of a sudden you cannot control the lights individually. I of course didn't realize that those were two 600 w bulbs. i replaced the bulb that blew with a regular 500 w. One switch works the other doesn't. i am not an electrician, but am going to have it repaired and will let you know the outcome.
 
weird, do you have the orange switches that are underneath the plastic, or on the side cap, near the handle bar?
 
I've asked this question before, but never got an answer. WHY DO BRITEK LIGHTS HAVE FUSES?

I work for two different television stations and I have worked with a huge variety of different lighting instruments. The only light that I have ever seen that had a fuse was a florescent fixture made by Videscence.

One might surmise that the fuse is included as a safety factor. If that's the case, then why doesn't a table lamp include a fuse? Surely a lighting fixture that is designed to be used by the general public would include this important safety device! A lighting instrument requires a pretty simple circuit. I just cannot imagine why any adequately designed light would even need a fuse!

After a few years in broadcast television, and getting to play with every light imaginable, I have learned a lot. I feel somewhat qualified to make some observations. I discovered that Lowell lights were very difficult to control and they fall apart quite easily. We have some Mole Richardson fixtures that are at least 40 years old, and they still get daily use in a very busy studio. I'd say that they have passed the test of time! The Arri lights that I work with aren't that old, but they have been very trouble free, and the quality of light that they put out is unparalleled. In over 1000 separate television productions and countless indie projects on the side, I have yet to even see anything made by Britek. Does this tell you anything?

I chose Arri for my personal lighting kits. Obviously, with what I paid for the Arri kits, I could have had just about any other brand imaginable. I couldn't justify any other brand (except for maybe the Moles), based on personal, everyday, in-the-trenches experience. I know my lights will outlast my next 5 or 10 cameras. The money that I save on lamps and FUSES will pay for my next camera!

If anyone has any idea why Britek lights need FUSES, please "enlighten" me!
 
ahh, so we have different models.. i wonder if there have b een chances.. crossing fingers.
 
I own 2 0f the 650's and 2 of the 300's. I never had a problem with the 300's but the 650's were terrible right from the start. Dimmingng and blowing bulbs. Tom dircted me to call Britek. They told me to ship them back, which I did (at my expense). At first the tech told me that there was something wrong with a batch of those lights and that they would replace them. Fine no problem I thought- they were going to call me the next day to confirm the shipping. When I didn't hear from them I called back and they changed the story saying that it was only a fuse and they wanted to charge me for the bulbs and shipping! (They were so nice not to charge me for the fuses!) So what did they do? they took out the standard fuse (6amp?) and just replaced it with a higher amp fuse which of course did not solve any of the problems. (I'd be doing an interview and the bulb starts dimming and brightening- really unacceptable. Never ever had any kind of problem like that with any of my lowell lights. They refused to deal with the real issue and made it totally not worth my while to pursue any further action. Lowel on the other hand has great customer service! Britek relly left me with a bitter feeling. This is definitely a case where you have to ask yourself: "Can I afford to be cheap on this?" The price you will pay in aggravation and wasted money on malfunctioning lights, wasted time and breath in talking to customer service, wasted money on shipping both ways- you couldn't pay me to take a Britek light. That being said i haven't had any problems with the 300's!
 
At the risk of upsetting a lot of people. What seems to be happening is all to common when puchasing something manufactured in mainland China. It's a total crap shoot. With low quality knock offs abounding (even for inexpensive items) you simply can't guarantee the quality of product. I've read some recent articles in a couple of biz zines that even well connected Chinese Americans with deep established ties to China are getting ripped off. It's that bad.
Take it for what you will, but that's the reality.

(Note this is not some racial rant, I'm paraphrasing from several business magazines).
 
the home depot bulbs are slightly yellower than the ones i got with my briteks. looks like the briteks are 3200 and the home depot are around the 2800 mark.
 
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