Balcar Strobes

Darryl Roberts

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Hi,

I just, for the first time, heard of Balcar Strobes.

Are they reliable? I locally found a 2400 Ws kit that's operable and affordable.

Thank you
 

Pieter12

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Balcar strobes were a popular mid-priced studio system in the late 80s and early 00s. They were distributed by Calumet, no longer in business. Parts and service may be hard to come by.
 

AgX

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It was a manufacturer well-known in Europe.
They are out of business since 2005, thus ahead of their competitors... who followed later.
 
Last edited:

Emulsion

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Jan 25, 2007
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Darryl Roberts said:
Hi,

I just, for the first time, heard of Balcar Strobes.

Are they reliable? I locally found a 2400 Ws kit that's operable and affordable.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Balcar were popular in Australia in the 1980s.
They are well regarded.
 

Links_147

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I have 2 Balcar Strobe kits, the last time I used them 1 kit worked however a bit slowly. The other wouldn't hold charge (probably dried out caps). For 40ish year old strobe kits this isn't very surprising. The lamps were really designed as workhorses however I imagine getting replacements these days would be quite the challenge. I have been tempted to open them up and check all the caps and other electronics however considering my use cases I would probably be better of looking at a more modern (though probably much shorter lived) LED lighting arrangement.
The short answer is they are fantastic and probably one of the best options from that era.
Coincidentally if anyone needs some partially working units I might have some available
 

Philippe-Georges

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I heard story's about exploding Barcar flash generators and technicians refusing to repair them being afraid of burning their hands on exploding capacitors.
But, I had an old Broncolor 404 generator that all the sudden went off as a rocket in my studio, almost hitting the sealing, blackening the floor and chasing the client away, seriously...
The next thing I did was buying Multiblitz, but with this one I had an other story.
 
Last edited:

AgX

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I got several Broncolor monolights from the early 80ties. You are frightening me. (But mine only have 400Ws.)
 
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