Hensel applies for Insolvency

[Pieter12]

Hensel made good stuff but they priced themselves out of the market.They tried to charge $500 for a Li-ion battery and $900 for a 220 to 12 V mains transformer; all for heir prtable flash unir Porty L1200. what t5he hell....

Gone are the days when a client could be impressed by a $$$$ Broncolor system in a 5,000 sq ft studio with 20 ft ceilings. I don't think they even know what that was.

 

[mgb74]

A lot of product photography is being done with them now because they're easier to work with in some ways than strobe systems are. I think portrait work is still mostly strobes

I've seen a few portrait photographers using LEDs. They don't have the glare that older continuous lighting sources had. And many are shooting at higher ISOs than film shooters are used to.

 

[GLS]

I believe I have doomed Cooke next.

Unlikely, as their primary market is cinema lenses

 

[MattKing]

It seems to me that Hensel targeted their products to the high volume studio user.
And it seems to me that a lot of photography that used to take place in high volume studios, is now taking place elsewhere, including places that put a lot of emphasis on portability.
The trend to having flash output controlled through the camera inevitably leads to big changes.

 

[AgX]

Hensel offers a battery driven 1200Ws portable generator. But no TTL control on any flash. Though to me TTL-control in studio(-like) set-up makes not much sense anyway.

 

[Pieter12]

Hensel has offered remote control of flash output since 2010, not sure if it's compatible with any TTL systems. I think the problem is twofold--the market for the type of strobes they make is pretty saturated, and those photographers who don't need the absolute latest technology don't need to replace equipment very often, especially if it is high-quality like Hensel. Most pros can get by with a minimum of gear, renting what they need for any given assignment. The second is Hensel makes all their products in Germany--European and North American manufacturers have higher costs and trying to compete with asian products is difficult if not impossible.

 

[AgX]

Bowens produced in China and had to be closed nonetheless.

 

[AgX]

Anyway, Hensel is not dead yet.
The months to come will show whether they can survive, but as I indicated in the Tetenal thread the state of insolvency is a most critical state for a firm.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

You might want to look again at what they've been releasing in the last while. Godox has a very capable and flexible range of products at this point

Yongnuo doesn't have much in real 'studio kit', but I've seen more than a few professional photographers switch from large studio lights to ganging up clusters of smaller flashes. - You can break apart a gang of small wireless strobes to spread light around a scene as you need it, but a large studio flash can only be one light source at a time.

The 'big name professional lighting!' companies are effectively pricing and marketing themselves out of business.

That's what I've been doing.

I don't think you can get speedlights to recycle quickly enough and fire in the kind of bursts most fashion photographers use. Plus, that's a lot of batteries to change during a big shoot.

Studio car photographers once were a major user of big strobe systems. Today, a lot of that is computer-generated (event kind of shots that were done on location).

Ah... Most modern smaller lights are powered by lithium ion batteries and can pop 200+ full power pops on a charge and at least several hundred if you're at 1/4 power or less. It's not a problem to have a set charging while using a set, then swapping them out when the in use set gets low enough to warrant it. By the time you shoot through the battery, the other one will be charged again. You can effectively shoot indefinitely and only do a couple battery changes a day if you have a heavy shoot day.

I went from having a couple large lights to 7 smaller lights, mostly battery powered and looking to double that. I shoot mostly in the studio, and being able to drop a little light down somewhere, pop a gel on it and meter it, for me, is the new holy grail of studio lighting. It lets me get way more complex with light placement and color, and if I need more light coming from one direction, or a faster recycle speed, just drop another light there and share the required output between the two lights. At 1/2 power, a lot of the newer smaller lights that are powered by a small lithium ion battery cycle in 1-2 seconds, and at 1/4 power, the cycle time is typically less than a second. My biggest small light is 320 watt seconds, followed by 240 watt seconds, then ~80 watt seconds. If I really need more power than putting two 320 watt second lights together, then I can still pull out my big guns, but frankly, in a studio environment for the type of work I do, I just don't need it, and I typically shoot with *huge* (relatively speaking) light sources, like my base fill light is a 10x14 foot white wall. You want even light? Drop 2 or 3 small lights spread over the distance of the wall shooting at the wall. You get a *giant* light that is as smooth and even as you can get, and the combined output is typically more than enough. You want the key side to be warm and the shadow side to be cool? Drop a warming gel on the little light that is on the key side of the wall and a cool gel on the shadow side, and maybe a plus green on the middle one (if you did 3 lights) to tame any magenta contamination, then work from there for where else you want to put lights and what modifiers and gels you want to use with them. And the beauty is, if I'm doing a smaller shoot, or mobile, grab 3 smaller lights with some standard modifiers and maybe one of the bigger small ones as a backup and I can run and gun because they're battery powered. It's great.

 

[AgX]

There is a new statement by Hensel in which the trustee assumes the firm will get out of insolvency again this year, mainly by developing new products for photography and industrial applications.

 

[jtk]

That's what I've been doing.



Ah... Most modern smaller lights are powered by lithium ion batteries and can pop 200+ full power pops on a charge and at least several hundred if you're at 1/4 power or less. It's not a problem to have a set charging while using a set, then swapping them out when the in use set gets low enough to warrant it. By the time you shoot through the battery, the other one will be charged again. You can effectively shoot indefinitely and only do a couple battery changes a day if you have a heavy shoot day.

I went from having a couple large lights to 7 smaller lights, mostly battery powered and looking to double that. I shoot mostly in the studio, and being able to drop a little light down somewhere, pop a gel on it and meter it, for me, is the new holy grail of studio lighting. It lets me get way more complex with light placement and color, and if I need more light coming from one direction, or a faster recycle speed, just drop another light there and share the required output between the two lights. At 1/2 power, a lot of the newer smaller lights that are powered by a small lithium ion battery cycle in 1-2 seconds, and at 1/4 power, the cycle time is typically less than a second. My biggest small light is 320 watt seconds, followed by 240 watt seconds, then ~80 watt seconds. If I really need more power than putting two 320 watt second lights together, then I can still pull out my big guns, but frankly, in a studio environment for the type of work I do, I just don't need it, and I typically shoot with *huge* (relatively speaking) light sources, like my base fill light is a 10x14 foot white wall. You want even light? Drop 2 or 3 small lights spread over the distance of the wall shooting at the wall. You get a *giant* light that is as smooth and even as you can get, and the combined output is typically more than enough. You want the key side to be warm and the shadow side to be cool? Drop a warming gel on the little light that is on the key side of the wall and a cool gel on the shadow side, and maybe a plus green on the middle one (if you did 3 lights) to tame any magenta contamination, then work from there for where else you want to put lights and what modifiers and gels you want to use with them. And the beauty is, if I'm doing a smaller shoot, or mobile, grab 3 smaller lights with some standard modifiers and maybe one of the bigger small ones as a backup and I can run and gun because they're battery powered. It's great.

THANKS for your thorough and practical description of 2020 up-to date strobe/flash use. I grunted 2800 ws of Norman strobes (my "portable" kit) all over the US when I was 35...Godox-style lights would have been a blessing. I did good work with those Normans but would have done better with today's lights..

 

[pentaxuser]

If I may be so bold, please refrain from buying any Kodak or Ilford products for the foreseeable future. You might want to reconsider any Foma products while you're at it.

That's fine but what we really need is someone who buys a film product and then finds that there is a price decrease within a few days of so doing. - oh and in the U.K.

pentaxuser

 

[jtk]

That's what I've been doing.



Ah... Most modern smaller lights are powered by lithium ion batteries and can pop 200+ full power pops on a charge and at least several hundred if you're at 1/4 power or less. It's not a problem to have a set charging while using a set, then swapping them out when the in use set gets low enough to warrant it. By the time you shoot through the battery, the other one will be charged again. You can effectively shoot indefinitely and only do a couple battery changes a day if you have a heavy shoot day.

I went from having a couple large lights to 7 smaller lights, mostly battery powered and looking to double that. I shoot mostly in the studio, and being able to drop a little light down somewhere, pop a gel on it and meter it, for me, is the new holy grail of studio lighting. It lets me get way more complex with light placement and color, and if I need more light coming from one direction, or a faster recycle speed, just drop another light there and share the required output between the two lights. At 1/2 power, a lot of the newer smaller lights that are powered by a small lithium ion battery cycle in 1-2 seconds, and at 1/4 power, the cycle time is typically less than a second. My biggest small light is 320 watt seconds, followed by 240 watt seconds, then ~80 watt seconds. If I really need more power than putting two 320 watt second lights together, then I can still pull out my big guns, but frankly, in a studio environment for the type of work I do, I just don't need it, and I typically shoot with *huge* (relatively speaking) light sources, like my base fill light is a 10x14 foot white wall. You want even light? Drop 2 or 3 small lights spread over the distance of the wall shooting at the wall. You get a *giant* light that is as smooth and even as you can get, and the combined output is typically more than enough. You want the key side to be warm and the shadow side to be cool? Drop a warming gel on the little light that is on the key side of the wall and a cool gel on the shadow side, and maybe a plus green on the middle one (if you did 3 lights) to tame any magenta contamination, then work from there for where else you want to put lights and what modifiers and gels you want to use with them. And the beauty is, if I'm doing a smaller shoot, or mobile, grab 3 smaller lights with some standard modifiers and maybe one of the bigger small ones as a backup and I can run and gun because they're battery powered. It's great.

 

[AgX]

Meanwhile, in 2021 or so, Hensel went out of the insolvency status and seems by now alive and kicking again.


Though their major difficulties remain: as priceawareness at their traditional customers: photo-studios, the high costs of new product developments, the unavailability of young engineers and general high labour costs.

What changes exactly, other than exchanging their CEO by their industrial segment director, took place, was not made public.



(Sorry for the late update. But Sean, unwillingly with the installation of the new forum software, completely spammed my "My Threads" listing, making it useless.)