Well Crap

Patrick · Jun 9, 2005

Finally decided to get away from my hot lights and order acouple monolights.
Ordered 2 Flashpoint Digi poppers from Adorama. They arrived today! Only one of them has a CRACKED flash tube

.
Will call customer service in the morning.
On a bright note I'm pleased with the ONE that IS working. The built in slave sure will be nice.

cbay · Jun 9, 2005

Thats a shame, didnt they send it well packaged then. Some companies are hopeless like that..

SLOShooter · Jun 9, 2005

Dang that sucks, I'm looking into get two flashes for a small home studio, what did you end up with?

Ghoste · Jun 9, 2005

Haha, tell 'em you should get something free for your grief if you ever want to buy something from them again =p.

craig · Jun 9, 2005

Whoa; I just had a bad experience with strobes today. Good thing I brought the 'ol hot lights or the shot would have failed miserably. Mainly because I could not figure out the slave (transmitter|receiver). I can handle strobes in the studio, but not in the field.

Things I learned today about shooting large interiors with strobes: Plugging in the strobe is easy. Have a fun time getting them to fire at once. Figure out the diffusion.

I was using White Lightning units. If I had an ol' Speedotron 4800 I may have had an easier time.

Patrick · Jun 9, 2005

SLOShooter said:
Dang that sucks, I'm looking into get two flashes for a small home studio, what did you end up with?

Digi Popper 200.
At first I was concerned about the power...but after playing a bit with it using my Sb800 (wirelessly, and they fired together) as a fill. I was very pleased. Ended up with it set to 1/4 power shooting thought an umbrella and it worked great. Not a bad price... $129 each U.S.

Think I'll need a soft box or two in the future.

Hope this all makes sence....have a two year old on my lap as I type :spank:

Chase · Jun 9, 2005

I had the same prob with one of the strobes I ordered off Ebay. Thankfully the guy was nice enough to include two replacement bulbs in the package. Enjoy the lights!

SLOShooter · Jun 10, 2005

Yea that all makes sense. How big a space are you lighting up?

My biggest unknown right now is I don't know how much power I need.

Patrick · Jun 10, 2005

SLOShooter said:
Yea that all makes sense. How big a space are you lighting up?

My biggest unknown right now is I don't know how much power I need.

Oh just a small setup. Size of a small living room. Don't let the small numbers full you. I was expecting alot less light from a 200 watt light. Guess the watt secconds don't equal what you'd get from say a 200 watt light bulb.

Adorama was very nice about the whole thing. Sent it RUSH with UPS 2nd day delivery. Called them about 0930 est and got an email saying the package was shipped at 1200 with a tracking number. I had heard that they were cocky from a few different sites but that wasn't the case today. Doesn't really help me for this weekend but hey...crap happens.

Patrick · Jun 15, 2005

And the drama continues........Adormama sent the wrong tubes...Called CSR and they said they would take care of it. Got a email confirmation for 2 modeling lamps not flash tubes....was told by CSR to just call a sales rep cause she is at a loss right now.... Needless to say I think I'll just stay with B&H and let Adormama alone. Guess they're big enough not to have to worry about some smuck in Ohio.

gypsyIX · Jun 16, 2005

ADORAMA SUCKS. i usually try to keep opinions like this one to myself, but this opinion is too big and strong and it forced its way out of me.

i shopped at adorama off and on for years, and i finally swore them off for good. they are rude, sexist, and sneaky. and again, this is not one isolated incident, this was ALL THE TIME.

to keep this short, i will only say that they bait-and-switched my college roommate and it took a *lot* of screaming and threatening to get her money back.

okay i will also say that when my husband goes shopping with me, they will seek him out to offer assistance, and when he says that i'm the one shopping, they continue to ask him questions. "what kind of film does she need? does she know that this film will only fit a medium format camera?" as if i'm some kind of deaf-mute or foreigner. or idiot.

sorry to badmouth one of the advertisers on this site, but it had to be said. i'm done now, rant over. the end.

-meredith-

DocFrankenstein · Jun 16, 2005

That's why you should order spares. The first mantra to the god of photography - Murphy is:

I shall always have spare equipment, so that I'm not stuck when (not if) something happens.

Patrick · Jun 17, 2005

I'll admit that, I usually do and have no idea why I didn't. Must have been a brain fart.

This is only the second time I've ordered from them. Most of my orders are from B&H which has given me NO problems over the past few years. And I've ordered alot from B&H.

I would just would have thought that a business of that size would buck up and fix their mistakes not to mention have some CSR's that actually knew the product line and cared about the customer.