First "real" light: Bowens 24000 -- What should I know?

[masse]

A buddy had an old, used Bowens Mono 24000 strobe that he was kind enough to pass along to a poor, light-less photographer like me.

I have a 430EX and a 580EX which I still have a lot to learn about, and a few Home Depot-esque clamp style reflectors with $8 daylight fluorescent bulbs in them...this thing is on a whole other level!

So, I'm curious, aside from the basics of studio lighting which I can of course read about myself, what I should know about this particular light, this particular type of strobe (does it fit a 'type?'), is there anything I'll need, any problems I should anticipate, etc.?

A simple softbox or umbrella, and heavy duty stand for this beast, I assume will be my first necessities. Any tips, insights or suggestions for a lighting newbie are welcomed. Thansk!

[barronchung]

Hey do you know what, I just picked up one of these units as a hand me down as well! Unfortunately I think I might have ruined mine as it hadn't been used in a long time and after a couple flashes it started beeping on me with the flashing "dump" light :( I guess I should have brought it in to be cleaned or tuned up before turning it on the first time. How's yours working out?

You can get any type of umbrella for it, but as for a softbox you'll have to match it to the right type of speedring. I've seen pictures of what some places call a "Bowens" type speedring but it has four notches in it. This isn't what you want! You want the type that's just a flat ring without notches.

[Firotechnics]

Bowens uses an s-type mount right now I don't know if your light is different but I'm pretty sure it's s-type. There are plenty of soft boxes and beauty dishes out there. Many other companies make modifiers with the bowens mount. Like photoflex and calumet.

[Benji]

A buddy had an old, used Bowens Mono 24000 strobe that he was kind enough to pass along to a poor, light-less photographer like me.

I have a 430EX and a 580EX which I still have a lot to learn about, and a few Home Depot-esque clamp style reflectors with $8 daylight fluorescent bulbs in them...this thing is on a whole other level!

So, I'm curious, aside from the basics of studio lighting which I can of course read about myself, what I should know about this particular light, this particular type of strobe (does it fit a 'type?'), is there anything I'll need, any problems I should anticipate, etc.?

A simple softbox or umbrella, and heavy duty stand for this beast, I assume will be my first necessities. Any tips, insights or suggestions for a lighting newbie are welcomed. Thansk!

I bought my 24000 in 1988 and the only time I have had to repair it was when I knocked the light stand over that it was attached to! :cry:

This is a great light but it is POWERFUL. In fact it is the most powerful of that series. They offered three lights, the 9000 the 15000 and the 24000. In order to use it you will need several additional items. An optical slave, a power cord and a "spill kill." The spill kill fits into the slot around the dimpled silver cup shaped reflector that surrounds the flash tube. Simply loosen the two round thumbscrews on either side of the unit and slip it into the slot, tighten the thumbscrews up, put any photographuc umbrella into the hole in the reflector tighten the screw underneath it. the power cord is the exacts ame cord that fits inot the back of your PC computer. the original was 15 feet long. Lastly, the original optical slave they used was a directional one which means you MUST have the eye pointed toward the triggering flash or it will not fire. I bought an adapter to use a 360° optical slave so it will fire any time regardless of whether it is pointed correctly or not.

The beeping simply means the power level when the unit was turned on was set at a high setting and then you lowered it to a lower setting. The beeping means if you make an exposure while it beeps the image will be overexposed. Simply trip the unit manually to discharge the capacitors and you are ready to shoot at the lower setting.

Benji