Adorama Rovelight RL 600, thoughts?

absplastic wrote in post #18096265
$750 is a lot of money for a unit that has no repair/service available after the 1-year warranty is up. It has me wondering if either the manufacturer or retails of these are going to step up their support game.

You can't get these things repaired? Warranty only?

thenextguy wrote in post #18096739
You can't get these things repaired? Warranty only?

As far as I have been able to determine, units sold in the US by Adorama or CheetahStand have a 1-year limited warranty against failure due to defect. I don't know if they repair or replace them, but I suspect the latter. When the year is up, there are no authorized service centers for these imported items and the retailers can't help you. How's your Mandarin?

If you buy a Godox unit from China off Ebay or Amazon, you're on your own from day one.

This is a stark contrast from the likes of Profoto, Broncolor, Elinchrom, etc. who all have repair services available to US, Canadian and European customers and options other than the dumpster for out-of-warranty equipment.

absplastic wrote in post #18096748
As far as I have been able to determine, units sold in the US by Adorama or CheetahStand have a 1-year limited warranty against failure due to defect. I don't know if they repair or replace them, but I suspect the latter. When the year is up, there are no authorized service centers for these imported items and the retailers can't help you. How's your Mandarin?

If you buy a Godox unit from China off Ebay or Amazon, you're on your own from day one.

This is a stark contrast from the likes of Profoto, Broncolor, Elinchrom, etc. who all have repair services available to US, Canadian and European customers and options other than the dumpster for out-of-warranty equipment.

Cheetahstand has a page on their website that states "We do repair service on all Godox products that we carry." The page lists a few easy to follow steps and it goes on to say "We will contact you with a quote for the cost of repair (labor, parts, return shipping included) and estimated time." And further to that "If you don't approve, we will ship the item back to you. The only fee that you are responsible (for) is the return shipping fee."

So if you bought a Godox product via for example Amazon, and Cheetahstand sells the equivalent under their Cheetah label, you should be good. I believe this has been mentioned here before as well as on social media.

Are you saying this is incorrect?

absplastic wrote in post #18096748
As far as I have been able to determine, units sold in the US by Adorama or CheetahStand have a 1-year limited warranty against failure due to defect. I don't know if they repair or replace them, but I suspect the latter. When the year is up, there are no authorized service centers for these imported items and the retailers can't help you.

We have our own authorized repair center for our house brands - and of we cannot repair, we will replace. (Of course, this means we can also repair outside of the warranty period!)

SamFrench wrote in post #18096810
Cheetahstand has a page on their website that states "We do repair service on all Godox products that we carry." The page lists a few easy to follow steps and it goes on to say "We will contact you with a quote for the cost of repair (labor, parts, return shipping included) and estimated time." And further to that "If you don't approve, we will ship the item back to you. The only fee that you are responsible (for) is the return shipping fee."

So if you bought a Godox product via for example Amazon, and Cheetahstand sells the equivalent under their Cheetah label, you should be good. I believe this has been mentioned here before as well as on social media.

Are you saying this is incorrect?

The Adorama Rovelight RL 600 / Jinbei HD600 is not a Godox product.

If Adorama offer their version of Jinbei's new HD 610, I still think a new thread would be a good idea!

HelenOster wrote in post #18096941
We have our own authorized repair center for our house brands - and of we cannot repair, we will replace. (Of course, this means we can also repair outside of the warranty period!)

THANK YOU for checking in and clearing that up!

HelenOster wrote in post #18096941
We have our own authorized repair center for our house brands - and of we cannot repair, we will replace. (Of course, this means we can also repair outside of the warranty period!)

Thank you for this clarification. There are a couple of fairly high profile blog and YouTube reviews that claim otherwise (i.e. that they were told by you guys that they were S.O.L. after the warranty period). I'll see if I can find links to those for you to follow up on, because they are certainly putting off potential buyers.

EDIT: I found the review I was thinking of, from EMIP TV in 2014, and I see that Helen has already found it and followed up on in 3 months ago, indicating that they replaced his blown Flashpoint strobe.

SamFrench wrote in post #18096810
So if you bought a Godox product via for example Amazon, and Cheetahstand sells the equivalent under their Cheetah label, you should be good. I believe this has been mentioned here before as well as on social media.

Are you saying this is incorrect?

I'm not saying it's incorrect, just that it's not made 100% clear anywhere. If they offer that service on things they didn't sell with their brand on them, that's great, but is it true warranty-backed service, or just something they do at their discretion? For anyone thinking of buying the imported Godox items directly, it would be worth finding out the exact details, specifically whether or not Godox supplies any kind of US warranty, or if work Cheetahstand might do is all out-of-band service. It's not spelled out definitively anywhere I can find on either the CS site or any of the Amazon listings. Without warranty paperwork guaranteeing service, I would assuming Cheetahstand could change their policy at any time if it wasn't profitable for them?

absplastic wrote in post #18097288
Thank you for this clarification. There are a couple of fairly high profile blog and YouTube reviews that claim otherwise (i.e. that they were told by you guys that they were S.O.L. after the warranty period). I'll see if I can find links to those for you to follow up on, because they are certainly putting off potential buyers.

EDIT: I found the review I was thinking of, from EMIP TV in 2014, and I see that Helen has already found it and followed up on in 3 months ago, indicating that they replaced his blown Flashpoint strobe.

We did indeed!

Is there any point in putting the rl in slow mode?

DThriller wrote in post #18154299
Is there any point in putting the rl in slow mode?

Heya,

Yes, slower recycle time means it uses less energy overall to do that, which means more shots on a single battery over time. If you're not shooting a ton of shots per session, and you're not needing the fastest recycle time, then snail mode can give you longer life over sessions before needing a recharge.

I shoot in snail mode exclusively. I never need to fire shots off at full power in fast mode to get the fastest recycle back to back. I use this for portraits, and I just don't need to fire rapid shots for portrait. I also use lower power levels usually, which already makes recycle time fast, and snail doesn't make a difference for me here really, so I just use it to preserve some energy and get more shots. I go several sessions before ever recharging my battery because of this (granted, I'm not doing 400 shots per session; more like 20~40 sometimes). I literally go lots of sessions at a time before a recharge because of lower power output use and snail.

Very best,

Yeah I was using slow for a family with two squirmy kids and I was like why am I in slow? I see both sides now thanks

One more quick one:

Is there a way to make it so it won't fire until its fully charged? I think its kinda unhelpful to have to fire subcharged shots when I mistakening shoot too fast. Id rather it not fire. I know speedlights have a custom function for that.

DThriller wrote in post #18154299
Is there any point in putting the rl in slow mode?

AFAIK, not really. I think I read somewhere that fast mode is heavier on the battery (likely) - but I've yet to run out of juice on a shoot, so I use Rabbit all the time. I don't know if Snail prevents a fire at less than full re-cycle.

DThriller wrote in post #18154309
Yeah I was using slow for a family with two squirmy kids and I was like why am I in slow? I see both sides now thanks

One more quick one:

Is there a way to make it so it won't fire until its fully charged? I think its kinda unhelpful to have to fire subcharged shots when I mistakening shoot too fast. Id rather it not fire. I know speedlights have a custom function for that.

Good question, I never really noticed as I don't fire fast with mine during portraits. Maybe someone else knows or experienced this.

Very best,

It looks to me like all the complaints about the Rove light have to do with either HSS or trigger malfunctions. How does the basic flash function? Is it reliable?

I would use this light either for real estate interiors, large group photos (100+ people) on location, or for formal shots of concert bands and orchestras on stage. For such uses, it looks like the Rove light might be ideal. Any thoughts from experienced users?

One other question. How long (as in months, years, ect) is that rather expensive battery expected to last?