Has anyone used Novatron lights and if so what do you think about them?

I had a Novatron 400 system for a while.  It was fine as long as we didn't use it hard.  I burned it out a few times.

As pack systems go, it is a decent low priced system.  You can find a two head system used on eBay for about $200.  If that is all you have for a budget, it is fine.

If you are thinking about buying a system new, I'd probably go with Alien Bees instead.  They cost about the same but are more reliable.

I've not used them myself, but have been warned away from them several times as they tend to electrocute you if you accidentally unplug a head without discharging the capacitor first.

I have large set that I keep at my mother's house for portraits and things so that I never had to travel with them.   Had them for years.

I have a 1600 pack,  1000 pack that needs fixing, and a 500 pack.   Heads including the 1600 head.

They are a bitch to get fixed and allen bees seem to be kicking their asses.

Noone I know will fix the equipment at my mother's place.   Nor in NY city.
I need to ship it to Texas somewhere.   Too busy to bother.

The 1000 pack is out and the 1600 head bulb broke.  You cannot replace the bulbs yourself.

You have to send them in to be fixed to Texas.   

They are fine if you would buy them used for a deal/steal.   But from what I here of other choices I would not recommend them at this time.

I picked them up for a deal from hobbiests who never used them.   So I am fine with the purchase that I made years ago and some fill in when I heard of deals.

The set comes in a nice traveling case which is convieniant.  Work well.


Bottom line.   I do not see the logic of buying them new.   Too many better options.

But since I never bought them new I really do not even know how they price compare except a few threads where allen bees and other options were better.

I have one of the low end sets, the fun pack 240 system. I used it this week in a small area where my Calumets or Speedotrons would be too powerful to use.
As posted, you can burn them out if they are fired too often for too long, I did.
I shot my first power pack like it was my Speedotron set and *poof* no more flash.
I'll be having it rebuilt as I think it's only the transformer and not the capacitor.

Get a set as cheep as you can and try them out, if you don't like them you should be able to resell them for what you paid.

Edit: The funpak comes in a small hard case that holds two stands, two heads two umbrellas and the power supply. nice

I used them for years and only had one fail in thousands of hours of use. I had 2 400w 2 500w and one 1,000w with all sorts of heads and the only head problem I had was when I used a modeling light that was too big.

I now have Balcar and white lightning and alien bees . The Alien Bees are just great and I use them hard . They have the best customer service of any company I have ever dealt with .  I live near the factory and had a light that needed to be fixed ( white lightning )after I dropped it so I stopped by on my way to Florida so they could repair it while I was gone. The guy in charge of the repair shop said here take one of these and bring it back when you pick up your unit. No papers or any thing ---where in the world can you get some one to treat you like that .

The alien bee lights have some color temp problems that I freqently hear people complain about at the higher end, however, for an amateur (I don't mean that in a bad way, just as a level of experience and more importantly the lack of pre-press expectations) I'd say the color temp issues would be minor at worst and at best unnoticeable.

The novatrons are actually a little more reliable in the fact that they put out a much more reliable color temp over extended periods of time...but, you really need to ask yourself if you NEED a power pack system, or if monolight/slave units will suffice.

I've recently started upgrading my Novatron systems primarily for a different reason altogether, and that's the fact that their line of accessories is lacking.  Sure, you can get a variety of speed rings and mount softboxes and the like easily enough, but ONLY their snoot works, and it sucks.  ONLY their barn doors fit, and those suck, and forget a beauty dish.

I'd recommend the alien's though unless you specifically know that they aren't going to work for you, for now.  They may need to be upgraded eventually as you get more and more experienced, but I don't think that's a good reason to go out and buy a profoto system at this point to prevent that.

Andy

If you decide they won't work for you, there's some other options out there, but they're all much more expensive than Novatron systems are.

I feel the problem with the Paul Buff strobes is the type and number of accesories availble. I've read more bad things about the Alein bee softboxes, umbrellas and stands are poor quality.

I have a set of Calumet/Bowens Travelites that use a universal 3 prong speed ring, which I see on several name brand strobe systems. Bonus

I had the novatron fun kit a zillion years ago and it did the job OK. I was really a novice so I'm sure the quality of my photos had little to do with the quality of the lights!!

For low-end lights, though, I favor mono-lights just because they're easier and you have less cabling to worry about. I like my alien bees head a fair bit and if I had to do it all over again I'd stick with alien bees' stuff (but I'd avoid their softboxes)

mjr.

I have a Novatron set with a 600 pack and 3 heads and one Alien Bee with the xl large softbox.  I like the AB for ease of set up and such and would probably invest in just them if doing it over again.

I have had a Novatron head fall over twice, (same head I think - industrial ac unit and wind) from 10 to 12 foot up and only took out the modeling bulb so they seem pretty tuff.  As mentioned if the flash tube goes out, it has to be sent back here.  Plus the Chimera speed ring has to be permanently mounted to the head then it won’t fit back in the case. 

My biggest concern is shooting in bike shops where there are metal shavings on the floor and have my system blown up by an errant piece of metal stuck in a cord.  So I have to clean some shops before shooting.

i was given a set and i like them quite a bit. i'd probably use them more if i did more studio shooting, but as im outdoors mostly they get little use. but they've been reliable and given good results when i used them indoors. the mod with soapsuds in my pf was lit with them (+ umbrella).

Thanks everyone...I got a Novatron 240ws power pack,2 1500ws strobes with stands and umbrellas plus case as a gift and was wondering what peoples experiences with Novatron were.

I have used them for over 20 years.  Better sets out there? YES THERE ARE. 

I set one on fire one time shooting.  What a mess.  Novatron repair is about 20 miles from my house.  If I pay them an extra $20 they will fix it while I wait.  So that is not to bad.  I have had 3 power packs since I first got mine.  ONE JUST DIED, SET ONE ON FIRE AND THE NEW 660 I now have.  It also does not like to be fired a lot.  It does need its recycle time to be effective.

Yes they will burn out if you shoot to fast.  You need to recycle it before you shoot.  They will only take so much abuse before they die.

I do like mine.  I do not shoot that much in the studio  so I will keep them until they die or I do.  bs

I have Novatron set-up that I piggyback with broncolor.  I keep the setting at 250 watt to just blow some light, any more than that (up to 1000w will trip the internal)...the housing on one of the heads has melted, the tripods / umbrellas that come with the kit are junk, the case is superb but big and too bulky to travel with.  Replaced a power pack after 30k exposures dirt cheap.  I like the standard bulb model light, much better than the pricey brons. 

Fun light system to play with that's cheap.  Hard to control for exact results though.

Ive used Novatron for over 20 years, sold them for 7. Never say a DOA pice of all the units we sold. Repairs were really inexpensive and rare, a customer had one that was in a flood and the estimate was so low I called Novatron up and they said yes the price was right after commenting the unit still had water in it when they opened it up. My only repair was when one fell 8feet onto concrete floor and needed new tube and ML, repair was 1/2 price of new head and took one week. Can get spare ML at Home Depot
I have 13 heads, a 1600ws,1000ws,550ws,500ws,240ws and a 120ws pack. Any flash that is cycled too quickly will burn out. Would I rather have Broncolors? Yes would I want to pay for them ? No! My entire setup with cases and stands cost less than on three head system.
Main thing I like about them is the repeatability let them fully charge up and light output will vary + or - .1 f stop consistently, many competitve brands will have a wing of + or - .3 f stop.. very major difference

I got started on Novatrons and they're a decent system.  As far as I've heard they we started by some people departing Speedotron and are pretty much cheaper versions of the Brown Line.  I have a 440 and a 880 pack and a bunch of heads.  I was told to always turn the pack off and discharge it before adding or removing a head, or flipping the -1 stop switch on a head.  I did flip the .5 power switch on the pack when I shouldn't have once.  It scared me half to death and cost $80 to repair not including shipping, but didn't hurt me at all.  Speaking of repairs, the previous poster must not have checked the internet because novatron.com lists authorized repair centers in Va and Mass (I've used the one in Va, they're awesome).  My biggest complaint is that the plastic, fixed-reflector heads are problematic if you want to use large soft boxes.  One nice thing about Novatrons is that their flash tubes are inexpensive to replace, around $25 and last a decent ammount of time.  If you have ever soldiered before you can replace them yourself (just disconnect them from the pack before opening :-) ).  To me, they're pretty much the Alienbees of pack and head systems.

I have a ton of novatron heads and pack use them a lot for  rim and hair lighting, and anywhere I need a kicker in big light setups, have 2* 1600,  2*1000, 3*500, 1*240 packs, never had a pack go south, have fried a few flash tubes but the repairs we're fast and cheap. I use normans or dynalites for mains, but used the nova's for that job before I got the others.

Paul

I love my Novatron's!  I have two self contained. I use a 400 watt second for my main with soft box and the other self contained is 200 watt second which I use for a hair light/rim light/key light. Then I have 3 strobe V600-D kit with two standard heads and one reduction head. I use one standard head as the fill light and the other two (1 standard, 1 reduction) for my background lights and shoot with a 1:3 light ratio my normal standard for portraiture, minus specialty lighting for specific creations or designs.

In my 35 years of working with these Novatron flash heads I have had to send one in to have the flash tube replaced and that was over 10 years ago so it lasted a good 25-30 years before I even had to replace it. That was the 400 watt second unit used for the main. I think that's kind of hard to beat! My other strobes work just great I love my novatrons! 🙂😁