Review of the Bower 724AF Flash for Photographers

As a semi-pro photographer, I was searching for a good, economical flash unit to use in portrait photography, and I turned to the internet to find a reasonable alternative to the $300 to $500 strobe units I was finding in stores. And I stumbled across the Bower 724AF unit for just over $100.

Of course, I was skeptical, because at this price, I thought there was a good chance it would be a total piece of junk, or wouldn't work as billed. I was not disappointed.

I took several test shots with the Bower flash, spaced over several minutes, getting a feel for how well it's autofocus feature worked with my particular camera. It seemed to do fine, except for one thing I had not stopped to consider - I was shooting, reviewing one shot, shoot/reviewing, over and over - not trying to continuously shoot.

Then the first test of this unit in a live situation, with my model moving, posing and changing positions. The Bower did just fine in keeping up most of the time, its onboard capacitor keeping the flash working fine with only brief delays of 2 or 3 seconds between recharges. The shots it was letting me capture were exactly as I expected, so technically, the lighting it provided was adequate to the job.

And then... disaster. I had been smelling something acrid and smoky for awhile, but I was focused on getting the lighting right and the model posed in the right position, when she pointed out to me that it looked like there was smoke rising from my flash!

And yes, there was indeed smoke coming off the flash - from a hole being melted in the front of the unit, probably by the capacitor overheating. It did not actually burst into flames, but it was hot enough that it brought a blister to my finger when I touched the front of the flash to get it off and away from my camera.

Maybe the unit was defective. Maybe I should have used alkaline batteries in it, instead of the rechargeable LiMH that are my environmentally-sound choice for this application. Whatever the case, I was forced to resort to the camera's onboard flash unit, which rapidly sucked the power out of the camera and cut short the scheduled shooting time.

The seller of the unit refused to refund my money, and instead gave me a replacement unit. I am hesitant to use another Bower 724AF Flash Unit after my first experience.