A visit to Broncolor in Switzerland
Due to the recent announcement that Hasselblad will be the importer into the UK of Broncolor lighting I was invited to the Broncolor studio and factory in Allschwil just 4 km from Basle in Switzerland. It’s going to be exciting stocking this new range of excellent products and I was interested in the production of the lighting systems. We arrived very early and had the day to ourselves on the Monday which was a bonus on a works trip !
The guys at Broncolor treated us to a wonderful 3 days and looked after us supremely well. Excellent training on their products, a guided tour of Basle, lovely food & drink and wonderful company. The range of lighting is amazing and is priced to suit all budgets. Broncolor have often been seen as expensive and too complicated to use but these issues have been addressed as extra products have been added to the range. Certainly the Scoro packs are expensive but on a par with their rivals and they out perform them especially in terms of colour temperature control and flash duration. Easy to use, the Scoro’s are top notch. Looking forward to playing with them in the UK. Their battery packs, called the Mobil A2L, are excellent too especially as they are light in weight due to the new lithium batteries and have an added bonus of being able to turn into LED lights with an adapter. This will interest photographers and film makers alike. There are many products in their range , the Grafit, the Senso,the Verso etc and you can view them all at www.bron.ch. Well worth a look.
The factory works like clockwork ( not surprising as it’s based in Switzerland ) and it employs 80 people. Every item is handcrafted, checked and re-checked. The procedures for quality control were very impressive indeed and you can see why Broncolor products are regarded as the most reliable in the business.
All in all a fantastic trip and many, many thanks to Urs, Urs 2, Gorden and especially Jacques & Claude Bron for making our visit interesting, educational and fun.
Here are some images from our visit.
All boxed up and ready to be shipped.
Making the Broncolor Para Reflector
Circuit boards and the Senso packs almost complete
Mark checking the circuit boards.
The factory floor
Dom and I playing with the Broncolor Balloon.
Dom enjoying himself and lit with a Scoro pack and Bron hardbox.
The Broncolor bunker ! Nearly all factories in Switzerland must have a bunker in case of nuclear attack or earthquakes. Quite an oddity !
