Looking for advise on on camera flash soft boxes

[awahlster]

I'm planning on adding a soft box to my on camera flashes (Canon

300TL) and the only local shop that carries anything like this

suggested a Westcott Micro Apollo Softbox for On-Camera Flash - 5x8"

Of course I would bet it is also the only oe they have in stock.

Baseed on the B&H price it's in my limited budget. I't about the size

I was hoping for it mounts in a way that appears to fit my flashes.

 

What I can't seam to find is what it will cost me in light. The

simluar but smaller uints by others seam to cost 1-1.25 stops. If the

Westcott doesn't cost me more then 1.25-1.5 stops I should have no

problems with my current setup.

 

Anyone have experiance with this product good or bad?

 

Thanks

[robert_c_harvey]

Mark,

Used the same unit on my 300ttl with Canon t-90 for years.It works great! One and a quarter stop less light. Good for portraits, but groups it is not powerfull enough, you wait for ever for recycle!

Robert

[awahlster]

Thanks Robert that was just what I needed. For groups I have two small studio type flash setups I'll add. They are std. light stands with 30" white umbrellas using Canon 577G flashes signaled with optical slaves. Seperatly none of the flashes are pwoerfull enough for groups but with all three it seams to work pretty well and I have the softer shadows. The one thing I have been lacking is to soften up the flash on the camera. For portraits I use only the studio setups.

 

I'll have a few days to run some tests before using it at my step daughter wedding so I should be able to hammer out any little problems.

 

Luckily I have an excellent flash meter to double check everything.

 

Now I just hope they aren't charging twice what B&H is for the same item.

[picturesque]

Westcott's website says 1.5 to 2 stops loss depending on the flash unit. That is about right for these kind of products. Lumiquest's softbox is about 1.3 or so stops loss. They work fine (all of them) but are kind of a pain to take on and off. For longer distances than about 10-12 feet, you're going to have to take them off when using anything but the widest apertures. Not familiar with your flash, but if you're using an auto thyristor flash, be sure the box won't block your sensor. The Lumiquest's box has a cut-out to prevent this.

[awahlster]

Thanks Nadine, My flash is TTL rather then a flash mounted sensor. It has a guide number as high as 131 depending on the mode being used. I'll fully test out my exposure before using it for any serious work.

 

I completely forgot about checking out their web site.

[johnmarkpainter]

I have the Apollo....

 

I prefer the Gary Fong Lightsphere II or a Sto-fen Omnibounce.

 

jmp

[johnmarkpainter]

To elaborate....

 

What you are after is increasing the size of your light source as well as Diffusing it. The

Way the Lightsphere glows is what makes it work so well.

 

jmp

[awahlster]

Thanks John I had not checked out either of those. Of course neither is available locally. The Local Pro shop had never heard of the Gary Fong unit and they told me it has been many years since they would have carried the Stofen that fits a 300TL flash and had no way to know what other models would fit.

 

Also while the Fong unit from what I can see makes NO mention of what the light loss is the Stofen unit is almost twice the light loss when compared to the little Westcott soft box.

 

I'll keep them in mind for other projects in the future.

[prinosphotography]

I'm not sure that a mini soft box is really the way to go. The basic idea behind (real)

softboxes is that they create large even light sources relative to your subject because they

are so huge (and often get placed very close), but they remain very controllable in that

they don't spill all over the studio like umbrellas, bare bulbs, etc.

 

But for on-camera flash, event 5"x8" is not going to be that much different (in terms of

size of light source) compared to the plain flash head at most normal working distances.

Not only that but it restricts light spread more than other flash modifiers so there's limited

bounce-effect. Diffusers like the lumiquest, sto-fen, work primarily by spreading light all

over so that it can bounce off ceilings, walls, big guys with white shirts, etc., That can end

up being effective indoors. Outdoors, pretty much the only thing they are good for is

sucking battery power.

[russ_butner___portland__or]

Wahlster

 

I'll trade you 16 ounces of focusing fluid, for my Westcott Micro Apollo Softbox. Sound like a deal?

 

KK

[tom_ta]

I agree with Chris. I was going to build a softbox for my flash myself but I think the LS2 is the way to go from all the test photos I've seen. I prefer the omnidirectionality that sphere diffusers offer over flash-mounted soft-boxes. Much better for shots indoors. For outdoors, just point the sphere directly at the subject and you get the same effect as a flash-mounted softbox.

 

You can get the LSII here: http://secure.mycart.net/catalogs/catalog.asp?prodid=3354218&showprevnext=1

 

I'm still a POORfessional, so I'm gonna figure out a way to build my own light sphere.