Does anyone use a Rayflash or a Speedlight softbox?

scottduffy

scottduffy

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I know these two are completely different things but i was thinking about purchasing one of them for portraits of my son. I think the Lastolite Ezybox will be the one i choose if i go down the softbox route and i was wondering if anyone had used one and if so were you pleased with the results.

The Rayflash seems to get very mixed reviews and i'm a bit worried about some of the reviews claiming it's not very well made and breaks quite easily. For something the price of a second hand speedlight it should be quite well built in my opinion.
 
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I would recommend a Softbox, the Rayflash is ok if you're on a budget in terms of buying higher end items i.e. a ring flash (which can still take some getting used to).
The Ray flash is very much a plastic accessory and you'll often see them for sale second hand as people buy them, try them and move on if that makes sense. Have you thought about a speedlite beauty dish instead? You can buy a hotshoe adaptor for the speedlite and then look for a dish in a Bowens S fit and try that for less than £150. Just keep shopping, if you're feeling innovative you can always make a Beauty dish yourself ;)
 
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scottduffy said:
I know these two are completely different things but i was thinking about purchasing one of the for portraits of my son. I think the Lastolite Ezybox will be the one i choose if i go down the softbox route and i was wondering if anyone had used one and were you pleased with the results.

The Rayflash seems to get very mixed reviews and i'm a bit worried about some of the reviews claiming it's not very well made and breaks quite easily. For something the price of a second hand speedlight it should be quite well built in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Left field suggestion for a speed light - rogue flashbender. Also worth looking at the lastolite brolly grip.

Are you planning to shoot at home ( maybe studio lights) or are you wanting portability?

S
 
softbox is great. I currently use 60x60cm (i think - it is some chinese pop-up version) and it works so well, I am now getting bigger ones like 120cm octa. Perfect for portraits, food, product, etc.

Rayflash is kind of cheap way to get into macro-ring flash. Not great for 1:1 (it is too far out from lens and subject), but sweet for 1:4 and a little bigger. It can work well as off-camera ring flash beauty dish substitute for really tight headshots, but it is way smaller than the real thing at 70cm+ so makes no sense past certain distance (0.5m is too far to be much different to bare bulb)
 
Thanks guys. Rayflash is out then and some very nice suggestions too. For info although i'm going to be shooting at home i will just be using a 580 ex mk1 off camera with some triggers so the hand grip looks ideal as my wife can be my mobile light stand.
 
The Rayflash is usually to get quite a specific effect, i would say quite different from a softbox, i recently got one to have a play, they give you a bit of an insight to what a proper Ringflash will look like for people shots, i quite like the affect, but not to everyones taste of course :)

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