Droopy softbox...

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Bugler77

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Hi all,
I am after some advise and to see if anyone else has had any problems. I have some Elinchrom BXRi500 heads and I recently purchased a Seamless 1.5m octobox softbox. The softbox is great but the one problem is that the head droops down with the softbox on from the weight which is really annoying. I did use a strap and tie the handle at the rear of the head to the stand to stop this but it looks a bit crap to be honest. Has anyone come across this problem and has any fixes or can recommend any different brackets for where the flash unit mounts to the stand or do I need to make the strap a more permanent fixture?
 
Providing you have tightened up the tilt lock on the head enough it sounds like your head(s) might have a fault. I've never owned any Elinchrom kit but the tightening mechanism looks pretty standard as on all heads so it should lock the modifier tight.
 
I'd expect a head costing that much to be able to hold a large octobox. But if it took a strap to hold it in place, I wouldn't care too much. At the end of the day, it's what's in front of the camera that has to look good.
 
1.5m softbox is big, and I have a vague recollection that Elinchrom recommends a limit of 1.35m. Over that size, the head fits to the softbox instead of the other way around - inside Elinchrom's 1.5m and larger softboxes, reverse-firing. It's actually a better solution - more even illumination as well as properly secure.

There was some debate on here a while ago and I think the answer most users came to was to use a separate stand to support the rim of the softbox at the front.
 
HoppyUK said:
1.5m softbox is big, and I have a vague recollection that Elinchrom recommends a limit of 1.35m. Over that size, the head fits to the softbox instead of the other way around - inside Elinchrom's 1.5m and larger softboxes, reverse-firing. It's actually a better solution - more even illumination as well as properly secure.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound right to me. I have a massive 1.8m x 1.2m softbox that I use with a much smaller head than the Elinchrom. Ok it's not an Elinchrom head but the locking mechanisms are all pretty similar.

Or, is this a design fault or use of cheap materials with the latest heads?
 
Last edited:
gazwas said:
Or, is this a design fault or use of cheap materials with the latest heads?
Click to expand...


This was why I asked for a picture of the problem so we wouldn't have to speculate. The BXRI mount isn't bad, if I had to guess I'd assume it's the softbox or user error but I can only guess without more information.

Could be the softbox, could be the head, could be bad design, could be faulty, could be working as intended...
 
No not fixed just been too busy to set up to attach photo just wondered if anyone else has had the same problem
 
View attachment 21491 ok I have had chance to set up again and all is now ok I think it's best put that I was being a wuss tightening the pivot clamp up.. Thanks for all the input though guys and girls
 
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