First thoughts on the Lastolite Ezybox 'Switch'

paul williams

paul williams

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Not that I've ever really had an issue with manual softboxes, so I've never invested in the quick umbrella design or the pop-up variety, but I was intrigued by the 'Switch' model, the one designated large in this instance which converts from a stripbox (44x89cm) to a square softbox (89x89cm). Watched the video(s) seemed like a sensible design, so decide to buy one to play with and if I liked it, I'd sell the equivalent oh so old fashioned manual one!




First thing that needs to be mentioned, is it comes with a back-plate, but you'll have to add in the price of the speedring (or flash bracket for speedlights) and this adds over £30 to the already rather high price (IMO) and in the case of a studio flash we are just talking about a stamped out ring of metal which comes with a standard 154mm adaptor, plus a small bolt and a machined finger lock bolt.




Anyway opened the box and was greeted with the familiar Lastolite blue bag, but in this instance a really substantial one, very heavy duty material, so unzipped it and pull out the contents (nice to note there is an internal pocket for the rods) and put the softbox together which did take a few minutes, but will be much faster next time. First thoughts on the construction of the softbox body are that it is well made and finished, but I suppose by necessity, very light weight, but that after all is one of its selling points. The plastic moulded back-plate by contrast is very well finished and substantial; clipping it into the back of the softbox was straightforward and after giving the whole assembly a vigorous shake holding onto the back-plate only, decided it was going to stay put. One point to note that although you may be used to putting the softbox face down and offering up the flash head to this isn’t really an option here as even with a lightweight head, it’ll just collapse down. Easiest option I feel is to mount the speedring/plate to the head then clip on the softbox. The internal diffuser fills the inside of the box with little or no gap and also has a double thickness of material at its centre section. Front diffuser fits very well and of course as this converts between a strip to a square you are supplied with two of each internal and front. I’ve yet to try this in anger as yet but the quality of light looks very even. Moving between stripbox and square format is an absolute breeze; however in square format the box is quite shallow as opposed to being nice and deep when as a stripbox – but that’s just geometry for you. Also there is a warning on the back-plate not to use with over 250 watts - modelling/continuous lamps so using this with my large monoblock's 650w halogen unit is a no go especially in square format where the light source won’t be that far from the internal diffuser. Overall I'm reasonably pleased with my new acquisition and will be getting rid of one of my old manual style softboxes. It still isn’t as fast to open and mount as the modern generation of umbrella mechanism softboxes, but it does put away into a nice compact package and you do get two options with each box. I’m now thinking about getting another or perhaps the XL version, but that decision will be made after I’ve put it through its paces actually taking a few pictures, if I get sometime this weekend.
 
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Tried it out this afternoon with a quick product session nothing to fancy just a quick and dirty set-up using the Ezybox as the main overhead source. This time it took 4 1/4 minutes flat to set-up on the head (yes how sad am I that I actually timed this)! OK so still not as fast as an umbrella style softbox, but pretty quick all the same and this also included converting it from the stripbox to square format. The light output was very even and 'crisp' with no appreciable change in output over the whole area of my product table, which is great considering its a very shallow soft box in the square format - only about 12 inches deep, I did however measure a slight loss in efficiency against my normal softbox, but this was only half a stop at a couple of metres so not really significant IMO. Its light weight also meant I had less issues counterbalancing the boom arm and it was very easy to direct the light how I wanted it. One concern I did have was the structural integrity with the softbox angled as it doesn't really have any internal rods but it was fine - I rotated it slowly through 180 degrees from pointing down at the floor to pointing toward the ceiling and it held its shape without any distortion.

Anyway a couple of product pictures, as stated nothing too fancy, I'll have to do a portrait session next if I can find a willing subject, but really I'm feeling very positive about these 'Switch' boxes, so have put my old ones up for sale and will probably be investing in the XL version next.







Paul
 
Both my old Strip & Square format softboxes were collected this afternoon by another photographer, so Ezybox 'switch' extra large now on order, so I guess you can say I'm impressed - would never normally even consider paying these sorts of prices for softboxes :D

Paul
 
Thanks for taking the time and effort to do a review of this. Interesting and helpful. Hope you post up further samples and info when you get some, or more reviews on other kit.
 
Time for second thoughts as I've been trying out the Extra Large 'switch' box today and what a difference a few inches makes! Whilst I was really pleased with the Large version I'm less impressed with the XL one, The quality of light is as good, ease of use is the same, switching between formats is still a breeze, but (and I don't know if this is just a manufacturing tolerance/variability thing) but the back-plate is less tightly fitting into the softbox body. It did pass my vigorous 'shake test' in stripbox format, but in wide format one of the edges slipped out - now obviously it isn't going to be vigorously shaken in everyday use, but I could imagine this perhaps being an issue on a windy day when undertaking an outdoor shoot. Not that the back-plate actually came away from the softbox fabric itself, it just doesn't feel as secure overall as the large set-up. The other really minor problem I had was when taking out the short bracing rods the little rubber end caps popped off, now these are totally unnecessary from any other point than perhaps to reduce a bit of wear & tear in the rod pockets (then again the long rods have metal ends) but my OCD dictates that they have to be fitted so a long search around the floor and they were finally found and 'super-glued' back into place.

So what else to say about these softboxes - oh yes the issue of the speedring price! Well the average online price would appear to be £36 and for this you get;




which as I stated earlier I feel is very poor VFM, now if you're a speedlight user, the same £36 gets you;





So a nice canvas bag instead of a carded plastic bag, the main twin light bracket components, two types of lead and a stand tilthead/umbrella holder (these used to cost about £20 on their own) now that seems great VFM! The speedlight bracket came as part of a package deal with the XL version, which I opted for as it was cheaper than buying the stand alone softbox :thinking: well not being a speedlight user this will be ending up on a certain auction site shortly.

Paul
 
Thanks for the update and photos. Its not just you, I like things to fit properly too. I too would have been chasing the caps about the floor :-)
 
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