Is a beauty dish a beauty dish or are there vast differences

mark1616

mark1616

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,604
Name
Mark
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm looking to have a play with beauty dishes (with grid) as I want to move on from my soft boxes and shoot through/reflective umbrellas in certain situations.

What I'm not sure about is if I'm going to see major differences between the big branded types and more basic ones.

I shoot with Lencarta gear so obviously my initial thought was to go for http://www.lencarta.com/lighting-st...-15-7-silvered-beauty-dish-with-free-diffuser

However, as I'm starting out I wondered if there was much difference in going for something like http://www.bessel.co.uk/acatalog/Beauty_Dishes.html as this will save me about £30. There is no point in saving £30 if there is a vast difference in light quality but if there isn't then I can put that towards something else needed so that's why I'm asking here.

Or are there other options I should consider? I'm not wanting to go to 70cm as I think there might be the possibility of the Lencarta Safari Li-on at some point this year and seems it might be just a little on the heavy side.
 
Beauty dishes seem to be very fashionable these days, but it's one of the most abused terms, used to describe anything from the size of an ashtray to the real deal at 70cm. Neither do they posses the mythical lighting qualities often assigned to them, basically similar to a silver umbrella (soft due to the size, with a harder core) but with the great advantage that you can use them close to the subject without taking their eye out. You really need a boom to make the most of one, they're cumbersome, and awkward to store, but used in the right way, with the right subject, they're very nice of course ;)

IMHO they have got to be large, 70cm, and there's a big difference between silver and white. Silver quite harsh, white probably a better all-rounder. Used with a diffuser front, they make a nice medium size softbox.

Edit: crossed post with Mike.
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys for the info.

The size thing makes sense, on the Safari Li-on it was the weight so was hoping that a slightly smaller would have some good punch in quite bright light compared to a soft box and also create some nicer light than just a reflector and grid. In the studio then obviously power isn't so essential but rather the full quality of the light.

Think I need unlimited pockets to cover all bases.... as I can't will have to find a compromise but not sure where :)
 
A beauty dish is basically a pressed bit of metal with a coating and flash mount. The thickness of that metal is going to make a big difference to weight, cost and longevity.

Flip the dish face down on the floor and press with your hand. If it flexes then it probably won't last very long. My Lencarta has had a beating and it's dented but still fine. I've tried another one where a light impact basically broke it. Never handled a Bessel dish but it's more likely they saved the £30 using thiner metal than affecting light quality. It's also possible they just have bigger buying power and thinner margins.

Bottom line, get 2 similar sized same coloured dishes out of the box and I bet you can't tell the difference between them regardless of price. A week or two later you may spot where they cut corners.

BTW just filmed (do we still say that?) some beauty dish comparisons - small/medium/large silver/white. I expect they will be on YouTube soon.

My own personal preference is large silver :)

silverBD.jpg
 
Hi Mark, hope you're fit and well.

I have the Lencarta 70cm white beauty dish with the sock over it, which I use with Lencarta EP 300 strobe and it's beautifully soft, Better than a softbox in my opinion. Not sure if you are thinking of coming up for the 'Focus on Lighting' exhibition March 4th-7th at the NEC, but Lencarta will have a stand there and I got my beauty dish from the show at a discount. Many other manufacturers will also be there, so you could have a good mooch around!

If you would be interested in joining us again for more studio shoots, I am organising 4 more in Birmingham in March, May, June and July.... £30 for 5 hours with 3 models. Give a shout if you want any details.

Hope you sort out what you want.

Malcolm
 
Jonathan, looking forward to seeing the youtube vid of that session! Thanks for the info.

Malcolm, I'm certainly going to be at Focus, I've got my eye on a 35mm f1.4L, 16-35 L, Safari Li-on 2 light setup, 85cm folding octo, whatever I decide about the beauty dish and also a 8'x7' Hi-lite..... think that's about it for now. Basically gearing up with everything I don't have but want while I still have a full time job as well as doing the photography :)

Thanks John for sharing that one, looks nice.... so many decisions LOL.
 
Hi Mark,

sounds like a nice shopping list for the show. Hope you get some good deals and perhaps negotiate an exhibition price with Garry, so he will have items with him for you.

May bump into you if you are there Monday or Wednesday.

All the best

Malcolm
 
Exhibition prices...
As before, Lencarta will be at Focus to meet customers and to let everyone see our products. We won't be taking stock to sell as such, although as before the products that are actually on display can be sold at the end for 20% discount. The problem is that nothing can be sold until 2 hours before the show closes, e.g. from 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
What that means is that there won't be a great deal to sell at the discounted price and we can't sell (or reserve them) until 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Orders for non-exhibition items placed during the show will be delivered free as normal and the coupon code focus will discount the price by 5%.

For the first time, we have a stand big enough to display nearly all our products, we are also putting on 4 lighting demos each day, we will have our new catalogue as well as some new products there. We're on stand F20
 
Should be fun Malcolm, this is the last 'toy' push I can see as then have all the bases I've been working on covered without renting.

Garry (yay, I spelt it correctly), I'm planning to be at Focus on Wed so hopefully will sort some good things out :) Looking forward to meeting you in person!
 
Garry, great to be on a larger stand. Will you have a coffee machine for visitors? lol
 
alexam said:
Garry, great to be on a larger stand. Will you have a coffee machine for visitors? lol
Click to expand...
Do you have any idea how much we would have to pay for the power socket for the coffee machine? Thought not:)

I seem to remember that you kindly brought some coffee over last year. Mine's white no sugar, I don't know about everyone else but sod them:lol:
 
Lol! ......................... maybe!

M
 
Garry Edwards said:
Do you have any idea how much we would have to pay for the power socket for the coffee machine? Thought not:)

I seem to remember that you kindly brought some coffee over last year. Mine's white no sugar, I don't know about everyone else but sod them:lol:
Click to expand...

plug it in to the prototype mains battery pack you had pics of last year ;) :D
 
photo si said:
Soft drinks and cake then? ;)
Click to expand...
Sounds good to me, thank you very much. But I'm diabetic so don't bring me anything with sugar in:lol::lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top