Lencarta Profold softbox

PeteMo

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Just about to order one of these but unsure as to which size. Will be used mainly for kids & possibly small group shots. Anyone use one and recommend a size or wish they'd bought a bigger/smaller one ? Not too bothered about which shape catchlights. Cheers.
 
I have the 120cm profold octabox and use it mainly for kids or small groups. Not had it long, but it certainly is well built, easy to use and does what it should.
As most of my pictures are taken in a small room with only 2.4m ceiling height I have wished for a slightly smaller one at times, as that would be easier than raising the ceiling, but that is no fault of the softbox, and the results seem to be pretty good to me, but I am a beginner to all this. It comes with a baffle/bit of cloth that can be attached to the edge giving round catchlights as Garry shows in one of his demonstration videos.
My only other softbox experience is with a 76cm model used with my 580 flash, which is much smaller, so easier to use in a small space, but the results are fairly obviously less soft. If I were to buy another, I would get an even bigger one - either 150cm or the 140 x 30.
 
120cm serves me well but can be too big at times. ideal for small groups though :thumbs:
 
Well, I'll make the choice a bit easier - the 120cm Profold is out of stock:)

In a perfect world, bigger is better and the biggest and best is the 150 Profold Octa because it can produce very soft light if required, and if soft light isn't wanted it can either be masked to make it smaller or moved further away, or both - but in a less than ideal world you may not have enough room for it, and your ceiling may not be high enough.

My personal favourite is probably the 140 x 30 folding strip softbox with honeycomb.

It can be used for glamour/art nude/ fashion because it's the perfect rimlight tool, and also used frontally it places the light exactly where it's needed and nowhere else.

And it's ideal for groups too, where ceiling height is limited. Just place it right up to the ceiling but horizontally instead of vertically - it has plenty of width to light the group and, because it is pointing downwards, it lights the faces extremely well but the light falls off as it travels down the body, putting emphasis on the faces.

But I suppose the most useful general purpose Profold softboxes are the 100 x 100 and the 100 x 70, both of which have honeycombs available for them.
 
What Garry said.

If I don't know what or where I'll be shooting in a day the 100X70 pretty much always goes with me. If it's more planned then the strip or the biggest octabox possible.
 
Thanks Mike & Jonathan. I'm slowly coming to a decision.
 
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