Lumiquest Soft Screen

[Weetobix]

Has anyone used one of these?

http://www.lumiquest.com/softscreen.htm

I like the idea of having the rather harsh onboard flash on my Eos 30D diffused somewhat, but I'd like to hear from anyone who's used one

Cheers!

 

[Garry Edwards]

I've never used one.
There are a lot of overpriced gadgets like this and they DO work, but only up to a point.
It doesn't matter what you put in front of a flash to diffuse it, the only thing that can make the light less harsh is to increase the size of the flash, and this gadget does increase it to a very limited extent - but it's too small to produce anything other than very harsh light if the flash is more than a few inches from the subject.

 

[V8burble]

Last evening I used a couple of squares of kitchen towel folded in half and then bowed out around the head of my speedlight, held on with a rubber band.... worked a treat to effectively increase the size of the light. Experiment with a wire coat-hanger and various materials it's great fun and costs nout.

 

[Weetobix]

I've got my own homemade version, constructed out of a 1pt plastic milk bottle and an elastic band

Just thought I'd try a foldable version

 

[Flash In The Pan]

You'd be better off saving up for a flashgun than wasting cash on stuff like that :shake:

 

[Garry Edwards]

You'd be better off saving up for a flashgun than wasting cash on stuff like that :shake:

 

[benneh]

That's just never going to give even similar results to a 430 and Gary Fong diffuser.

Time to save those pennies.

 

[Weetobix]

Cheers all - time to start saving and stop spending all my money on lenses!

 

[Lensflare]

+1 for the milk tub diffuser....don't buy one of those, buy 2 litres of milk, when you have eaten your corn flakes (am I allowed to say that here? Advertising? Other breakfast cereals are available.....!) wash the tub out - use cold water so you don't seal the protein from the milk to the material.

Cut out an area of one of the sides suitable to cover your pop up flash. Make it a bit bigger than you need. Put a couple of holes in it with a hot skewer or large needle, or a drill I suppose. You now have the same as you were about to buy. A coupe of cable ties should give you a strap at theback to hold it in place, blu tac might work too, but the waxy surface of the plastic might not like it and refuse to stick.

Go and shoot pictures with it to keep you satisfied while you save for another flash and a Lumiquest 80-20 kit. Now that IS worth the £40 or so...used one for some time on my flashes. Before that a normal white handkerchief put on with a rubber band softened the Metz on the medium format camera!