specialman
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- Pat MacInnes
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Don't know if this has been covered previously. I have no affiliation to the seller - it's just a product I thought I'd share as someone who uses a small softbox on a day-to-day basis.....
Recently bought another 'flea bay' soft box for portable use out on features.
Overal quality is good but the most surprising thing is the 'redesign' of the speedring as you can see in the pic:
All of the speed rings of this kind that I've had before have all featured a simple ball joint, but these haven't always been that good due to the quality of the joint and its ability to lock use the weight of a soft box and flashgun.
This one solves this IMO; it has a single one-direction angle joint, which is strong, locks superbly and seems to be bonded with the main frame of the speedring in a much more secure manner using allen bolts.
As you can see, I've removed the metal vice-type coldshoe, as I prefer the trigger to be mounted directly to the frame. I just needed to add another washer to make the fit better. Because the bottom 'arm' of the mounting frame isn't long enough the receiver has to be mounted at an angle but this can be countered by using the twist function the flash head. I've done it this way so the flash is relatively close to the opening into the back of the soft box and just means there's less chance of light spill/escape than if you are to mount the flash backwards and then spin the head round. Of course, to do this your flash's head need to have a twist function.
The height of the opening is adjustable like most speed rings but to prevent play between the upright and the actual 'O', there are two locking pins that protrude from the arm to stop the 'O' moving on the single locking bolt.
The thumbscrews are excellent - very easy to adjust, very positive and large. Two are milked metal, the other a regular plastic-coeverd unit.
So far it's proving to be a very good piece of kit for the money. Yes, the paint finish isn't amazing (there are rub marks and dried drips) but the whole unit feels solid and anyway, it'll get bashed around so will soon look used
The soft box is double diffused (one large front panel, one smaller internal, removable panel. The inside is silver but the light could be modified using gels.
There's still the issue of the soft box stretching and losing its shape, leading to the speedring losing its grip. This is down to the way the speedring 'clips' in to the soft box using the tension of the soft box's frame. But that's life....
I'm hoping this signals a bit of a re-think of cheaper softboxes. So far it looks good and for the money, things definitely look good
Recently bought another 'flea bay' soft box for portable use out on features.
Overal quality is good but the most surprising thing is the 'redesign' of the speedring as you can see in the pic:
All of the speed rings of this kind that I've had before have all featured a simple ball joint, but these haven't always been that good due to the quality of the joint and its ability to lock use the weight of a soft box and flashgun.
This one solves this IMO; it has a single one-direction angle joint, which is strong, locks superbly and seems to be bonded with the main frame of the speedring in a much more secure manner using allen bolts.
As you can see, I've removed the metal vice-type coldshoe, as I prefer the trigger to be mounted directly to the frame. I just needed to add another washer to make the fit better. Because the bottom 'arm' of the mounting frame isn't long enough the receiver has to be mounted at an angle but this can be countered by using the twist function the flash head. I've done it this way so the flash is relatively close to the opening into the back of the soft box and just means there's less chance of light spill/escape than if you are to mount the flash backwards and then spin the head round. Of course, to do this your flash's head need to have a twist function.
The height of the opening is adjustable like most speed rings but to prevent play between the upright and the actual 'O', there are two locking pins that protrude from the arm to stop the 'O' moving on the single locking bolt.
The thumbscrews are excellent - very easy to adjust, very positive and large. Two are milked metal, the other a regular plastic-coeverd unit.
So far it's proving to be a very good piece of kit for the money. Yes, the paint finish isn't amazing (there are rub marks and dried drips) but the whole unit feels solid and anyway, it'll get bashed around so will soon look used
The soft box is double diffused (one large front panel, one smaller internal, removable panel. The inside is silver but the light could be modified using gels.
There's still the issue of the soft box stretching and losing its shape, leading to the speedring losing its grip. This is down to the way the speedring 'clips' in to the soft box using the tension of the soft box's frame. But that's life....
I'm hoping this signals a bit of a re-think of cheaper softboxes. So far it looks good and for the money, things definitely look good
Last edited:
and I've got to go out:thumbsdown:
