Mart61
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- Name
- Martin
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Well, it's my birthday so this evening I got to unpack my newly acquired Lastolite All-in-One umbrella kit.
As I promised, here's my initial impressions:
Purchasing Experience
I ordered the kit from Warehouse Express here in the UK and I can say the service was superb. They did a price match deal and beat the next lowest price I could find by a reasonable margin. Furthermore the delivered to my office by 10am the day after I placed the order at 4pm.
The Kit
Lightstand
The kit includes a 4 section lightstand that will probably extend to around 12 feet high. It seems to be well made with no manufacturing defects evident.
Umbrella Clamp/swivel head
The head seems to be well made and rugged for everyday use. As it is a "ready to go" package, the head comes with a fixed coldshoe, held in place by what appears to be an allen screw or possibly a roll pin. I'm not sure if it can be removed or not. The umbrella shaft is held in place by a thumbscrew and appears to hold the brolly in place well. The angle of the brolly/swivel head is adjusted by loosening the large thumbwheel and rotating the swivel head to the desired angle. The mechanism is ratcheting rather than free.
Umbrella
The umbrella is around 40" in size and consists of a shoot thru, with a black and silver cover. The silver side is put over the outside of the brolly to achieve a white bounce brolly. To switch to the silver brolly one must remove the translucent cover and fit the black/silver cover in its place. The brolly as a whole and the covers all seem well made.
Brolly bag
The brolly is supplied with a lightweight nylon case with velcro fastening to store the brolly when not in use. The case is well made.
Kit Bag
The entire kit comes contained within a nice padded kit bag that holds both the collapsed stand, the brolly and has a velcro-secured pouch in which to put the umbrella clamp/swivel. It has a webbing strap for carrying purposes and seem generally well made.
Conclusion
Overall I'm happy with my purchase. It all seems well put together and assembles pretty easily. If there were a downside I'd say it was with the umbrella clamp/swivel. The coldshoe may well be fixed and there appears to be no way of removing it easily to secure a full-blown flash head, although at this stage I am not certain of this.
Now all I gotta do is figure out how to use it and my D300 and SB-600!
As I promised, here's my initial impressions:
Purchasing Experience
I ordered the kit from Warehouse Express here in the UK and I can say the service was superb. They did a price match deal and beat the next lowest price I could find by a reasonable margin. Furthermore the delivered to my office by 10am the day after I placed the order at 4pm.
The Kit
Lightstand
The kit includes a 4 section lightstand that will probably extend to around 12 feet high. It seems to be well made with no manufacturing defects evident.
Umbrella Clamp/swivel head
The head seems to be well made and rugged for everyday use. As it is a "ready to go" package, the head comes with a fixed coldshoe, held in place by what appears to be an allen screw or possibly a roll pin. I'm not sure if it can be removed or not. The umbrella shaft is held in place by a thumbscrew and appears to hold the brolly in place well. The angle of the brolly/swivel head is adjusted by loosening the large thumbwheel and rotating the swivel head to the desired angle. The mechanism is ratcheting rather than free.
Umbrella
The umbrella is around 40" in size and consists of a shoot thru, with a black and silver cover. The silver side is put over the outside of the brolly to achieve a white bounce brolly. To switch to the silver brolly one must remove the translucent cover and fit the black/silver cover in its place. The brolly as a whole and the covers all seem well made.
Brolly bag
The brolly is supplied with a lightweight nylon case with velcro fastening to store the brolly when not in use. The case is well made.
Kit Bag
The entire kit comes contained within a nice padded kit bag that holds both the collapsed stand, the brolly and has a velcro-secured pouch in which to put the umbrella clamp/swivel. It has a webbing strap for carrying purposes and seem generally well made.
Conclusion
Overall I'm happy with my purchase. It all seems well put together and assembles pretty easily. If there were a downside I'd say it was with the umbrella clamp/swivel. The coldshoe may well be fixed and there appears to be no way of removing it easily to secure a full-blown flash head, although at this stage I am not certain of this.
Now all I gotta do is figure out how to use it and my D300 and SB-600!
