COMPARISON: Flashpoint Soft Box for Shoe Mount Flashes vs Lastolite Joe McNally 24" Ezybox

Lastolite Joe McNally 24" Ezybox vs Flashpoint 24” Softbox

My friends at Adorama sent me a Flashpoint 24” Softbox to see how I liked it, so I decided to do a very quick (like 20 minute) test to check it out. You know, this is the kind of thing you typically do when you get something new where you rip open the box and just try it out right away (while UPS is still on your block!). I was already a big fan of my Lastolite Joe McNally 24" Ezybox (which is just a branded version of this), so I thought I’d try it out really quick before watching a movie with my wife last night.

Ezyboxes collapse faster, but are huge. The Flashpoint is easier to travel stuff in your luggage

I couldn’t rope my wife into being a model, and my kids were getting the popcorn ready so please bear with my quick and dirty review here (and lame pics of yours truly with laying on the sofa hair <g>).

Physical Comparison

Before I discuss how each unit performs as a softbox, it’s important to discuss how practical they are as portable softboxes. This is where the Ezybox has set the golden standard (in my opinion) for great performance and easy of use.

Sure Westcott has the Apollo in a variety of sizes, but I never liked it because the flash is inside means that you either need something like Pocket Wizards or a sync cord because there is no line of sight with your trigger. I preferred to use my old 580EX II’s (or NikonSB-910’s) with line of sight rather than Pocket Wizards so the Apollo was out of the question for me.

Of course Westcott offers the outrageously priced $229+ magic slipper and softbox kits to match the Ezybox, but even that didn’t perform as well as the Ezybox and it wasn’t very portable. As a result, the Ezybox, trigrip (for shooting through) or an umbrella has always been my portable soft light solution.

As you can see from the photos above, the Ezybox collapses quickly into a nice flat triangle and comes with a storage bag, but it’s so large you can’t fit it in typical luggage bags. This means if you want to travel with this gadget then you need to carry it on the plan which is a bit of a hassle. The first thing I noticed about the Flashpoint was how compact it was because I knew I could toss that into any of my existing luggage bags.

Ezybox includes everything you need like a plastic slipper that holds your flash

Setting up the Ezybox is equally easy but over time it gets a little wonky shaped (see above) unless you wrestle with it a bit. It’s okay though because light doesn’t care much if the box is a bit off kilter – it just works. It features a plastic slipper for your flash that just pops in the back and it also has proven to be durable and just work.

Inside the Ezybox there is a inner baffle and it comes with white or silver inside

The Ezybox works like a proper softbox and even features an inner baffle. My McNally version has a white interior, but it’s also available in silver as well. What’s more, the Velcro on the recessed lip on the inside and around the outside can be used to mount accessories like an eggcrate grid.

Ezybox vs Flashpoint side view

When you put the Ezybox next to the Flashpoint, you quickly see the quality advantage of the Ezybox which drives up the price, but you also see that the Flashpoint offers the same size box for a fraction of the cost.

Ezybox vs Flashpoint head on view

Head on you quickly see one big difference – the Ezybox has a smaller surface area thanks to its very nice recessed design. However, both offer roughly the same amount of soft light for your subject, so the biggest difference here is the control you get from the recessed design.

If you look inside of the Flashpoint you see a very “Apollo-like” interior with no inner baffle or obvious support for accessories:

The No-Frills Flashpoint Interior

It’s Spartan, but it works. From behind it’s much like the Ezybox, but it uses a much taller tower of brackets:

Flashpoint Rear View

Setting up the Flashpoint is much more challenging thanks to its very annoying tent-like poles (shown in the first picture in this article) that are common to pro softboxes. While nicely designed Velcro straps help make inserting and removing the last two very easy, its still a pain and not as quick as the all-in-one design for the Ezybox by Lastolite.

Softbox Performance Comparison

Flashpoint behind the scenes setup

Since I was alone and in a hurry, I tried to do this quick test on the cheap. Instead of using my reflector (which I’d get out later), I just grabbed a piece of foil and tossed it on a tripod for a quick mild fill light on the opposite side of the Flashpoint box. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. On the white seamless I just tossed a purple Rogue Gel on a flash to get a little color in the background.

Flashpoint test #1 (f/2.8 for 1/60 sec @ ISO 400)

Initially I used my 600EX-RT flash with the ST-E3 in radio mode to trigger them, but I’d switch to a 580EX II’s triggered by optical instead radio just to give them a real workout. They performed well, so I got started with my testing. As you can see from my setup and the shot above, this simple one light configuration turned out okay. Sure, I could have dialed it in better but what I saw was that I got nice soft light from the Flashpoint, so I was happy.

Ezybox test #1 (foil shown off my arm, but it was on my arm for the close up)

Ezybox test #1

I got less light spill and a slightly softer light with the Ezybox, but overall the two performed equally well. There’s lots of tests I could do here, but I just wanted to see if I could get this basic shot – it did it with no problem. I had more shots than you see here, but the performance was similar so I just grabbed one randomly to demonstrate that it doesn’t suck for you.

Over and under "Clamshell" setup with reflector

Just in case anyone might complain that neither of these boxes gives much light, I thought I’d have fun with a clamshell setup to show that bright light is no problem.

Flashpoint test #2 (f/13 for 1/60sec @ ISO 100)

You’ll notice here that I was able to do f/13 at ISO 100 with no problem (at 0EV and ETTL). I also elected to use a 580EX II only with a 600EX-RT as a optical trigger (but a ST-E2 or another 580 would have worked just as well) to show that you can use older flashes (and whatever you need to trigger them) and get good results.

Conclusion

While I hated the complexity of setting the Flashpoint up, the reality is that you get used to it really quick and it only takes a few minutes longer than the super easy Ezybox. Lightwise they both performed well, but I did prefer the Ezybox recessed design which helps prevent as much light spillage and also the interior baffle to soften the light even more. Both of these issues could be addressed by the do-it-yourselfer, so for those on a budget the Flashpoint 24” Softbox offers a great value. It’s also can’t be emphasized enough how easy it is to air travel with the Flashpoint vs the Ezybox, so some may find it worth picking up a Flashpoint for that reason alone.

Where to order

Click here to order the Flashpoint 24” Softbox or you can click here to order the Lastolite Joe McNally 24" Ezybox on the Adorama web site.

Other articles you may enjoy

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• Home Studio on a Budget
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• Canon 600EX-RT Flash First Look (ST-E3 RT)
• Olympus OM-D E-M5 (with 2 lenses) Review
• Getting Started in Boudoir Photography
• Discount Coupon Code Page
• How do I get my kid to look at the darn camera?
• What’s Hot in Photography and Photo Editing Books

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this. While I paid for my Ezybox, I was given a Flashpoint soft box – at my request – by Adorama for testing for this review.

PhotoPlus Expo 2012 New Product News (Part 2 of 2)

This article is a continuation of my first part entitled PhotoPlus Expo 2012 Trip Report Part 1.

Canon

Canon had a lot of new products to show off this year, but there wasn’t any big surprise announcement this year like that of the 1D-X and Photo Plus Expo last year. Behind the scenes they did let me put my hands on a 6D and EOS M, and I was given a nice tour of all of the major new products that have been recently released. Here’s a few comments on some of the products I had a chance to take a closer look at:

Canon EOS 6D Digital SLR - see my preview for more details, but this is the real replacement for the 5D Mark II and much cheaper than the 5D Mark III.

Canon EOS M – Canon finally enters the mirrorless market with a compact camera with promised T4i like image quality and features. It also features an adapter that allows for EF/EF-S lens support. It has a capacitive touch rear display, stereo mic, and supports Canon’s new STM lenses (EF* models require the adapter) for quiet video focusing.

Canon showed off its new imagePROGRAF printers – the iPF6400, iPF6450, and iPF8400. The iPF6450 shown here also included the optional onboard SU 21 spectrophotometer accessory ($1795) which is not yet available, but can be used for calibrating printers for proofing work (much like Epson offers on its Stylus Pro 4900 model).

Some of the big new features of these printers are:

• A new multi-sensor for better accuracy and faster performance
• Gallery wrap feature built into the driver
• Calibration Linking (link multiple printers together and calibrate together - see pdf for more info from one PC)
• Improved driver with support for variations like the PRO-1 (woohoo, this is a great addition that won’t be back ported to the iPFx300 printers.

Learn more in the press release.

Rounding out the major new items was Canon’s two new AirPrint printers that offer similar quality but at a cheaper price than the PRO-1 that I reviewed earlier this year:

• PRO-10 – 10 Lucia pigment based inks (like the PRO-1 but with 2 fewer inks)
• PRO-100 - 8 dye based inks (ChromaLife 100+) – cheaper and little slower

All-in-all it was a good show for Canon with lots of great products to show off. It seems I’ll be a busy camper this year with all of the new releases!

Elinchrom & Lastolite

The big news from Elinchrom was its new Quadra Li-Ion hybrid battery that weighs half of its predecessor, recycles faster, and last longer (except in extreme weather conditions). It can be purchased as a kit with a new Quadra system, or individual with and without the required new charger kit which is needed for existing Quadra units. This makes my favorite portable lighting system lighter, faster, and even more portable – you’ve gotta love that!

New collapsible fabric backgrounds by Lastolite
are very good and believable!

One of the biggest surprises in the Lastolite booth were its great new backgrounds that look like textured surfaces, but are really just like big collapsible reflectors with different scenes on both sides. You can see here the combos that will be available:

Normally these kind of things look cheesy, but when experimenting with a few I felt they were very convincing in the shot. I think they were about 5 feet wide by 6 feet tall, so they have some limitations with tall guys like Mark featured in the brick wall shot above but are totally practical for anything but full body shots.

Lastolite also had some great new soft boxes which shown above feature a zipper (zipped on the bottom left and unzipped on the top left) that allow you to have a rectangular or wide softbox in one. I thought this was a pretty awesome design and the size is great for use with the Qudra’s or your speed lights thanks to the new adapter they offer. Here’s how they look with flashes (up to 4 supported:

and here’s an example using a Quadras head:

I’d love to get some of these and put them on the softboxes shown above and one of these new octa’s:

I hope to have more info on these later next year. They looked pretty awesome at the show and address some of my portability challenges.

Eizo

I had a chance to speak to the good folks at Eizo about their upcoming CX series displays which promise to offer much more competitive prices (but still higher than the NEC PA Series) with performance that is nearly as good as the ColorEdge series. The biggest difference is that they won’t include the factory test report, accessories like hoods, cleaners and cables, and they won’t be able to remote control select light boxes, but otherwise they are the same great Eizo quality displays I’ve come to enjoy. The other good news is that they will feature better calibration flexibility than the Flexscan series I’ve reviewed including full support of ColorNavigator (woohoo). Rumor has it, I’ll be getting one of these for a long-term test to see how it stands up to my NEC display – stay tuned!

Epson

The big news at the Epson booth was the expansion of its popular Epson Exhibition Canvas line with a new Natural version which has no OBA’s and is thinner to resist cracking when stretched. Personally I like OBA’s, so this canvas felt a little more old school canvas which isn’t my preference. It appeared to have a great DMax though and and the Satin and Gloss versions were very impressive in real life (with my preference being for the Gloss).

Epson SureLab D3000 available from local resellers like JVH
Side sorter attachment sold separately

The other big news from Epson was its huge dry lab printer that effectively creates Stylus Pro 4900 quality prints on glossy or luster paper only (up to 8x12) at blistering speed of up to 260 8x10’s an hour in production mode for as little as 47 cents per print on luster (vs 92 for the 4900). That’s even cheaper than Costco and a lot less hassle than chaining 4900’s together.

The model shown above has dual roll support (that bulge out the front) and costs an estimated $22,995, but is also offered in a single (non-upgradable) roll version for $19,995. Epson estimates that an average high-volume wedding or school portrait photographer would get a return on their investment in as little as 10 months.

It should be noted that this device ONLY works with Windows based systems, so Mac users would need a Windows box around to use it. Printing is just like any Epson printer and possible from traditional apps like Lightroom and Photoshop. It was fun to watch this beast in action, and the print quality was excellent.

Eye-Fi

I’m a big fan of Eye-Fi, so it was a pleasure to sit down with one of the co-founders of the company to discuss doing a special offer for my readers. While we haven’t settled on the final terms, I’m pretty confident it will happen so stay tuned to this blog for more details.

We also talked about the new 16GB card which offers 22 mb/sec performance versus 16mb/sec of its predecessors. It also has 1 mb/sec faster radio transmission performance making it a better solution for some of the new cameras out right now like the Nikon D800 and 5D Mark III.

Eye-Fi Future Compact Flash support?

One burning question I had for Eye-Fi was about possible future support for Compact Flash cards and existing adapters out in the wild. Their definitive answer is that they will not do Compact Flash support in the future as there’s really not enough market to justify the investment. SD to CF adapters have transmission challenges that can result in disappointing performance so they don’t recommend them. In short, guys like me with a Canon 1D X are SOL and will need to either use its built-in Ethernet support or pony up the big bucks for a WFT-E6A adapter.

NEC

NEC features my images on two identical PA series displays with
sRGB on the left and Full Spectrum color gamut on the right

NEC was demonstrating its inexpensive P series monitors – the sRGB only and cheaper variant of its highly popular PA Series. The P232W starts out at $569 and the P241W at $679 with both becoming slightly more expensive when purchased with the calibration device and software (which I recommend). They also had my favorite PA Series including the 30”, and some LED backlit displays.

Nikon

Nikon spent a lot of money at the show with one of the most impressive booths complete with dancers and a very cool video set:

But this year was rather slim on new product announcements. The big star of the show were the new Nikon 1’s and the new 70-200 f/4 lens:

Nikon 70-200 f/4G VR lens is going to be great for hikers,
D800/D800E users and Canon migrators

The new Nikon 70-200 f/4G VR lens ($1,399) is super sharp, smaller and lighter (comparable to the popular Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS USM – $1,149). Nikon is boasting a 5 stop vibration reduction (VR) so this is probably going to be a great lens for D800 and D800E owners to help address the stability challenges of the 2.8 version on those bodies. It’s lightweight will be a welcome addition for hikers as well.

Nikon 1 V2 Rear View offers more hard buttons than before

Nikon 1 V2 and Nikon 1 J2 – better metering, faster shutter speeds in aperture priority, and more physical buttons which hopefully will address many of my concerns from my Nikon 1 V1 review.

Conclusion

This year I didn’t get to cover as much of the show as I would have liked, but it was still a great show with information overload. I also had an unfortunate incident where my iPhone was stolen – with many of my show photos. Sadly I also discovered the hard way that iCloud backup only works if your phone is on wireless, connected to the charger, and turned OFF. As a result of that fact I lost all my show photos that were on my iPhone – lesson learned! Still, the most important were on my DSLR and I had notes, so I tried to bring you the highlights of the show as I saw them. The noticeable absence from the report this year were Sony, Panasonic and Fujifilm as they didn’t reach out to me to schedule an appointment in advance, and I simply ran out of time – maybe next year!

Related Articles

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy:

• PhotoPlus Expo 2012 Trip Report Part 1
• Canon EOS 6D Digital SLR preview
• Nikon 1 V1 review
• Canon PRO-1 Review
• NEC PA Series Review
• Nikon D800 Review 
• Ron’s Studio Lighting Setup 
• Which lens should I buy? 
• Which camera should I buy?
• Printing Series
• Discount Coupon Codes 

Disclosure

I travelled to New York at my own expense and was not paid by anyone to cover this event. If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission.

Enjoy The Fall Colors Especially When Its Wet And Overcast

Model Juliet Dang

I had a client in town for private training with me this weekend and my original plan was to go out and try to shoot the fall colors with a model. When an unexpected rain and overcast day arrived we shot in the studio for as long as week could and only saved 2 hours (90 minutes after drive time) for the outdoors. What a mistake – the fresh rain had cleaned off the foliage making them nice and saturated to the camera and the clouds acted as God’s soft box. The net result was a wonderful shoot with mouth watering color. Moral of the story – don’t let a little rain and clouds keep you indoors – especially in the fall, there’s always something out there to shoot.

This photo was taken with Canon 1D X using my favorite lens, the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM set to 135mm and f/4 for 1/200 sec at ISO 400. Light was provided by a Lastolite Joe McNally Ezybox Hot Shoe - 24 x 24" (61 x 61 cm) with Canon 600EX-RT flash triggered by a Canon ST-E3 with a 1/2 cut CTO Rogue Gel inside the softbox. The in-camera JPEG (standard picture style) was cropped and slightly enhanced using only Lightroom 4.2.

This is a shot that I set up and my student took with me holding the soft box. If you are interested in hiring me for a private lesson like this, contact me.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission.

Photo Plus Expo NYC 2011–New Products Report–Part II of II

Canon shows off what the iPF8300 can do (see my review of its smaller sibling the iPF6300)

Please see the first part of my coverage of Photo Plus Expo NYC 2011 in my article entitled “Photo Plus Expo NYC 2011–New Products Report–Part I of II”.

Here’s what else I discovered while at the show…

Elinchrom

I shoot with Elinchrom lights (article and more) and those of you who do hopefully will understand it when I say that the Elinchrom 39" Rotalux Deep OctaBox is the magic light modifier that just makes your subjects look awesome. Well Elinchrom has taking that magic to a new level with the indirect lit version (much like the EL Octa 74” (190cm) Indirect Light Bank ) that will be available later this year for roughly $599. It will be called the Elnchrom Rotalux Deep Inverse 59" Octa (EL 26188) and should be available on B&H in the future with this link.

Another nice addition to the Elinchrom line up for Quadra owners like myself is a proper ring flash for less than $599 called the Ranger Quadra Ringflash ECO. While you can get the ring flash effect with a product like the Ray Flash, this is a device where the more light you have – the better. If you are tired of the budget ring flash look, now you can go pro for a price that won’t leave you broke. I’ll be getting a chance to review one of these so stay tuned for a future review.

For those of you who wish to control your lights from your iOS based device via WiFi, Elinchrom has a new EL-Skyport WiFi adapter and app that will give the ability to do just that. While it is not as powerful as the software that goes with the USB-based RX Computer Remote/Trigger Set, it’s pretty close and pretty cool to see in action.

Zoom Pro HD Head

Zoom Action Head

Last but not least, Elinchrom has released two new zoom lights to compete with Profoto’s equivalent design. The lights feature an inner tube that can be zoomed to a variety of positions for lighter or softer light effects.

Manfrotto

Manfrotto had some new video tripods that they were pretty proud of, but I’m not a video guy so I just grabbed a snapshot and moved on. You can learn more about them at http://www.manfrotto.us/category/8709.0.0.0.0/Video. I also think this is the link on B&H, but the one two I saw may have been newer models.

Manfrotto MA LFJ050M-LBB Pro Field Jacket

Photography vests are lame and most of the jackets I’ve seen are just as bad. However, Manfrotto is trying to change that with its cool pro field jackets. It doesn’t look as stupid as the picture above and feels really nice on. The only problem with them is the price – they are $500 for reasons I simply don’t understand.

With DSLR’s blurring the line between still photography camera and video camera, it makes it hard for us to buy the right equipment for the job. A great example is for a tripod head because video requires smooth panning and a long grip helps. For photography a ball head is a must. Until now the solutions that tried the marry the two might have worked for a camcorder or point and shoot, but not for a DSLR with a heavy lens. Well Manfrotto thinks it has the solution in the Manfrotto 755CX3 Tripod with 055 Photo-Movie Head & Q5 Quick Release Kit.

Pictured above, this kit has a movie / photo lock that when in photo mode acts as a typical ball head, but when in movie mode it locks the ball head and allows for smooth panning. It’s a novel idea in a great looking package, but I’m skeptical.

Lastolite

Joe McNally TriGrip Kit 41”

The big news from Lastolite this year is its new Joe McNally line. Despite what you might think, this is set of products that exceed what you normally get from Lastolite. The sizes are typically larger and additional modifiers are typically offered, so you too can try to be like Joe when you are shooting with the small flash.

When holding the products side by side at the Expo I felt like the McNally ones were the same build quality but for better suited for advanced use thanks to the additional modifiers like specal masks.

The big question is if they are worth the premium price tag. At $247, the price jump is significant over similar kits (11” smaller and no mask, but has two more panels). I’d guess the additional cost is probably due to Joe’s name on the product not coming for free, but we pay these premiums for golf clubs, shoes and other products so why not photo gear? I just had my Westcott reflector set rip on me so I might check some of these out when replacing mine.

Think Tank Photo

The big news from Think Tank Photo were the lighter weight Modular Component Set™ V2.0. They feature a lighter design and better storage of the rain covers (in the bottom zip pocket) as well as other minor improvements. If you like the Modular Set but thought it was too heavy or bulky, then this is a great improvement that you’ll want to check out.

Nik Software

Nik Software was demonstrating the recently released Color Efex 4. You can see my video preview here. You can also get a 15% discount on it here.

Sony

The big news from Sony was the new a77 which they claim is the fastest DSLR on the planet (at 12fps – just like the full frame Canon 1D X). I wasn’t able to get too much info on it, but in my hand it felt much like a Nikon D7000 with a better burst mode which is a great thing. I think Sony owners will probably be excited with this new release because this camera offers A LOT of bang for the buck (i.e., 24.3mp, OLED viewfinder, & more) in a user-friendly consumer camera package. DXOMark had good things to say about the sensor and I saw enough to like to think that Sony might finally start offering something interesting for DSLR owners.

Datacolor

One of the coolest things I saw at the show was the clever iPad calibration software (used in conjunction with a PC and a Spyder) called SpyderGallery. This was really clever solution for those who want accurate color when showing their photos on the iPad. Click here to learn more.

Tamrac

The backpack makers threw me for a loop when they were demonstrating their MicroSync II VM2TR Wireless Transmitter/Receiver Kit – the worlds smallest wireless radio sync system. While they don’t offer TTL, they are cheap and tiny. It seems like a much better choice than some of the eBay contraptions that claim they do the same thing and from what I saw at the show they work well (much like traditional pocket wizards). They can even fire your DSLR or strobes.

Kata

While not even close to the quality of a Think Tank Photo bag, this bag was so clever that I had to write about it. There is a metal frame with ventilation on the back is brilliant to keep the heat from being trapped (one of my complaints about my TTP bags). This is the MiniBee version which is smaller than its predecessor so I think this is something that hikers will really appreciate.

GTI

I’m a huge fan of my GTI light box, but my biggest complaint is that it doesn’t have a dimmer. The new SOFV-1Xi offers a precise intensity level setting, a meter to show you how many hours your lamps have been on, and an improved design. While it isn’t offered in sizes as large as my PDV-2020EX, most will find its A3+ format support to be sufficiently large. If you are into light boxes, this will get you jazzed.

The Rest

There were many more products that I saw but I couldn’t cover them all. Some will be featured in upcoming reviews and others are currently working with me on possible reviews. I made a ton of new contacts for a lot of great existing products that readers like you have asked me to feature. The Expo has opened the door to help make that happen so stay tuned for an interesting year ahead.

Disclaimer

This article features links where I may receive a commission if you make a purchase. Thank you for supporting this blog by making purchases using my links and special offers.