Camera Labs

So after running into a lady in the park shooting with a lightsphere and hearing her good comments about it, I decided to get one myself. Here is a review of it:

Build quality- I was impressed by the material. I was expecting a rigid plastic construction, but it is actually a rubbery gel type construction. This is good because you are not going to break it and it could be folded up inside your camera bag to take up significantly less room. The top cover is more rigid and made out of a plastic. The downside to construction was that it doesn’t stay on the flash unit as tight as one would want. The lady I met in the park with her lightsphere actually had hers taped on with black electrical tape because she was tired of it falling off. Mine doesn’t fall of freely yet, but she has had hers for a couple of years.

Image Quality- I must say that I am really blown away here. Gary Fong is a much better photographer than I am so I figured that he was manipulating shot settings to try to improve the before and after shots. Seeing how I got very similar results to his, I don’t believe that he manipulated anything at all.

I’ll warn you, I am about the ugliest model imaginable especially after I was ran over by a car while I was out cycling, but I couldn’t get my toddle to sit still for test shots. Here are the pictures. All shots were taken with a Canon Rebel XT/350D with the 50/1.8 II lens and a 430EX. F/2.8 1/60” ISO100, and auto white balance


Direct flash


Bounce flash aimed straight up


Bounce flash aimed 45 degree’s towards me


With Lightsphere Cloud

All in all I am quite impressed and for $40US, I can live with it being a little loose fitting especially with the IQ results I am getting. It is a little large for me to want to take out street shooting, but it would be great at friend’s weddings, birthday parties, as well as for fill in flash outside around the park or at home. I will probably pick up a Sto-Fen diffuser for general walk around stuff at some point when I have another item I want to order on line to share the shipping costs. On a 1-5 scale I would rate it a 4.5 only taking off for the fact that it fits a little on the loose side.

The bounced 45 degree flash seems to be the most natural looking one to me.

The Lightsphere isn't bad, but I guess it'd look better when ambient light is either more diffused or just softer.

What it particularly illustrates very clearly is how much you really should try to avoid direct flash.

Ben

I agree, though the Lightsphere picture is pretty good to! I'd like to get myself a mini-softbox for my external flash gun, see what the results will be.

- Bjorn -

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Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

are you sure you got the correct model Cloud?

i got one (non-universal) for my sb600 and it DOES not loosely fit at all

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My GF lightsphere is anything but loose...in fact its a bugger to get on and tight as a beavers ass when on.

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Canon 40D - EFS 17-85mm IS - EF 50mm 1.8 II - EF 70-200mm f.4 L - Speedlite 580EX II - GF Lightsphere Cloud - S.I.L.K 300DX PRO Tripod - Manfrotto 679 monopod - LOWEPRO Trekkar Backback - Adobe CS3 -

lol @ the beaver's ass.

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Canon EOS 450d/XSi, BG-E5 Grip, 4 LP-E5 battery, Canon EF-S 17-55 F2.8 IS USM, B+W 77mm Pro1 MRC UV0 filter, Canon EF-S 10-22mm USM, HOYA 77mm HMC UV(C) Multi-Coated Filter THIN, Canon 580EX II,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31510271@N05/

i have just won an ebay bid on a nikon SB600 with a Gary Fong Diffuser,

heres the pic of the diffuser...



Now ive never used a diffuser, and reading many reviews about them not being that good?
Can anyone give any simple advise to a newbie on what i should do with it? or is it worth anything if i dont want it?

Thank you

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Amateur, always learning!

My website:- www.neildavison.co.uk

I have one just like that!! (with one more head piece) Never knew it's named that way...
It's amazing for indoor shooting,it's the closest thing to studio-quality details for portraits.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here

ah nice to see some one rates it!
only by looking at the pic it looks like it might have a inverted dome on top of it, cant really tell. all i have to do now if figure out how to use it!

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Amateur, always learning!

My website:- www.neildavison.co.uk

Neil,

Mine came with a video CD showing how to use it.

A lot of the same demo's are hosted on youtube. Put "gary fong lightsphere" into the youtube search and sit down with a beer and watch some video's

Here is one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfshQuBLdw

That user, socalcamerapro, has a bunch of good stuff on the fongs

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Canon 7D/350D, Σ17-50/2.8, 18-55IS, 24-105/4 IS, Σ30/1.4, 50/1.8, 55-250IS, 60/2.8, 70-200/4 IS, 85/1.8, 580ex II, 430EX II, 270EX II.

My diffuser is branded Lambency & costs 31$. But it's the exact same thing. I wonder if there's a price difference.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
Visit my work here