Fotodiox Pro Softboxes

[M Carter]

I've been wanting the biggest, skinniest strip light with grid I could get my hands on. Found a 12" x 80" Fotodiox Pro on Amazon - like, $89 with grid and speedring.

I've bought chinese softboxes before when I needed a size not made by Photoflex, and they're usually pretty lame with crappy grids. I've got Photoflex boxes approaching their 20th birthdays and still working well. But man - Fotodiox has gotten their act together.

The strip bank I got is of better quality than my Photoflex strobe stuff (and pretty close to my Photoflex hot-light gear). Thick fabric, the silver fabric is thick (not like mylar foil) and the stitching is solid and thick. The rods are metal and twice as thick as Photoflex metal rods; the grid is equal to Photoflex (A photoflex medium grid costs more than this entire setup). The grid really surprised me, as those seem like they're labor intensive. But damn, a solid, usable grid. The size means it's pretty heavy (I use Speedotron Blackline so it should be fine). I wonder if a box this size would be OK on the Bowens or Alien Bees rings they sell for it...

And, bonus - they're rated for up to 500 watts, so they can be used for hot lights (though you might have to rig something up to get a 500 watt globe up in there). I've got starlights with 500 globes, and I also used them with ballasted 5500k 400 moguls, so… cool.

Six-and-a-half foot strip light for under a hundred (and free Amazon shipping)? Really impressed, and neither Photoflex or Chimera makes anything close (and jesus, have youu seen Chimer's pricing lately? If I owned a rental shop, maybe…). If you're hunting for a softbox, give 'em a try. Quite surprised.

 

[gorbas]

Thank you for sharing M. Carter! Recently I bought used, mint Photoflex strip dome HV and it's shows very strange green tint in resulting light flow. Tint comes from "white" lining inside. Had to add magenta CC gel to compensate for it. Im looking for replacement for it or to improve my sewing skills and to replace interior lining with Rosco Soft Silver foil.

 

[M Carter]

My really old softboxes have yellowed a bit - but the front fabrics, it's kind of cool for stuff like jewelry, like a mild half-straw gel.

Check your light source though, if you're using compact flo's, those can have all sorts of color spikes. I have a kino knockoff that needs CTB and minus green, it's got a real yellow cast. One of these days I'll get Kino TruMatch lamps for it…

 

[mweintraub]

I have some 2nd hand Fotodiox L-400 and L-600 strobes and they look beaten but work great! Not sure the brand of the softboxes that came with them, but they are great too!

 

[gorbas]

Green tint come directly from the HV strip dome. I did test shots with regular Norman 10" reflector, Chimera medium soft box and Photoflex Strip dome and culprit was clear. Yellowing of front screen of the soft box can be nice, especially for portraits, but green tint is not nice except when you are lighting green screen. I'm not using CF bulbs or LEDs. I do like Kino flo bulbs, both tungsten and daylight in my Divas.

 

[M Carter]

Green tint come directly from the HV strip dome. I did test shots with regular Norman 10" reflector, Chimera medium soft box and Photoflex Strip dome and culprit was clear. Yellowing of front screen of the soft box can be nice, especially for portraits, but green tint is not nice except when you are lighting green screen. I'm not using CF bulbs or LEDs. I do like Kino flo bulbs, both tungsten and daylight in my Divas.

So has the interior white fabric turned green over time? You'd expect yellow - never seen that!

Can you dial it out with minus green? Though gelling a softbox is usually a pain unless it's smaller than the standard gel sheet size - I've done tungsten balanced softboxes by gelling the inner baffle though and it worked great - just need to remember the gel when you pack up.

I've been using aquarium-ballast mogul HIDs with Photoflex starlights and softboxes for interview lights. They put out about 1.2k of 6500k daylight. I've seen some high-CRI 5500 K moguls but haven't tested them; I have some ripstop and Rit dye, on my project list is to try to dye the ripstop to be close to 1/2 CTO + 1.8 minus green and have the Mrs. sew the velcro on so I have color corrected front fabrics. Rose brand used to sell 1/2 CTO ripstop but no more.

My project list is pretty long though...

 

[gorbas]

Hi M Carter, thank you for the interest in my issue with aging Photoflex strip soft box. In day or two I will have more spare time and will post sample pictures, before & after. There was definitelly no any green visible inside soft box, just in light output. Yes, weak magenta gel placed on inner baffle did cure it.
As for interview set up, if you can control daylight, nothing beats nice tungsten open face source with softbox. Ok, maybe Lowell Tota light with Big Totabrela, but then you run to some other issues.
Ha,ha, we should start swapping those endless project lists.
Goran

 

[M Carter]

As for interview set up, if you can control daylight, nothing beats nice tungsten open face source with softbox. Ok, maybe Lowell Tota light with Big Totabrela, but then you run to some other issues.
Ha,ha, we should start swapping those endless project lists.
Goran

Actually, HMI beats the heck out of tungsten for daylight situations - gelling tungsten to Daylight kills about 2/3 of the output!

I got one of those Source 4 pars converted to a 575 HMI they use in auto shows for $175 - it's a heck of a light! Shot this monday - it's a video frame, but used a Nikon Series E 100mm 2.8, wide open, shot at 6500k (native temp of that fixture, instead of gelling the light with 1/2 CTO I shot at 6500k so the light through the windows got nice and sunset-warm). Just bounced the light from a white popup reflector, added a 10m cc filter since the subject had that pale, almost-blue skin.

(That Series E is a steal at $70-$80. Most of the other Series E are junk but I love the 100.)

 

[gorbas]

M.Carter, by controlling daylight I think- getting rid of him totally, dark room as possible with no other light sources than tungsten. Tungsten with Full CTB is so 1980 or early '90. Hopeless! Does anybody use it any more, except in dire emergency??? When you can't control daylight in interior you turn to Kino flo's daylight or HMI

 

[M Carter]

I gotcha, just keep a bunch of black duvatyne around!

I do like using 1/2 CTB on tungsten fresnels with kinos or HMI, for backlights or accents… just a tad warmer, great on hair. Read that on Roger Deakins' forum - which is awesome. (He's the cinematographer for most Coen bros. films, just shot "Sicario", etc… You can ask him anything and he answers, how he lit a specific shot, etc)

 

[gorbas]

Yes, tungsten fresnels, naked or with CTB or appropriate filtrations are OK for my taste too and I can't see reason not to use than if I need them.
Roger Deakins is great, I discovered him in 1984 after premiere of movie "1984" where he did achieve amazing look with bleach bypass. One of the first full length feature movies done with that process modification. I did have nice chat about it with his Director about it, but unfortunately Roger was not at that festival.
Lets go back to our original post:
There are my test shots.
Norman 22" reflector, Photoflex Half Dome HV strip light, same with addition of 5x8" Rosco Cinegel 3314 (Tough ¼ Minusgreen) placed in the middle of inner baffle and two different size and different age Chimera soft boxes.

This Photoflex is covered inside with rubberized white coating and it looks that I will need to add ⅛ or ¼ CTB to correct for yellow tint too. There is no green visible anywhere? Most likely I will just make new silver lining for it or buy new one from your link.

 

[M Carter]

Wow, that is certainly some green!!! Better call Captain Kirk!

 

[gorbas]

Yep, green as charged! On the other hand, I have well beaten Photoflex Silver dome and after maybe 12 years of use is still great performer.
I don't see that they still make any model of soft boxes with this rubberized coating?

 

[gorbas]

Looks like cured. Photoflex Half Dome HV strip light, with addition of 5x8" Rosco Cinegel 3314 (Tough ¼ Minusgreen) + ¼ CTB placed in the middle of inner baffle