30 November 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
this is more of a technical blog.... my strobist friends would be more interested in it than anyone else... just got my hands on my new Elinchrom Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa".... so, I was just itching to put my hands on it.... I swooped on it like a bird of prey!!.... it didn't take long between unpacking and the first shoot.... although the setup was bit of a pain for me....
tried to follow the instructions fully, but as it turned out, the instructions were for all Rotalux series products, which also included typical softboxes with four edges... but octa was definitely different.... and caused more pain than I had thought about.... the product's build quality is excellent, although the softbox material seemed a bit thin... but that thing also brought the weight down to something really manageable... the steel ribs are awesome... they really give confidence to the user that this softbox would bend, but not break; although this strength also makes it harder to setup in the first place... the strength of the ribs makes them twist and that deforms the shape of the softbox... but gets corrected once the softbox is fully setup for the first time....
I had a hard time setting it up, really.... this was my first Elinchrom softbox, which may be one of the reasons behind finding it difficult to negotiate... but once the whole thing was setup, it looked brilliant!... I used the Deep Octa without the translucent dome that came with it, because apart from the dome, it already had a double diffusion... so, the light was already great.... the dis-assembly was another pain, as I struggled to find an easy way to get the tight ribs out of those sockets in the speedring.... it took me several minutes to figure out the best way.... and then it was easy as anything.... I timed both setup and dismantle at between 3:00 - 3:30 minutes.... and I wasn't rushing at all... the timing included unpacking from the nice soft bag that it came with....
the practical weight (without the diffusion dome) of the softbox with the bag was just around 1.5kg, which is really within acceptable limits.... and considering the size of the soft bag (2ft 9inch) I thought it would be one of the most portable pieces in my collection.... the bag doesn't have any pockets for the diffusion panels, which would've been really nice though... but it gives great padded protection and gives a good feel....
I only had a brief stint shooting with it and got some nice overall results.... the light modifier is a wonderful light controller... its a biggish light source, yet it doesn't spread the light everywhere.... it now gives me lots of new possibilities.... I tired it out with the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS with A-head... I had my every ready model Lamisa ready in front of my camera.... and there you go... I was only looking for an excuse to shoot some frames.... she had her first haircut since her third birthday less than a week ago... so, the big "three" was still there to be photographed.... hope to write some more blogs on those soon enough.... glad that I had been able to break through the busy times and write a blog of some substance....
anyway, lots more to come....
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
this is more of a technical blog.... my strobist friends would be more interested in it than anyone else... just got my hands on my new Elinchrom Rotalux 100cm "Deep Octa".... so, I was just itching to put my hands on it.... I swooped on it like a bird of prey!!.... it didn't take long between unpacking and the first shoot.... although the setup was bit of a pain for me....
tried to follow the instructions fully, but as it turned out, the instructions were for all Rotalux series products, which also included typical softboxes with four edges... but octa was definitely different.... and caused more pain than I had thought about.... the product's build quality is excellent, although the softbox material seemed a bit thin... but that thing also brought the weight down to something really manageable... the steel ribs are awesome... they really give confidence to the user that this softbox would bend, but not break; although this strength also makes it harder to setup in the first place... the strength of the ribs makes them twist and that deforms the shape of the softbox... but gets corrected once the softbox is fully setup for the first time....
I had a hard time setting it up, really.... this was my first Elinchrom softbox, which may be one of the reasons behind finding it difficult to negotiate... but once the whole thing was setup, it looked brilliant!... I used the Deep Octa without the translucent dome that came with it, because apart from the dome, it already had a double diffusion... so, the light was already great.... the dis-assembly was another pain, as I struggled to find an easy way to get the tight ribs out of those sockets in the speedring.... it took me several minutes to figure out the best way.... and then it was easy as anything.... I timed both setup and dismantle at between 3:00 - 3:30 minutes.... and I wasn't rushing at all... the timing included unpacking from the nice soft bag that it came with....
the practical weight (without the diffusion dome) of the softbox with the bag was just around 1.5kg, which is really within acceptable limits.... and considering the size of the soft bag (2ft 9inch) I thought it would be one of the most portable pieces in my collection.... the bag doesn't have any pockets for the diffusion panels, which would've been really nice though... but it gives great padded protection and gives a good feel....
I only had a brief stint shooting with it and got some nice overall results.... the light modifier is a wonderful light controller... its a biggish light source, yet it doesn't spread the light everywhere.... it now gives me lots of new possibilities.... I tired it out with the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS with A-head... I had my every ready model Lamisa ready in front of my camera.... and there you go... I was only looking for an excuse to shoot some frames.... she had her first haircut since her third birthday less than a week ago... so, the big "three" was still there to be photographed.... hope to write some more blogs on those soon enough.... glad that I had been able to break through the busy times and write a blog of some substance....
anyway, lots more to come....
