Couple of weeks ago I attended Finnish Strobist meetup which I had put together. We had about 22 photographers, four models and two make-up artists/stylists. It was great to meetup with people I talk with everyday on Flickr and orcourse to photographs models and learn new things. At the same time you learn how big of an itch you get to get new strobist gear.
One of these was Lastolite's EzyBox softbox for hot shoe strobes. I researched the internet for this product and the price in Finland was a tremendous 170 euros. I researched some more and came up with a German store called
EnjoyYourCamera that sells a cheaper version of similar softbox for just 56 euros including postage to Finland. This softbox was from the TriStar. Ofcourse I had to order one as I saw the Lastolite's softbox in action at the meetup. The order was done last friday and DHL delivered it to my house yesterday on monday.
The softbox arrived in a hude cardbox which was 95% pure air. The softbox itself is collapsed in a small carrying bag. The package includes the softbox, a diffuser and attachment to lightstand. The attachment is made of steel and feels sturdy and solid, should not break easily but is not too heavy either.
Putting the softbox together wasn't a big tasks and it took me about two minutes to get it setup. The attachment is fully adjsutable so you can use any strobe you like with this softbox. The only thing you need to keep in mind that the whole from which you put the strobe through into the softbox is 8cm wide. Wider flashes won't fit this softbox.
If you want to attach this softbox into Manfrotto's 026 swivel and umbrella bracket, you need to purchase a longer adapter for it as the both the Manfrotto's upper portion and softboxes attachment to lightstand is similar. The golden adapter that comes with Manfrotto just isn't long enough.
