Kacey vs Mola Beauty Dish 22" help me pick!

I was looking at Kacey and Mola beauty dish, all got good reviews. I was originally thinking of buying speedotron. What do you think?

Which price point do you prefer?

For about the price of the Mola you can get the Kacey with the grid. There's some differences in build quality and some other factors to consider though.

From what I've seen recently here on POTN about the Speedotron, I'd go for the Mola or Kacey first.

Thanks everyone. I purchased the kacey with the grid and sock.

Jannie wrote in post #12370555
From what I've seen recently here on POTN about the Speedotron, I'd go for the Mola or Kacey first.

What led you to that conclusion?

litratista wrote in post #12370579
Thanks everyone. I purchased the kacey with the grid and sock.

Don't forget the bag....

There was a thread here and on one other forum about the uneveness with a ring of brighter light with the Speedotron and examples were shown. The questions that arose included the idea that the examples shown might have been using other brand lights than Speedotron with the Speedotron BD. I've seen lots of excellent photos taken with the Speedotron BD here on POTN but it does raise a question when using other strobes. Now if you aim the light straight at the model and are not feathering the edge, you'd probably never care about that and it probably would never show. I tend to feather and use the edge of the beam with a lot of lights including the Beauty Dish.

Also on a personal level, I love, love my Mola Demi and from what I've seen of the examples shown using the Kacey, they have a similar lighting effect.

I'll also say that any light might be perfect once a person finds the sweet spots with their own lights and how to use them for the effects they wish to achieve. Just pointing the light at the subject aligning the center of the light source with the face of the model is only one manner. The thing so nice about the Mola is the way it feathers the light to drop off out at the outer edges of the beam.

TMR has done fabulous work with the Speedotron Dish and Elinchrom lights, he's extreemely researched and precise and quite frankly I can imagine he can make any light source do a wonderful job. Steven Eastman does amazing work and really likes the Speedotron BD. But for the person just getting into using them, having the easiest and most forgiving to work with is a nice thing. As that is, I prefer both of my Molas being used when I have a satin white dome over the bulb on my Elinchrom, much like some have set up with their Profoto heads.

Just a preference.

I think it should be said that most people testing for the bright ring from the Speedotron have not experience the bright under normal use. Testing against walls etc produce the bright ring.

At least that has been my experience in researching the "issue".

I went with the kacey simply because the comparison with the mola is comparable and a lot cheaper, plus also a fact that I'm just a beginner. The excess mula went to the grid, and I got Jerry to modify me an elinchrom insert.

Jerry Kacey is a great guy, i bought an adapter from him to fit my light to my Mola and he walked me through to install it. I am sure his BDs are nice, but i love my Mola, it is simply a piece of art!

I'm glad I found this thread as I'm in the same situation.

I've read the other threads stating what Janine has pointed out about the ring(s) on the speedo BD and because of that I'm hesitant to purchase one and also the fact that the speedo grid is of "poor" quality compared to the Kacey one (which is not longer available for the speedo). Of course I'd love to get a Mola but $$ is a factor. Also since the Kacey BD is comparable to the Demi I was thinking about getting that one too but read somewhere that since it's made from plastic and intended for speedlights that it's not ideal for studio strobes.

Any other tidbits of info would be appreciated in helping to decide.

tia

Good grief, who said the Speedotron grid is of poor quality, it's exceptional and I really love using it on my Mola Demi, plus it works well with adding the diffusion cloth just behind the grid for a slightly different look.

tcc wrote in post #12521792
I'm glad I found this thread as I'm in the same situation.

Also since the Kacey BD is comparable to the Demi I was thinking about getting that one too but read somewhere that since it's made from plastic and intended for speedlights that it's not ideal for studio strobes.

Any other tidbits of info would be appreciated in helping to decide.

tia

The Kacey dish works great with studio strobes, the fact that it is plastic makes it lighter and it won't dent. There are no worries at all using the Kacey dish with studio strobes.

Jannie wrote in post #12522136
Good grief, who said the Speedotron grid is of poor quality, it's exceptional and I really love using it on my Mola Demi, plus it works well with adding the diffusion cloth just behind the grid for a slightly different look.

I believe it was tetrode, TMR, or Kacey in one of the many threads about the speedo grid can scratch easily with just a finger nail, is "fragile" and is not rigid enough.