Little bum out about my Profoto B1 purchased

I have some nice white Westcott shoot thur umbrella that I can't use on my Profoto B1. Apparently the westcott umbrella shaft is too big to fit into their hole.

Anybody have suggestion how I can make it out? If not I'll have to fork out the money to grab new ones.

Hmm, I have 2 Westcott umbrellas and they fit the B1. I have the 32" and 45" White satin with black removable cover.

How were you able to make it fit? I couldn't.

If possible, measure the shaft diameter on your Westcott umbrella.

I have several Westcott 7-foot umbrellas with a 7.75 mm shaft, and they all fit my Profoto D1 lights and Acute / D4 heads.

The older Profoto heads were rumored to only accept a 7 mm shaft, but the D1 (and B1) are modern and should accept the larger shafts.

You're trying to use a Westscott collapsible umbrella which has an 8.64mm hexagonal diameter shaft at it's widest measurement. I've had to drill out a lot of my umbrella swivels over the years as well as the umbrella mount on a strobe or two in order to use them. The Profoto B1 umbrella mount looks to be unmodifiable so you'll probably have to buy a new umbrella.

How are the umbrella's held in place with the B1 umbrella mount?

agv8or wrote in post #17936508
....How are the umbrella's held in place with the B1 umbrella mount?

My D1 (and I am pretty sure the B1 is the same) uses a spring-loaded steel ball in the mounting tube that applies tension on the umbrella shaft. The shaft should have a pointed end to shove down the ball upon insertion.

seres wrote in post #17936591
My D1 (and I am pretty sure the B1 is the same) uses a spring-loaded steel ball in the mounting tube that applies tension on the umbrella shaft. The shaft should have a pointed end to shove down the ball upon insertion.

Thanks. It is a rather unique looking way to mount an umbrella.

These are the collapsible white umbrella. The shaft isn't round like normal standard. The shaft has a hex style to them.

I wouldn't drill out the hole on my B1 as it is just too expensive.

The Profoto white umbrella is $61 bucks. Looks like I'll have to grab a pair.

kouasupra wrote in post #17936294
I have some nice white Westcott shoot thur umbrella that I can't use on my Profoto B1. Apparently the westcott umbrella shaft is too big to fit into their hole.

Anybody have suggestion how I can make it out? If not I'll have to fork out the money to grab new ones.

sell the umbrella and get one that fits your Profoto. I have the D1 and Acute B head and it can fit 8mm shafts.

Enjoy your beautiful, very flexible high quality Profoto B1 - (don't sweat the small stuff)!
This...
Manfrotto #026:
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …vel_Umbrella_Ad​apter.html
- also, a #026 provides more stability when working with the Westcott 7ft Parabolic umbrellas too (if you don't want the nifty Profoto deep umbrellas).
- an #026 provides a welcome extra height, (if say air-travelling, or on- location) if needing a portable compact lighting setup such as with a quality & refreshingly stable 7ft Mathews Reverse light stands (more stable than Manfrotto Nano stands):
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …7486_Reverse_St​and_7.html
helping with enabling catch light, or avoiding shadows in more than individual or couples portraits (such as multiple on-locations group-portraits applications, with fast setup/tear down scenarios).
OR
Westcott convenient Collapsible 43"umbrella [Mfr# 2011]:
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …Umbrella_Collap​sible.html
- (it's a tight fit on the D1/B1; but works with my 4-D1's & 2-B1's).
OR
- quality & durable Profoto umbrellas (the silver deep work well for outside applications, say May-Sept to effectively match ambient sunlight & give approx 1-stop extra light to your B1).


Mary

One is not obligated to use the fixture-provided umbrella holder. Any shaft can be secured with grip gear, and independent positioning of source and modifier gives maximum flexibility for lighting effects. Example (both Profoto components in this case):

I had the same issue, with the same Westcott product. In fact, it doesn't fit into any light I've ever used or owned, including the Profoto D1, Rovelight 600, Speedlite cold shoe brackets, Broncolor heads. Umbrella shafts are normally round and 7mm or 8mm. The Westcott hexagonal shaft doesn't fit the standard, and more aggravatingly, the specs sheet for these umbrellas just says "7mm tapered tip" and photos on their website (at the time) showed the model I bought as having a round shaft.

I wrote to Westcott pointing this out, and the response I got from their customer support prevented me off buying anything else from them. They wouldn't acknowledge that the shaft was non-standard, they just told me "All of our products with umbrella shafts have always had 8mm shafts". They also did not have a copy of their own product to look at and confirm, they told me their umbrellas have round shafts and asked me to send them photos of it! This gave me the impression that Westcott stuff is drop-shipped from overseas and their CS people don't even know what the current versions of their products look like.

They also couldn't tell me which of their other products had this non-standard hexagon shaft. At the time, I was considering buying some of their umbrella-style softboxes, but I could not do so with confidence that they would fit into any of my (non-Westcott) speedlite brackets. Their solution to my new umbrella not fitting any of my existing lights or brackets: "I shared this with the product manager, but my best solution to you is our # 5015 available through our dealers/retailers for only $29"

EDIT: Edited to replace paraphrased quotes from the fjwestcott CS rep with actual copy-pasted quotes from her email reply.

This is the photo I sent them:

Both Profoto and Elinchrom use the smaller (6mm) umbrellas. I have a Photek 60" Softlighter available if you're interested.

tcphoto1 wrote in post #17939050
Both Profoto and Elinchrom use the smaller (6mm) umbrellas. I have a Photek 60" Softlighter available if you're interested.

I thought the smaller shafts were 7mm, correct? Just making sure.

Silly, you're measuring point to point... not flat to flat.