AlienBees folding softbox information

Thank you John. That's great.

The stud was like that or you milled it that way? I've never seen that type of stud sold anywhere.

It came milled like that. When it is used with the head mounted normally it can be a pain in the butt if you want to rotate the light because you can be tightening up the fitting and it is on the cusp of the flat and it swings towards the flat. I only have the one of them so now I just leave it on the boom.


Edit: I imagine the flat can be put on a normal one quite easily with a small vice and a flat file. It wouldn't need to be milled but that would probably provide a more professional look.

Thanks John,

I think I'm going to try to slightly flatten both sides rather than just one side and I would imagine it doesn't need to be much to do the job well.

I'm curious about the double sided stud. typically light stands have the stud mounted. Is this the case with booms or do booms just leave you with the typical thumbscrew and a receptavle for the stud?

My boom came with the spigot - just like the one in the picture. Different manufacturers may do it differently, I guess.

'Flatten both sides' as in the boom receptacle and as well as the light mount end? Like the picture? That is the only way the flattening would give any strength in the union. For me, I wanted to be able to swing my softbox into some really 'strange' positions and rely on it staying in that position. I was delighted that the spigot came modified like that - because none of my other ones were (on the stands) and I had already had problems with the softbox moving around.

I have 2 stands where the spigot is not removable - really cheap manufacturer - so they have an advantage in that the stand end is fixed and won't rotate at all.

John - who manufactured the spigot you showed?

I've got one coming with my boom from Manfrotto, but I won't know until it arrives early next week as to whether or not it's already got a flat on each end. If it doesn't, of course I will be milling the flats in myself.

I am sorry Skip, but I have no idea. It came from a Melbourne clearing house on eBay who import most of their stuff from China. It could have been made in any one of a thousand or so factories.

::John:: wrote in post #3664434
I am sorry Skip, but I have no idea. It came from a Melbourne clearing house on eBay who import most of their stuff from China. It could have been made in any one of a thousand or so factories.

Not a problem - 'twas just a curiosity. The spigot for mine is very much like the one you photographed in that one end has 1/4-20 threads and the other 3/8-16 threads. Maybe that's just a standard design for the spigots.

Robert - all of the sturdier booms listed in the Manfrotto catalog have a socket for the "spigot" (the double-ended 5/8" stud) to go into and there's a t-handled screw to tighten them in. The reason the spigot can come out is that there are various accessories that can replace the spigot. Some of the accessories provide an adjustable angle for the final stud (part of the accessory) that hold the lighting unit.

Thanks John and Skip,

Good information.
I posted this morning in the Paul Buff forum asking about grids for the foldable softboxes and he says they are on the way and will be available soon. This makes the foldable softboxes even more attractive.

Did either of you see my eariler post regarding the light leakage. If one or both of you could address that I'd appreciate it. I'm pretty much sold on the softbox though. It just seems to make more sense than getting into another brand box unless I was going to take a big step up to something considerably more expensive and that's not going to happen, at least not at this time.

Okay - I did another 'audit' and it would appear that I have 2 of these milled spigots. Here is a quick snapshot of one of them:

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TMR Design wrote in post #3664496
Thanks John and Skip,

Good information.
I posted this morning in the Paul Buff forum asking about grids for the foldable softboxes and he says they are on the way and will be available soon. This makes the foldable softboxes even more attractive.

Did either of you see my eariler post regarding the light leakage. If one or both of you could address that I'd appreciate it. I'm pretty much sold on the softbox though. It just seems to make more sense than getting into another brand box unless I was going to take a big step up to something considerably more expensive and that's not going to happen, at least not at this time.

Hmmm - I saw your earlier post. I don't use any of the AlienBee stuff - their constantly changing policy over whether they will ship 230V equipment or not has made me look towards manufacturers who will without buggering around about it. At the moment, I am buying cheaper stuff while I work out what I want to do - but there is a tradeoff there, too. The lights I bought with a barn door have so much light leakage around the barndoor fitting, you can clearly see it on the backdrop if you are positioning the light behind the model (for a 'behind' hair illuminator). Both of my softboxes, though, are really tight around the area where the box fits the speedring and the speedring fits the head - so they are great.

Could some one post a few pictures of the folding soft boxes from Alien Bee please? I would love to see them folded and set-up.

::John:: wrote in post #3664588
Both of my softboxes, though, are really tight around the area where the box fits the speedring and the speedring fits the head - so they are great.

The AB folding softboxes are nicely snug around the speed ring, so that is not a problem. There's no direct light leak at all. What there is, though, is a very slightly transluscent characteristic to the black material (which is lined with a silvery reflective surface). In other words, when the modeling light is on at full power and when the flash goes off, you can see just a little light through the whole surface of black portion of the softbox. Most of what you see is behind the internal baffle (on the light's side of the baffle, that is).

kuanyu wrote in post #3664720
Could some one post a few pictures of the folding soft boxes from Alien Bee please? I would love to see them folded and set-up.

I plan on doing photos of the boom and the softboxes next weekend, as my boom setup should be arriving during the week and I will be out of town a fair part of the week.

Thanks Skip,

But none of the light you're seing through the black exterior is measureable or contributing light to other areas, is it?

TMR Design wrote in post #3664842
Thanks Skip,

But none of the light you're seing through the black exterior is measureable or contributing light to other areas, is it?

I seriously doubt there's enough light coming through to affect the images. For one thing, all of the surfaces that are emitting the little bit of light are on the other side of the softbox from the "shiny end". You get far more light spill from the average umbrella than from these things.

That's great Skip. I'm pretty convinced about them and since there will be grids available I'm going to go for it pretty soon. In the long run I think it's a better value and better suits my needs than using some of the other third party boxes on the AB's.

This morning, I took some measurements of the light from my AlienBees B1600's through my new AlienBees folding softboxes. I thought some of the folks here might be interested in the results.

Both the "Medium" (24"x36") and "Giant" (30"x60") softboxes were connected to my B1600's. Note that I used separate flash units for each softbox.

I did all my tests at a measured six feet (1.83 meters) from the face of the softboxes using a Sekonic L-358 meter in incident mode, aimed at the softbox face perpendicular to the face. The meter was set at ISO 100.

I conducted the tests at positions perpendicular to the center and the edges of the softboxes and found identical readings at all positions for each softbox. Thus, I am reporting only one aperture value for each power setting of the flash unit for each softbox.

AlienBees "Giant" folding softbox(30"x60") with inside diffuser installed:
Full power - f/14
1/2 power - f/10
1/4 power - f/7.1
1/32 power - f/2.2

AlienBees "Medium" folding softbox(24"x36") with inside diffuser installed:
Full power - f/14
1/2 power - f/10
1/4 power - f/8.0
1/32 power - f/2.8

Note that the minor differences in the readings could be due to slight differences in the output of the flash units. I was just too darned lazy to switch the softboxes to the opposite flash units and repeat the tests.