Flash Ring. Whats the pros and cons?

I'm thinking of maybe getting a flash ring for my camera. I mostly do macro and portraits. I've already got a studio flash which is good with sidewards lighting but was wondering to get rid of shadows to get a ring flash which I thought might come in handy to start doing more location portraits. Any help as to whether this would work for me would be great.

I've just started dabbling with this. Basically they come in many forms. Macro flashes are obviously very good for macro work, but seem to both only mount to macro lenses, and also provide a very small catchlight, if that's what you're after for portraits. You then get the studio flashes which are fantastic, but rigidly mounted to a lighting stand and not so portable. They're also very expensive.

Away from that, you get the flash modifiers, that sit in between. They basically stick on the end of a flash gun and alter your flash into a ring, and that's what I've bought. I plumped for an Orbis, cheap as chips and the light it produces is fantastic. Only downside to that model is that if you want to be mobile and handhold it, and your camera, you need three hands. A bracket to mount it and the flashgun to the camera is definitely needed, and they're working on one. Til then, it's DIY time.

I've found personally, with the small amount of messing about I've done, that they work well with a bigger gap between ambient light and the output of the flash/ring.

Here's one from my tests this afternoon. You'll have to excuse me looking rough as a dog.

Thank you for that. It gives more of an idea.

Dave, Ive seen some "add-on" ring flashes (those that are simply a push-fit onto an existing flash head eg. 550, 580 etc) that, when mounted, appear to cover the AF assist panel on the front of the flash body.

Does yours do this - and does anyone else have any comments on whether this is the case?

Thanks

TJ

Doesn't come anywhere near the AF assist bit. In fact it sits quite high up, well above the pivot for the head to swivel up and down.