REVIEW: ExpoImaging Ray Flash Ring Light Adapter

Johnny V wrote in post #7270150
Hard to believe that two little NDs can really improve it that much...but it did! Gone is the Mickey Mouse shadows on both sides and now it has a nice shadow all around the head.

Great Job!

Thanks Johnny. It certainly is incredible and considering the low cost and the fact that is doesn't reduce the efficiency of the light you would think that ExpoImaging would have corrected the problem.

Many thanks to Elliot for correctly assessing the problem.

Robert

What a great post and introduction to P.O.T.N. I've learned a great deal regarding the Ray Flash and how significantly it is improved by the addition of the NDs. The macro images are also quite nice. I look forward to reading about your further ventures with the Ray Flash.

Tony

HI Tony,

Welcome to POTN. There are some outstanding people here and a wealth of knowledge and information in this lighting forum.

Well, I received the Orbis this afternoon and I'm not very happy with it.

mchong75 wrote in post #7271252
Well, I received the Orbis this afternoon and I'm not very happy with it.

Care to elaborate Michael?

I'll go into more details tomorrow but it's very painful to use the Orbis adequately without a bracket.

By no means am I a small guy (Curl a 40LB single dumbbell). But, there's no way you can hold the Orbis/580EX II with a 50D, battery grip with an 85mm 1.8 glass. It was worse with the 135L.

No BS, not even longer than 10 minutes, my right wrist (camera & glass) was hurting so badly. You put so much strain on your wrist, I couldn't hold it any longer.

mchong75 wrote in post #7271358
I'll go into more details tomorrow but it's very painful to use the Orbis adequately without a bracket.

By no means am I a small guy (Curl a 40LB single dumbbell). But, there's no way you can hold the Orbis/580EX II with a 50D, battery grip with an 85mm 1.8 glass. It was worse with the 135L.

No BS, not even longer than 10 minutes, my right wrist (camera & glass) was hurting so badly. You put so much strain on your wrist, I couldn't hold it any longer.

That's what I was afraid of and I was thinking of making a DIY bracket, and had seen a few on flickr in the Orbis group but it was massive and left the flash without ETTL and the controls and display were not visible.

Did you by chance check output? How much light do you lose with this vs just the bare flash? I dont mean the mod but just the rayflash itself.

TMR Design wrote in post #7266366
Hi daytrip,

Welcome to POTN. I'll be posting the pic of my mod later. Very simple and this time I haven't done anything more complex than taping 2 pieces of ND gel to the front of the ring.

Thanks! Pretty cool mod there. I'm going to try this out on mine.

epatt250 wrote in post #7272597
Did you by chance check output? How much light do you lose with this vs just the bare flash? I dont mean the mod but just the rayflash itself.

I just took some readings. Now I think I see why ExpoImaging did not correct for the hot spots and how they can claim the 1 stop loss.

With the Ray Flash (no mod) you lose exactly 1 stop of light. With the mod, small as those pieces of ND gel are, the output drops down another .8 stop for a total of 1.8 stops. I think they would have trouble marketing and selling a product like this is they told people you'd lose almost 2 stops of light. For the Speedlight owner that is most likely using AA batteries this would be a disaster.

I'll be powering my flash with an Al Jacobs Black Box so I won't feel the loss of power with the mod.

SO if the ray flashe performs sililarly, and they admit it looses at least a 1/2-1 stop more than the Ray flash, it is loosing 2.5-3 stops with the modification

DerekW wrote in post #7275650
SO if the ray flashe performs sililarly, and they admit it looses at least a 1/2-1 stop more than the Ray flash, it is loosing 2.5-3 stops with the modification

what?

DerekW wrote in post #7275650
SO if the ray flashe performs sililarly, and they admit it looses at least a 1/2-1 stop more than the Ray flash, it is loosing 2.5-3 stops with the modification

Huh? I'm not sure I follow this at all.

I think he means the Saturn is 1/2 - 1 more than the ray.

Again light loss is not a problem unless you require a 100% discharge of the flash. It may be a 7 stop loss, but if you have the flash set to 1/16th the ettl, or you, have plenty of room to turn up the output to be what you need.

This is no different than a car company saying a car has 300hp. But the transmition takes 35 hp just to keep it turning. So the hp that reaches the road is actually only 265hp. And unless you need all 300 you will never miss it as there is room to compensate.

However as Robert proved, the even-ness of the light is more important.

Here's a shot from today's shoot with the Ray Flash. The skin tones are slightly off in this web optimized jpg.

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