Favorite gridded strip softbox for Elinchrom

I'm once again comparing the options here. The Elinchrom strip softbox options don't have grids that I know of. It looks like the ebay varieties work but aren't the best build quality, and I didn't find much about light quality. I'd like something that produces light on par with my Elinchrom deep octa and Photoflex medium octa to use for full-length portraits. I'm confused about the available options (with grids) and am wondering if people here have some favorites. Thanks!

check creative light and photoflex

sdipirro wrote in post #8793415
I'm once again comparing the options here. The Elinchrom strip softbox options don't have grids that I know of. It looks like the ebay varieties work but aren't the best build quality, and I didn't find much about light quality. I'd like something that produces light on par with my Elinchrom deep octa and Photoflex medium octa to use for full-length portraits. I'm confused about the available options (with grids) and am wondering if people here have some favorites. Thanks!

I see people using everything from cheap ebay strips that they've modified to Chimera Pro Plus. The Photoflex strips are nice but the largest they make is 55" long and while it could be used for full length it's not ideal and I'm sure it's not what you're looking for.
There really aren't many choices. I know Hermes uses modified Konova strips and likes them very much. Creative Light isn't making anything that large. Chimera is but the price is ungodly when you add in the price of the grid and barn doors. Nice stuff but pricey as all heck.

SOOOO, there aren't any really good options. That's why the ebay boxes are popular because for the $90 or $100 you pay you're getting the strip and the grid, even if the grid is flimsy and doesn't offer the tightest control.

Aurora makes a nice 16" x 72" strip. Aurora boxes are made in Korea and are distributed throughout North America by Booth Photographic in Canada. Vistek carries the big strip, priced at $300 CAD (no, not inexpensive but the boxes are seemingly quite well made). Now, here's the rub: fabric grids are availble for these boxes but not in the US and possibly not in Canada. I had emailed Aurora some months ago and asked about availability of grids. The response stated that, due to patent restrictions, grids for the Aurora boxes could not be sold in the US. It went on to suggest I contact Booth to find out if the grids could be purchased in Canada. No, it doesn't make sense to me either.

For your browsing pleasure:

http://www.alb.co.kr …eng/sub_softbox​_strip.htm

Dave F.

I just wish that more manufacturers would make the same size modifiers so that it would be easier to add grids from a third party. So far the only compatible sizes I've seen are between Chimera boxes and Photoflex grids.

Lightools of Canada has a US patent on interwoven fabic grids.

It looks like I wasn't missing something or going crazy when I looked into this. There really aren't many good options here. I'll look again at all the suggestions here. Thanks.

J Kacey wrote in post #8794225
Lightools of Canada has a US patent on interwoven fabic grids.

Ah! An answer to the Aurora mystery. Thanks, Jerry.

Do you have a link to LIghtools and the grids?

Does this mean that we can get grids for the Aurora modifiers?

Lighttools
They will make what ever size you want .....If you want to pay the price

Thanks Jerry. I didn't really look carefully to even see if they gave pricing but from your last post I take it that having custom grids made is an expensive thing. Has anyone done it to comment on quality and/or price?

Your welcome
All their grids are pricey......
Lighttools also makes Chimera eggcrate grids. There are prices are on the lighttools site

I use 2 ebay strips (maybe 14 x 65"?) that I got for $65-ish a piece. I passed on the grids, as they looked to be completely useless as they were way too shallow to have much of an effect. I've thought about forking over the money to have lighttools make some custom grids for me, given the money I saved by buying ebay boxes, but I haven't done so yet.

Cathpah wrote in post #8797609
I use 2 ebay strips (maybe 14 x 65"?) that I got for $65-ish a piece. I passed on the grids, as they looked to be completely useless as they were way too shallow to have much of an effect. I've thought about forking over the money to have lighttools make some custom grids for me, given the money I saved by buying ebay boxes, but I haven't done so yet.

Hi Jeff,

Please report back to us if you do decide to order grids from Lightools.

jeff I suggest you check prices (here) as well