Umbrellas that fit Elinchrom Lights

Who all makes umbrellas that fit Elinchrom lights. Apparently they take a 7mm shaft, I have an 8mm shaft on my 46" Softlighter II ( I had one with the they said was 7mm and it was too loose). My lights are BX400's.

Of course Elinchrom makes umbrellas up to 41" but I'm mostly interested in something around 60".

White reflective (soft not shiny) with black backing. This makes for a quick and easy soft fill like bouncing off a ceiling when doing table top phogotraphy, for me this is more efficient than using softboxes for the fill.

Are there any other companies that make umbrellas that fit the Elinchrom lights?

TMR Design and a few others have said that this 60" Softlighter II comes with an extension rod that is actually the perfect fit for Elinchrom lights. LINK

Yeah that's the one I bought in the 7mm and it slipped, my store didn't have the 8mm like on my 46" softlighter so I couldn't try it. Apparently softlighter knows about this since they apparently made the two sizes but that it doesn't seem to work out on some lights. I don't know if anything has been changed in the last year or not.

I thought of buying just whatever it came with (some websites don't even post which shaft it is) and then swapping with the one on my 46" whenever I need the 60". Generally I use umbrellas a lot with table top, not as my key cause that's usually a softbox but for some reason I really like usign umbrellas for the fill. I do a lot of white background stuff that ends up on Amazon type places and umbrellas make it easy to get in the ballpark. The artist I know just cuts it out in photoshop but I like to give them the cleanest and closest image as possible without spending undue time on them.

Yea that was the other point those guys made, dont buy the 7mm one, get the 8mm one with the extension rod and that one fit perfect. Go figure.

All the Softlighter's have the 8mm extension. The difference between the 36", 46" and 60" is that the 36" comes with or without the silver and gold discs, the 46" comes with the discs and the 60" doesn't come with them and it's not an option.

I do love the soft light produced by the Softlighter but I particularly like the 46" with the silver disc. That's my favorite quality of light from the Softlighter.

There's Interfit:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

tetrode wrote in post #10289941
If you're feeling even slightly handy, I'll mention that it's particularly easy to modify the shaft of a Photogenic Eclipse umbrella (I really like those). Just cut the shaft down and insert a length of 7mm rod (available from smallparts.com).

I remember reading your original post on the mod. I checked out smallparts.com. To verify, is this the rod you used:

Stainless Steel 303 Round Rod, Precision Centerless Ground, Precision, ASTM-A582, 7mm OD, 36" Length


I'm thinking you would need one rod per umbrella.

cortes wrote in post #10292414
I remember reading your original post on the mod. I checked out smallparts.com. To verify, is this the rod you used:

Stainless Steel 303 Round Rod, Precision Centerless Ground, Precision, ASTM-A582, 7mm OD, 36" Length


I'm thinking you would need one rod per umbrella.

Yes, that's the rod I used but you can mod 2 or 3 umbrellas with a 36" length. Only an inch-and-a-half or so needs to be inserted into the larger shaft and only 10 or 12 inches is required to feed into the Elinchrom tube as I recall.

One of the nice things about the Photogenic umbrellas is that their shafts are large enough in diameter to accept the 7mm rod with no problem. That definitely is not the case with all umbrellas. Be forewarned and avoid frustration. Before cutting any umbrella's shaft, remove the end plug and make certain the 7mm rod will fit.

I had to use 1/4" rod to mod a nifty Lastolite sunfire/silver reversible umbrella:

That's cool Dave, all of this is good information.

jannie, just keep waiting for the plm.

c2thew wrote in post #10295973
jannie, just keep waiting for the plm.

I would tend to agree with that Jannie.

In the world of umbrellas I think you've seen what's out there and give or take small changes in quality of light you're explored large, small, white, silver, pebbled silver, bounce, shoot through, umbrella softbox and every variation that exists.

The PLM, on the other hand, is different from other umbrellas and I too am very curious to see how it performs and to see the quality of light first hand. Based on the samples I've seen so far there hasn't been anything that wow'ed me. I suspect that I won't really know if I like it or not until I own one.

Hopefully the Elinchrom (7mm) version will be out soon and I sure hope that PCB doesn't use the same vendor for the 7mm shaft as Photogenic.

Jannie wrote in post #10288542
Who all makes umbrellas that fit Elinchrom lights. Apparently they take a 7mm shaft, I have an 8mm shaft on my 46" Softlighter II ( I had one with the they said was 7mm and it was too loose). My lights are BX400's.

Of course Elinchrom makes umbrellas up to 41" but I'm mostly interested in something around 60".

White reflective (soft not shiny) with black backing. This makes for a quick and easy soft fill like bouncing off a ceiling when doing table top phogotraphy, for me this is more efficient than using softboxes for the fill.

Are there any other companies that make umbrellas that fit the Elinchrom lights?

Interfit does but the biggest size is 43 inches http://www.amazon.com …fit+umbrella+7m​m+&x=0&y=0 Edit Dave beat me to it!

Yea if I wanted onyl 43" id go with the Elinchrom ones...

I think we are all cautiously awaiting the new PLM.....

mumbles wrote in post #10297290
I think we are all cautiously awaiting the new PLM.....

Definitely appears that way.