Time’s running out to get Holiday gifts, so I thought I’d better share a few last minute gift ideas. Here’s a pretty cool one for the photographer on your list who already has an off camera flash (Like a Nikon SB-800 or a Canon 580 EX II). It’s Lastolite’s EZYbox, which is a collapsible softbox that does a really sweet job of softening and spreading the light (in fact, I’m using it on a location shoot tomorrow!).
The EZYbox comes with a flash mount bracket, and once you slide your flash onto its hotshoe, you put your flash through the hole in the back of the softbox (as shown above), and you’re ready to go. There are two things I dig about the EZYbox:
- It folds down really small, as seen in the example photos below, where I think Brad does just a stunning job of showcasing the fold-up process (Notice the graceful hand gestures).
- The light, while soft, doesn’t spread as much as it does with a shoot-through umbrella, giving you a more directed narrower beam (Brad was telling me that McNally loves these and uses them all the time, and if McNally’s uses ’em, that’s good enough for me).
First, it folds up flat, as seen here
Then in one move it collapses down like a reflector
Then it fits easily in this little blue bag
Anyway, below is a shot of the unit in use, but Brad is supporting the EZYbox using an optional telescoping handle.
The 24″x24″ EZBox sells for $189.00 on B&H Photo (here’s the link).The optional telescoping handle is $39.95 (here’s that link).
