More Cool Toys

Here is some cool gear that will allow you to make more and possibly better use of those all to scary speedlites. These devices from Honlphoto (Honl is the guys name) go on you speedlite in a flash (take the pun however you want). There is a strip that has a rubber no slip material on one side and a bunch of Velcro on the rest of it. This strip wraps around your speedlite and allows you t attach the devices via Velcro.

In the photo above the first image is the speedlite with the strap attached, BTW there is no sticky stuff here so don't worry. The second image is an 8" snoot that wraps around the attachment strip and Velcro's together to make the round snoot. What is neat about this is that it can be stored flat. I have a Pelican Case that stores my two 580 EX II's and the transmitter, and now the Honl stuff goes on top.

Anyhow, the third image is calls a grid. The one I picked up is the 1/4" grid. It has a couple of straps that attache it to the strap on the speedlite. It goes on really really quick. It is a little bulkier that the snoot but I think it gives a little better and more consistent performance than the snoot.

The above three images are a test I made with the Honl light modifiers. There were all shot with an EF 50 mm f1.4 USM lens at about eight feet from the wall. I manually focused as it was sending the AF up a tree with nothing to grab onto. Each had the flash go off and was set at 1/250 exposure with a f/2.8 aperture. The first image is the straight flash, the second had the snoot, and the third was the 1/4" grid.

All in all each of the modifiers has there strengths. I think the snoot can be closed down some. It all depends on how you bring the Velcro together. The grid though is just flat cool looking.

Take care... Doug