Gary Fong's Lightsphere(any good?)

[Happy Hour]

Can anyone tell me if Gary Fong's lightsphere is Any good? Is it worth the extra $$? Anybody have any personal experience with it? Is there a difference between his and others?

 

[*aly*]

Ive shot a few weddings and some portraits with it. I think its absolutely amazing. And when you use it, you don't need a flash bracket. Unfortunatly your kinda suckered into getting both. The clear one is good for wide group shots or something similar. ( ie. the whole wedding party in the church gathered together) And the clouded one is good for one on one portraiture, or even just a soft around the edges type look. Very nice effect.

Goodluck!

 

[JerryPH]

This has come up at least 3 times in the short time that I have been here.

They work, but...

They disperse light in places or directions that you may not find desireable.

They cause the flash to increase in power draining batteries faster.

They are overpriced for what they do.

Solution: www.abetterboucecard.com for about 1/10th the price, they outperform the spere.

 

[Ls3D]

At least check your link.

http://abetterbouncecard.com/

-S

 

[Big Mike]

The 'Fongsphere' is good when there are walls and ceilings to bounce the light off of. However, if there isn't anything to bounce the light off of...there is a lot of wasted light which makes the flash work harder, which means longer recycle times and shorter battery life.

The one advantage that I do like about the Sphere is that works pretty much the same, whether the camera/flash is vertical or horizontal...so you can get away without using a flash bracket.

A simple bounce card is a great accessory that gives great results but it's a pain when you turn the camera 90 degrees.

 

[JerryPH]

At least check your link.

http://abetterbouncecard.com/

-S

There was no reason to think it would not work as the domain is the same. The only difference is that someone "borrowed" his "WWW" canonical name and rerouted it to some search engine and spam/popup purposes. This is a recent event, and if you even listen to his videos, he uses "www.abetterboucecard.com" ... and this address was working as far as the last time I visited there (maybe 2 weeks?).

The admin who controls this domain should be tapped on the shoulder to learn a little bit about how DNS works. Normally a good admin will automatically "reserve" both the straight name and the WWW to point to the same location.

Others (like myself for my domain) use it to point to different sites but still managed by the same person. I had my "WWW" point to my profesional site and previously had the straight domain name without the "WWW" point to my car site.

Not very ethical of someone to do, IMHO.

Thanks for posting a proper functional link.

 

[Ls3D]

Not very ethical of someone to do, IMHO.

Agreed, IMNSHO. FYI - I heard on the news last week there is some legislation being drafted or some litigation regarding these types of sites and those with nearly similar names. I've fell for it a fell times.

-Shea

 

[JerryPH]

Happens to me all the time, becuase I am known as the king of typos... lol.

 

[Sideburns]

There was no reason to think it would not work as the domain is the same. The only difference is that someone "borrowed" his "WWW" canonical name and rerouted it to some search engine and spam/popup purposes. This is a recent event, and if you even listen to his videos, he uses "www.abetterboucecard.com" ... and this address was working as far as the last time I visited there (maybe 2 weeks?).

The admin who controls this domain should be tapped on the shoulder to learn a little bit about how DNS works. Normally a good admin will automatically "reserve" both the straight name and the WWW to point to the same location.

Others (like myself for my domain) use it to point to different sites but still managed by the same person. I had my "WWW" point to my profesional site and previously had the straight domain name without the "WWW" point to my car site.

Not very ethical of someone to do, IMHO.

Thanks for posting a proper functional link.

that's not an issue of adding www.
That's an issue of the fact that you spelled bounce wrong.

 

[Happy Hour]

that's not an issue of adding www.
That's an issue of the fact that you spelled bounce wrong.

LOL!!! All that arguing and it was over spelling. LMAO ummm.... Spell check anyone?

 

[Sideburns]

LOL!!! All that arguing and it was over spelling. LMAO ummm.... Spell check anyone?

well it just made me laugh when he was explaining the whole www thing.
Your browser usually adds www itself anyways...as well as the fact that the only reason his link didn't work was he put bouce instead of bounce.

I just tried both with www and without...and they worked. I knew they would, but I was curious why he had a huge explanation for that...lol

 

[JIP]

If you search you will find that this has been discussed.

 

[Sideburns]

If you search you will find that this has been discussed.

good addition, my man!

/*sarcasm*/

 

[Happy Hour]

I decided to buy it. I know you can make your own , but I'd rather spend a mere $50 than walk around with a soup cup taped on my camera.Thanks for all the comments everyone!:thumbup:

 

[Happy Hour]

Update! Well I received my light sphere this morning! All I have to say is "A better bounce card" <- NOT EVEN CLOSE! The results are stunning! Every single picture I've taken today will no doubt be blown up to a 8 x 10 and hung on the wall.:thumbup::thumbup: it even makes a difference outside in daylight. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants great portraits