Gary Fong's Lightsphere(any good?)

Happy Hour · Dec 20, 2007

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* · Dec 20, 2007

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 · Dec 20, 2007

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 · Dec 20, 2007

At least check your link.

http://abetterbouncecard.com/

-S

Big Mike · Dec 20, 2007

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 · Dec 20, 2007

Ls3D said:
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 · Dec 20, 2007

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 · Dec 20, 2007

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

Sideburns · Dec 20, 2007

JerryPH said:
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 · Dec 20, 2007

Sideburns said:
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 · Dec 20, 2007

Happy Hour said:
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 · Dec 20, 2007

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

Sideburns · Dec 20, 2007

JIP said:
If you search you will find that this has been discussed.

good addition, my man!

/*sarcasm*/

Happy Hour · Dec 20, 2007

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 · Dec 24, 2007

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