Probably a 5th grade quetion - GRID and DEGREE

[MohaimenK]

There are lots of you out there that make DIY grids. What is the difference between a 30 to a 20 degree grid? I mean physically. Is the wider beam grid much shorter than the narrower grid??

 

[Big Mike]

It would make sense that the longer your 'straws', the tighter your beam. But the size of the holes is probably the most important factor.

Just look at any set of real grids...they are basically the same thickness...but the smaller spot/angle grids have smaller 'holes'.

 

[MohaimenK]

Thanks Mike! Yeah for my strobes I was thinking of getting the actual grid. For my speedlites I have some straws witting here that I wanted to use from work because nobody uses them ever and they're just sitting here, probably have like 1k left. We also have couple thousand cofee stirs here which I am the only one who uses it at work. They're a/4 of the size of an average straw which I was going to use.

But then after my first post I found a link for DIY where ther mentioned the larger the straw the narrower the beam, for those that are on real budget.

 

[Derrel]

Well, the 30 degree grid has a wider spread of the light than a 20 degree grid, and a 10 degree has an even-narrower, more limited spread of light.

 

[MohaimenK]

Well, the 30 degree grid has a wider spread of the light than a 20 degree grid, and a 10 degree has an even-narrower, more limited spread of light.

Well yeah I know that. But Mike nailed it about the length of the straws. That's what I was trying to figure out but then I found another sources that also said the length of the straw makes a difference: 1/2 vs 3/4 vs 1 inch