GamiLight BOX 21 (
best flash diffuser
rating: 8.60) is a new portable softbox from Gami Light Concepts, a
Malaysian manufacturer of hot shoe flash accessories. With its size of
8.5"x6" (21.5cm x 15.5 cm),
BOX 21 is suited for on- and off-camera flash photography applications. It is built after its big brother,
SQUARE 43,
using the same high quality materials. Both diffusers share the same
design principles including detachable front screen, silver lining, snap
system, and being able to fold flat.
BOX 21 folds flat, and it is easy to fit in your gear bag. It
actually has few snap buttons inside to ensure that it stays flat when
folded.
Assembling
BOX 21 is fairly simple: stretch the mount over
your flash head, snap the softbox body to it, and pull the front
diffusing screen over the front of the body. Some people may find that
inserting the body into the front screen first and then snapping the
softbox to the mount works better for them. Whichever way you pick, it
takes just a few seconds to get the diffuser ready to use.
The silver lining of
GamiLight BOX 21 plays an important part
in light efficiency of this diffuser. The internals of the softbox are
high-reflective, so the light loss is minimal, which prolongs the life
of your flash batteries and shortens the recycling time.
It may be worth noting that many competing products on the market
consist of two pieces, while this diffuser consists of three (softbox
body, front diffusing screen, and mount). We generally prefer designs
with as small amount of parts as possible, so there is less things to
worry about. In this case, however, we believe it is a very minor issue.
Like with any shoot-through diffuser, we recommend to set you flash
to manual zoom, so changing of the zoom lens does not affect the flash.
While our recommendation for
BOX 21 is to use the built-in
wide-angle panel of your flash (14mm frame coverage in case of Canon
580EX II), our tests show that using the widest position of the flash
renders almost equal results (24mm, for example). The important thing is
to avoid longer end flash zoom values. The images below show the light
distribution at 14mm (left) and 105mm (right) flash zoom value.
The following images show
GamiLight BOX 21 with several competing products side-by-side for size comparison. In the left picture, you can see
BOX 21 (top left),
LumiQuest Softbox III (top right), and
Promaster Universal Softbox (bottom). In the right shot, there is
BOX 21 (top left),
Aurora MINI/MAX MAS Softbox (top right), and
LumiQuest Softbox (bottom).
The size of
GamiLight BOX 21 makes it work well for on-camera
applications like, for example, event photography, especially when there
is nothing to bounce off of. When used off camera, the diffuser is
capable of producing very pleasing results in close range portraiture,
as well as tabletop and macro projects. The two images below are
examples of portrait and product photography. In the left image,
BOX 21
was positioned about 2 feet from the subject, whereas in the right one,
the diffuser was places about 1 feet away from the subject.
To conclude,
GamiLight BOX 21 is a professional grade flash
diffuser suited for a wide range of applications, from macro work to
portrait and event photography. Like many other softboxes, it delivers
most even light when the flash zoom is set to a wide angle position. The
silver lining helps you use the flash batteries more efficiently.
BOX 21 is well worth consideration if you are shopping for a small portable softbox for your flash gun.
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