Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe 24″ Testing

In case you hadn’t heard, check out my post here about one of my images being selected as the official 10 millionth image on Shutterstock. The kind folks at Shutterstock were generous enough to send me a little gift card to use at B&H photo. Approximately 5 minutes after receiving the card in the mail, I had a couple of goodies added to my cart and was ready to check out. It’s easy shopping with someone else’s money and I *always* have a little wish list in my head covering multiple price points should I ever find myself in a photography supply store with excess cash burning a hole in my pocket. With this little gift card, I was able to squeeze in two nifty photography gadgets that I’ve always wanted to check out: a Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe 24″ softbox, and a Gorillapod Focus.  I haven’t yet put the Gorillapod through its paces, but keep reading to hear my initial impressions of the Ezybox Hotshoe…

For those who may be wondering just what an Ezybox Hotshoe is, allow me to describe this mini marvel. A softbox is a diffuse light source that a photographer will normally attach to large and powerful studio strobe lights in order to produce beautiful soft light and gentle transitions to shadow areas. Most softboxes are both large and relatively clumsy to set up, with a number of metal rods that hold the box’s shape, and a strong metal mounting bracket to attach the studio strobe at the back. Wonderful tools, but not very handy or portable outside of the studio and also not particularly useful with smaller battery-powered ‘speedlight’ strobes that most photographers carry. Lastolite therefore aims to solve two problems with the Ezybox Hotshoe – it is very portable, light and quick to set up, and it also is one of the only softboxes on the market that is designed to be used with everyday speedlight strobes from Nikon (or even Canon, if that’s your system of choice).

The Ezybox Hotshoe comes in a remarkably tiny little 10″ canvas carrying pouch and upon removal from the pouch, expands almost instantly into a relatively large two-foot by two-foot square softbox. No metal rods here – this product is certainly a testament to the power of plastic. And don’t think that means cheap and flimsy either. It’s almost a miracle how the Ezybox folds over and twists into itself without breaking any of the underlying plastic frame, but it has clearly been engineered to do its job over and over again. You are also provided with two separate diffusion panels to insert into the softbox. Using two panels ensures that the harsh light from the relatively small speedlight flash will be spread out enough to evenly cover the complete 24″x24″ surface area. The panels tuck away conveniently when you are ready to fold the Ezybox back up. The last detail worth mentioning is the actual hotshoe flash mount. This mount is fully adjustable for both height and depth to ensure the strobe is ideally positioned at the back of the softbox. The big surprise here though, is that the mounting ring isn’t really “mounted” to the softbox using any typical clamps or screws. Plastic reigns supreme here again, as the sheer tension of the open softbox frame has been designed to hold tightly onto the face of the flat plastic mounting ring. While this is impressive engineering, it’s also clear that there will be a trade off here with some stability sacrificed in the name of light weight and set up speed. That being said, the mounting ring holds remarkably tight and refuses to twist or slip in my tests so far. I’m just not 100% confident that this mounting mechanism would hold up to hurricane-force winds outdoors.

Of course I had to test the Ezybox out on a couple of handy household props. I can’t wait to try this softbox out on a shoot with actual people, but so far I’m impressed with both the extreme portability and quality of the light. The bracket is intended to be mounted to a standard light stand, but the Ezybox was light enough that I could actually hand-hold the whole assembly. There’s nothing like being able to instantly reposition a large, soft light source as you’re working with your subject. I guess that pretty much sums up the intended purpose of the Ezybox, so I would say Lastolite has hit the nail on the head here with a great lightweight and ultra-portable softbox.

If you were patient enough to read all of that, here are two of my test subjects – enjoy!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.