Customer Reviews

Digital Concepts Ps-101 Portable Lighting Studio

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The light box construction is well done and executed.!

The two lamps provided are 20 watt units, and a bit weak for the purpose.
The lights can be upgraded to 35 watt or 50 watt halogens. You need 120 volt GU10 type replacements available at home center stores or here on Amazon. (Push in and twist 1/4 turn to remove the lamps)

If you do upgrade to the higher wattage lamps, use them only intermittently. Also unscrew and remove the front lamp retaining ring to allow increased airflow around the higher wattage lamps. After the lamps cool, replace the ring for secure storage of the lamps.

The tripod provided works OK, and supports my Lumix DMC-FZ7 without a problem.

Pros: Compact and complete, this portable lighting studio offers flexibility with it's reversible backdrop (gray/blue). I also have used the black back panel for some shots as well. Construction quality is good ( I found one of my cats sleeping on the top panel, which is fabric and held in place with Velcro tabs), sturdy enough for its intended purpose. I like the output of the lights--seems to be a broad spectrum similar to daylight.

Cons: Only one complaint: The output of the lights could be stronger. Requires a tripod to gain depth of field with a smaller aperture.

The light tent is very nice and it folds down into a carrying case. The lights however, are terribly underpowered. Even with the lights half an inch from the tent fabric, I was shooting at 1/20th of a second at f5.6, and at a macro setting the depth of field is very poor. These lights might work as fill if you use a much brighter one on top, but then you'd have to get one that matches the halogen bulbs/filters that these use.

Buy a tent seperately, and get some reflector lights and daylight bulbs at the hardware store. THis isn't worth the money.

The tent is decent and the portability is excellent. However, the lights are woefully underpowered and the bulbs create uneven color casts. The tripod is flimsy, frustrating, and almost useless, but this is the price of portability as well. I ended up buying clamp reflectors with 150 watt daylight bulbs at a local home builder's store. I also replaced the blue/black backdrop with a white one, and added the velcro strips to hold it in place. You can purchase better domes or tents from online photo retailers, but they are more expensive. Do a little research to discover your needs, and be sure to use the white-balance feature of your digital camera. At first this item looks like a good idea at a reasonable price, but its performance comes up short.

The concept is good, but the lights were a problem. They are not strong enough, and they get extremely hot. I fixed the problem very easily. First, I turned the lighting studio upside down, so the three white boards were like so: [_] Two sides of white board, and one white board on the bottom. Nothing on the top. Then I took a two bulb reptile light (heat lamp type light) for a ten gallon aquarium tank. I switched the reptile lights with 75 watt light bulbs. The reptile light is long, goes straight across, and sits atop a ten gallon tank. You simply rest the metal light right on top of this portable studio. It fits perfectly. Put your item right on the bottom so you have a white background, and you don't have to buy a white backdrop this way either (this only comes with a royal blue backdrop). I take jewelry pictures, and the pictures come out great using this method.

The portable studio is small and useful, the lights put out a decent amount of light and the box diffuses it nicely. Unfortunately within two months of owning it, and about 4 uses, one bulb dimmed and the other blew out taking the entire portable lighting unit with it.

Good and cheap in a pinch, but you might get what you pay for.

I would not suggest you buy this kit unless you only want the tent. One of the bulbs burned out within 2 minutes of my first time using and the second bulb burned out the next time I used it. In addition the lights are so flimsy that the weight of the cord pulls them down. In other words the lights are virtually worthless. I ended up buying another product called a litehouse and I am using it without artificial lighting and it works better than the "lighting studio" with lights. I gave this product 2 stars because the tent is not bad.

I am a jewelry wire wrap designer and craftsman and sell my work online, so good quality pictures are very important. Before I purchased the Digital Concepts Ps-101 Portable Lighting Studio my images were inconsistent because I used to depend on sunlight and other factors to get the quality I wanted. The portable Studio is perfect for my needs and can be used when I'm ready, often late at night. I can now take great, professional looking, pictures anytime. The bright lights are diffused through the sides or top, but maintain a luminous glow inside the studio and against a nice blue or grey background; unwanted shadows and hot spots are almost eliminated. The little camera tripod included with the studio does not support my semi-professional digital camera, which is very heavy. The threaded mounting socket is located on the bottom corner, so the tripod tips over and does not support my camera very well at all - it is not made for professional cameras. The halogen light fixtures are nice and bright and provide adequate illumination, but they do not telescope up and down, so in order to change the lighting angle they have to be placed on tall wooden cylinders or blocks. I use a small table to setup the studio which doesn't leave much room to place the lights around. While working I accidentally knocked one off the table and the light bulb blew out when it hit the carpeted floor - most disappointing because the bulbs are very expensive. Over all I am very pleased with my purchase - I get better quality, professional looking, pictures more consistently than I ever did before.

As a photographer interested in capturing product shots, I seriously looked into this product but previously held off due to the negative reviews posted. Fortunately, I got this as a gift over the holiday season, and my earlier hesitation proved to be unjustified. While I can understand the hesitation of those who feel that it's overpriced, I am very happy with this product and strongly recommend it.

THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES
I was originally considering buying the Sakar product since it was cheaper than alternatives, but while researching it I came across some Do-It-Yourself solutions online (you can Google "DIY macro photo studio") that I was hoping to pursue, but I got this as a gift before I was able to construct my own alternative. While I understand people's reluctance to shell out over 30 dollars for this product, many competing photo boxes I came across online were much more expensive.

BUILD QUALITY
This is a well-built product that easily folds up. I love how portable this is! It's also very light, so it easily stays put together with the Velcro straps. The Tripod was suitable for my point-and-shoot, but [understandably] too weak for my bulkier SLR camera. I'm very happy with the construction of this product.

LIGHTING
The lighting is good, but could be better. I don't think it's as bad as some of the negative reviews made it out to be, but at 20 watts these bulbs don't generate enough light for a perfect picture. While a serious photographer might find this to be a problem, for most people the pictures should probably come out good enough. Just a note, the lights get really hot, so you might want to wait a little before you put it back into the carrying case. You probably could go to a hardware store and get replacements as some have suggested, although I haven't done this myself.

PHOTO QUALITY
I have uploaded several images to the gallery so you can get a better feel for the product (please vote!). For the most part I am pleased with the images, but they are not perfect. The creases in the fabric backdrop show, the lighting is a bit warm and inaccurate, but still, it's better than nothing. The fact that the backdrop is reversible (different colors on either side) comes in handy, and gives you more flexibility depending on what you're shooting.

BOTTOM LINE
This is not cheap, but it's also not as expensive as some of the competing photo boxes. Its portability is incredibly useful, but the lights that come with the unit are a bit weak for serious photographers. I do think that this is better than nothing, so while I received this as a gift, if I had to buy one myself I think it is worth getting. For those who are reluctant to spend the money, you can find easy DIY alternatives on the web.

I will give it this much, it sets up and takes down well so it won't take much room in my closet, but as for the whole studio in a box idea, it needs work. First off I am trying to take pics in a small area that is why I bought it, but if you use everything like they say be prepared to clear a half a room. It seems the so called lights shouldn't need to be so close to give light otherwise your fighting that harsh shadow effect I don't want in my pics. Plus the box is so small to begin with only can use it to take pics of my dolls sitting. If I want them standing then I need to get a bigger box as this one I had hoped would be tall at least one way. If your doing pics of small stuff and I do mean small like a CD, DVD Book then you will get great use from this. But if you want to go bigger then set up a rectangle table on a blank wall and use the lights to get the room brighter and use the tripod to take pics at end of the table and set up other end for the subject of pic. Like I said if your selling on ebay or even your own website and it's small stuff this will do a good job to block out distractions and give you a clean and crisp background. But if it's bigger then the latest Harry Potter book, look for a bigger one.