Flashpoint SoftBox, 70watt Fluorescent Light Unit with Built in 19.5" x 27.5" Silver Soft Box, with AC Plug and Spiral Fluorescent 5500K Bulb (translates into 350watt)

by Flashpoint

Product Details

• Item Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B0002I6Z8G
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003

Product Description

This 20" x 27" softbox is easy to assemble, just snap the hardware into place. No rods to struggle with, no speed rings to align with the rods. The unit comes with an 70 watt flicker-free fluorescent, spiral bulb, rated at 5500 degrees Kelvin; that is, it is daylight balanced. 70 watts in fluorescents translates into 350 watts of light output. This long lasting "cool" light emits very little heat and can stay on all day long without a problem. The Flashpoint unit can be used with Digital Cameras or Camcorders and is great for shooting portraits, or still life. And, when you're done (after removing the bulb) the unit folds together easily like an umbrella

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This works!, April 1, 2010

By 

M. Middleton "Man in the Maze" (New Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flashpoint SoftBox, 70watt Fluorescent Light Unit with Built in 19.5" x 27.5" Silver Soft Box, with AC Plug and Spiral Fluorescent 5500K Bulb (translates into 350watt) (Electronics)

I bought two of these for some indoor shots on a real estate listing, so I could get enough light inside that the view out the windows wasn't blown out. I'm shooting video AND stills, and they need to balance - so it's got to be continuous lighting. My bulbs didn't flicker at all - no problem there. Simple but effective design - easier to spread the box and make adjustments than a higher priced set (3200K) I bought on ebay. Only slight drawback - they're not as TIGHT as you might like - the wrinkly appearance in the photo is accurate. I'm going to iron the white rectangles on the front and give 'em a light bit of starch. Other than that, good to go. I'm buying two more - I need more light, but I don't think I need more INTENSITY, just more softboxes. Happy camper.

3.0 out of 5 stars In a tight budjet it gets the job done, kinda, March 26, 2010

By 

David Todd (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flashpoint SoftBox, 70watt Fluorescent Light Unit with Built in 19.5" x 27.5" Silver Soft Box, with AC Plug and Spiral Fluorescent 5500K Bulb (translates into 350watt) (Electronics)

*first review*
For the low price specified, I made a mistake by expecting a very sturdy, robust unit. As a student I needed something to help photograph still lives and this is useful for that purpose.

The reason I feel that it may be less useful for something like portraiture is that the bulb I have flickers a bit like a flashing strobe light, except much less appealing. The flickering changes both the intensity of the light and the lights color. This confuses the hell out of metering and auto white balance. This becomes apparent in 40% of images with shutter speeds faster that say 1/60. Too many great shots have been hurt [even if slightly] by underexposure and or an obvious green or purple cast. In longer exposure aka still life, this never happens since the lights colors seems to neutralize themselves.

NOW, those two main flaws could be result of a bad bulb, bad connection, or some voltage thing in my dorm. I'm not sure which it may be.

short version: The flickering flaws aren't so great to me that I want to return it, I still find it useful for still life and non-photography use, BUT if you do have the resources to wait and spend more money on something better, you're far less likely to have these problems