Customer Reviews

HonlPhoto 8" Regular Speed Snoot for most On-Camera Shoe-Mount Strobes

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're into lighting at all, this is definitely a useful tool. While I love DIY stuff, and had a DIY snoot for a while, I love the quality, durability, ease of use and professional look of Honl products, including this snoot.

While some have criticized the cost of David Honl's products, I find his prices more than fair when compared with the quality of the products. Along with this, I've purchased the speed strap and a flag/barn door, and am actually waiting for delivery on some Honl Grid attachments that I just ordered from Adorama. I plan to buy even more of his products in the future.

Simple as that. It needs more "Velcro". It's also not as obedient to my wishes as what I thought I was paying for. The layers of fabric and stitching make it resistant to rolling into a nice neat tube.

I'm keeping it because it does the job, and looks professional when I get it out, but it feels more like an intermediate prototype which was rushed to market rather than a well designed and field tested product.

I use this mostly as a flash reflector, not a snoot. The Honl ads show and discuss it being used this way. It works well, and the photos often turn out awesome. I use it for a lot of close-in portraits, and using a large and asymmetric reflector like this adds a lot of great shadows to faces. It's very moldable, so you can make off-axis light sources very easily with it.

But I've got a gripe with it, which is that it does a lousy job of staying in place. The fabric is thick but still pretty floppy, and for many of my shots, it's fallen over (from vertical), or collapsed on itself. I think it could really use to be made of stiffer fabric, and/or have more stiffening around the edges. There is some, but not much. Also, more velcro around the edges would help it stay rigidly on the flash better. As it is, there's just a few points of contact of velcro, and that adds to its floppiness. I've beefed it up with more velcro myself (a bunch of dots of the self-adhesive stuff) but for $30, they should make it right.

Another minor issue: I think the interior should be made of white fabric, not the silver/grey that it is. All the grey does is absorb light, and the purpose of a reflector is to reflect it. A lighter color would allow for more shots on a charge of the batteries.

(copy of my review of the 5" snoot from Honl)

The title says it all - these doodads are durable and easy to use. Yeah, they're $20, and that will buy a lot of duct tape to skin the cardboard for a home made job, but I save the home made stuff for custom shapes: this (and the 5") are great tools, always in the bag, and in constant use.

Highly recommended.

When using as a reflector, it can produce some nice soft lighting when used up close. However, the material is too flimsy and floppy to reliably stay in place. The top half will often double over during a shoot. I've lost some good shots thanks to the flimsiness. It definitely needs more velcro and a stiffer material. When used as a snoot, I don't like the reflective surface, so I usually turn it inside out where the dark side is on the inside. The price is ridiculous for a bit of fabric, especially when you consider that you will also have to pay $10 for the Honl speed strap. That's $40, and it's simply not worth it.

Instead of the Honl, I can recommend the Rogue Flashbender, which has much stiffer material and has a snug fit to the flash.

I love this product. This is one of the most flexible and versatile attachments I have ever used on a flash. Although the main picture shows this used as a snoot, it also works great as a bounce flash reflector.

Construction is top notch, the exterior is black woven vinyl (the same type of material used for camera cases), the interior is a silver gray rip stop nylon. In the simplest sense, this is just a rectangle of material with stiff piping around the edge and Velcro. The simplicity is what makes this such genius.

A speed strap is required to attach this to a flash (HonlPhoto Speed Strap for Shoe Mount Flashes). In theory it's possible to attach gummy Velcro to the flash head, on an inexpensive flash that might be a good idea. But for expensive flashes, this is a poor place to save money.

This is a fabulous device in snoot mode. The Velcro bands are in exactly the right place to allow different size rolling and tightness. Turned around and attached to the head as shown in the product picture, this makes a much better bounce reflector than the LumiQuest line. For about the same price, the Honl device is much more versatile.

Snoots are a wonderful tool for flash photography; they help direct light exactly where it is needed. A snoot is most useful with the flash off camera and in manual mode.

This is a great addition to my tool kit of flash accessories.

Nice portable snoot that works well with the speed strap. I wish that is worked better with the honl grid because sometimes your really want to use both. Some velcro on the end of the speed snoot would do the trick. I use a speed strap on the end of the snoot but that does not give you much grip.

I have just received this snoot -- it works well at diverting the light and making it much softer on my subjects!

This product has exceeded my expectations. If you are like me that didn't know if you should get this one or the smaller unit, go for this one. A lot more control over your light and it will also act as a bigger diffuser (softer light).

This is a high quality product that does what it is supposed to do. No reservations in recommending this item. It does require the purchase of their strap to make best use. Money well spent