Warming and Cooling Screens for SLR Pop-Up Flash Diffuser - White, Yellow, and Blue

by Spirit

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B002QLEZ2A
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #9 in Camera & Photo > Accessories > Lighting > Lighting Controls & Modifiers > Diffusers
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 2, 2010

Product Description

Compatible with Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Kodak, Panasonic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware Canon EOS owners!, January 31, 2010

By 

G. Lombardo "Handy Guy" (Pleasantville, NY) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Warming and Cooling Screens for SLR Pop-Up Flash Diffuser - White, Yellow, and Blue (Electronics)

I have a Canon Rebel XT and this product did not work on my camera. Here's why: This pop-up diffuser bracket attaches to the hot shoe of the camera. The camera hot shoe is designed to mount a speedlight, so the hot shoe has a pressure sensor to let the camera knows when there's a speedlight attached (so the camera doesn't engage the pop-up flash). Unfortunately, when mounted properly, the design of this diffuser bracket trips the hot shoe sensor, thus preventing the pop-up flash from engaging, rendering the diffuser useless. I spoke to Canon tech support and they said all Canon EOS camera hot shoes work the same way. I didn't test the diffuser on other Canon EOS cameras because I only have one, but my conversation with Canon suggests that this diffuser won't work with ANY Canon EOS cameras.

At the same time I bought this one, I also bought the one listed as Prolite (actually,when it came, the box said Opteka, but that's another review). Anyway, when I saw the mount of the Opteka, it looked almost the same as this one, so I assumed that I'd have to send back the Opteka, too. But, much to my surprise, the Opteka diffuser bracket somehow did not trip the hot shoe sensor. Not sure how the designs are different, because I had already packed this one for return. Anyway, I've been using the Opteka without issue.

I DID try to see how this product diffused the flash by manually holding the diffuser screens near the camera pop-up flash, and the effect was modest when using the clear screen. Very subtle difference as compared to no diffuser. About what you'd expect from a $7 product. It actually did a less good job than the Opteka. I think the reason for the difference in diffusion is that this one is more "clear", and the Opteka is more of a "white."

The colored diffusers seemed to do what they were supposed to do, but I didn't imagine that I'd use those much. I thought the yellow and blue effects were sort of odd. But if you're looking for the color effect, you could be satisfied with this (if it works with your camera), which is why I gave the product 2 Stars instead of one. If you're a Canon owner and are buying this product mainly for the clear diffuser, you should assume a 1 Star rating.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works for what I bought it for., December 14, 2010

By 

K. Nefferdorf (Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Warming and Cooling Screens for SLR Pop-Up Flash Diffuser - White, Yellow, and Blue (Electronics)

Before I start let me say that I have the original (Gary Fong) version of this diffuser and it works pretty well. You don't actually notice all that much of a difference unless you're shooting in near darkness; then the difference is actually pretty dramatic. The reason I bought this one, though, was so that I could use the orange piece to balance the foreground and background lighting when shooting under incandescent light. For that, it works really, really well!
This diffuser's bracket, however doesn't really work with my camera (Olympus E520). It doesn't trip the hotshoe's sensor (making the camera think that a flash is attached) as others have stated; it does, however, block the pop-up flash from popping up all the way. To prevent this from happening, I have to pull the bracket waaaaaay back until it's barely attached to the camera at all. The Gary Fong unit's bracket doesn't have this problem; I can push it all the way forward and it doesn't block the pop-up flash from popping up.
HOWEVER! The diffuser pieces from this set DO fit on the bracket from the Gary Fong one. So, bottom line, if you already have the Gary Fong Puffer and are considering purchasing this set in order to get the colored filters...go for it. It works.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Does what it says, February 10, 2010

By 

Duncan Idaho "Gadget addict" (San Francisco, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Warming and Cooling Screens for SLR Pop-Up Flash Diffuser - White, Yellow, and Blue (Electronics)

I'm currently using this with a Nikon D90 and an Olympus E-Volt 510. The fit on the hotshoe is OK. It is easily adjustable and works enough to diffuse the flash for subjects up to 10ft away. It is also unobtrusive and remains on the camera/s I am using at the moment.

I have not tried the orange and blue screens as all I need this for is to diffuse the light output. I shoot in RAW so these screens are not of much use (I doubt thaey would be effective anyway).

While I would preffer using an external flash off-camera, this is just the solution if you have to use the built in flash and are at least hoping for a close to professional look.