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I just received my Lambency Flash Diffuser last week. Tried it last night and I am totally blown away by the results!
Lambency Flash Diffuser
The shots look so natural that you can hardly notice flash was used! I shoot in portrait mode, with flash pointing directly upward to the ceiling. Lambency is without the dome.
The results? I will post it later tonight. 🙂
Built?
Lambency is made of soft rubber material. It has translucent effect, allowing light to pass through it. Inside surface is textured, my guess is to allow better light transmission from inside to outside. Yes, did I mention that the material is soft? You can bend and crumpled it to your bag and there will be no crack on it. The rubber looks and feels soft and durable in hand. Quite thick and heavy. Yes, quite heavy. If you set your flash at 45 degree or 60 degree angle, a slight movement will have the head goes down again, due to the heavy weight of the Lambency.
Fitting?
I ordered one for my SB-800. I must say that my first thought when trying to fit the Lambency to the SB-800 is that my staff must have sent me a WRONG model! Width will fit onto the SB-800 nicely, but height doesn’t fit so well. It seems that the SB-800 is a bit too thick or the Lambency is a bit too small in height. My staff checked and confirmed with me that she did send me the right model for SB-800.
So, but using some brute force, I can fit Lambency to my SB-800. First try is difficult, subsequent tries make it easier and easier. I guess the rubber needs some exercise to get it soft and expand a bit. Yeah…I later brutally pull the Lambency in several directions and it seems to be able to slot onto the SB-800 easier (but still not so easy) now. On the plus side you can be sure that the Lambency will not drop off your flash even with a big knock here and there once you slot it in (tightly). (my SB-800 life might get shorten due to the frequent brute force applied onto it).
Copyright?
Lambency is apparently copy of Gary Fong Lightsphere, with some “improvements” made. Due to the general design of the diffuser, I am not sure if the product is patented or not, as Gary Fong seems not able to stop the China maker from fabricating and selling it all over the world! Yes, you can now find Lightsphere in USA, UK, Europe, Asia, etc.! If the product was indeed patented, Gary Fong would have made a fortune by just suing every single shop/company that sell Lambency. Just a wild guess…this might be the reason why Gary now turn to WhaleTail and promote whaletail as a better product than Lightsphere. WhaleTail seems to have more obvious design variant, easier to patent I guess… 😛
Last word…
Nevermind about the design or patent issue, if you haven’t got a Lightsphere or Lambency, go get one and your flash photography will never be the same again! 😉
Related reading:
yeah right, I goit one with lambency my flash photography its much better
I bought a Lambency Flash Diffuser from shashinki and it seems that it’s too loose for my SB600. It always drop from my flash. Please advice how to fix it.