Curious what the best route is to go for softboxes for my new Alienbees 1600. I am all for saving money, but most of the cheaper ones I see have the removable rods, whereas the official ones for PCB fold down like an umbrella (which is very nice since I will be using this mostly on location). Is there something else I should be looking at to consider?
In that price range I would look at PhotoFlex. They seem to be very popular and many high end professionals use them. I have the 35 PCB foldable octabox and no complaints so far. Grids were cheap for the PCB too.
You may try these. They are affordable (25 bucks for a 60x90 gridded box + adapter), and their quality is good. In comparison, I also have Elinchrom Rotalux soft boxes, and can't really see the difference between them. They both produce great results. The umbrella-like soft box is very convenient to setup, good for small home studio which does not have much space for storing soft boxes.
I think the buff softboxes are just about the sturdiest thing they offer. I hope they don't go looking for ways to make them 5 Dollars cheaper and send quality down the tubes.
I know for fact the lastolite ezyboxes work extremely well with all alienbees and the einstein. All you need to buy is the metal ring for it which is very cheap.
They are amongst the most durable and portable soft boxes you can find.
i bought one of the umbrella style octoboxes from cowboystudios on amazon. It may be the same one pictured above. I like it. Tried to order it from paul buff but they could get one in stock (back-ordered).
