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Archive 2012 · Mola BD

  
 
danlona
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Mola BD


Are these Mola Beauty dish worth the price? anybody have any experience with it? is it a big difference in image quality compare to a regular BD?, thanks in advance.

Danny



Dec 01, 2012 at 03:08 AM
Waki
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Mola BD


I can't answer how the Mola Demi stacks up against other reflectors, the Mola was my first dish. I went back and forth in deciding too and I happened to come into the cash and splurged. I love the dish though. It's my favorite modifier right now especially with a grid. Using it wih the cloth diffuser really softens it up too.
The mola is well made, the way the light just falls off is dramatic. I'm looking for a silver BD now and will probably go with a Profoto just to see the differences but it's still a tough choice since Mola has the newer brighter silver too. I use a Kacey BD case for my Mola and it fits. Room for the cloth diffuser in a pocket and grid compartment too. The Kacey dish is a lot like the Mola, not metal though which makes it lighter on a boom. I prefer the BD on a boom too. The Kacey is cheaper and he (Jerry i believe) will supply any mount you want on the back. That might be an option for you.....but I don't know the Mola is just so good. Expensive but good.



Dec 01, 2012 at 08:39 AM
s14brent
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Mola BD


its not going to improve your image quality per se, but your light quality primarily. you can have great light and shitty iq, due to photographer error, equipment failure, etc.




Dec 01, 2012 at 09:23 PM
Sheldon N
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Mola BD


I've got the Mola Demi, it's quite nice. I like the light it makes and it's well built. I bought it used so the price wasn't exorbitant.

I would venture to guess that most people wouldn't be able to tell apart the light from different beauty dishes in a blind test.

That said, I still like mine.



Dec 02, 2012 at 11:16 AM
danlona
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Mola BD


Thank you all for the respond, yes you're right on a blind test we wont be able to tell and i'm using right now the Buff's 22" BD with the Einstein and I'm happy with the quality of the light coming out.I have been seeing a lot of images taken with the Mola and I'm thinking maybe I'm missing something here...lol

Danny



Dec 02, 2012 at 12:24 PM
400d
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Mola BD


A lot of his earlier work were done by the Mola dishes of different size. I have a 33.5" Euro, I do think it's worth the price, there aren't that many options out there for oversized beauty dish. They are decently made, and require delicate care while transporting. What's nice about the dish is that you get a perfectly circular reflector in the field in no time, it does require some heavy sandbags to use in the field; my Euro almost got knocked over in relatively calm weather. It's better to get a used one, a lot better value to me.


Dec 06, 2012 at 11:18 PM
Hendrik
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Mola BD


I have the Mola Demi, because the larger ones were too expensive. I like the quality, but can't compare them to other brands. After reading many, many posts about these dishes, I went for it and bought the Demi with white coating.


Dec 11, 2012 at 03:59 AM
Jamesbjenkins
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Mola BD


IMO, The Mola is made for people that like to think they paid a lot more for the "best" stuff.

It's like buying a $100k german lux auto versus a Lexus at less than half the price. In the end, they're both perfectly capable of doing their job, but one may be a tiny bit better in ways that probably don't matter.



Dec 11, 2012 at 09:50 AM
ozpall
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Mola BD


I'll be selling my mola demi, haven't really had time to test it. Pm if interested.


Dec 12, 2012 at 12:35 AM
James10013
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Mola BD


Jamesbjenkins wrote:
IMO, The Mola is made for people that like to think they paid a lot more for the "best" stuff.

It's like buying a $100k german lux auto versus a Lexus at less than half the price. In the end, they're both perfectly capable of doing their job, but one may be a tiny bit better in ways that probably don't matter.


Interesting perspective as the Mola Demi (which comes with the diffusion sock and is probably the most popular of their dishes) even with an adapter is priced less than a 20 inch Profoto or Broncolor beauty dishes. The grids for the Demi are half the price of the grid for the Profoto dish. Without the adapter, the Demi is about the same price as the Elinchrom 27 inch Maxisoft.

There are some benefits to the Mola dishes: 1) Since the dishes do not have a dedicated mount, they can be used with any brand of strobes with the installation of the appropriate adapter, which means you can change strobe brands without having to buy a new dish. I have used my Mola dishes with three different brands of strobes over the past 10 years. 2) The stepped interior actually provides greater surface area so that there is greater output out of the Mola (imho) than a comparably sized smooth beauty dish. 3) The interior coating of the "white " Mola dishes is not a stark white but is slightly warm which imo helps to enhance skin tones.
4) If you want a BD larger than 27 inches, Mola is the only option.



Dec 19, 2012 at 05:20 AM
Marcin Harla
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Mola BD


I own several dishes, one of them is Mola Euro. I also tried Demi. While Euro and Setti have their place due to size and shape, Demi was nothing special.

Speedotron has similar dish and it costs less than 50% of what Demi goes for. You can also get a grid for Speedotron for under $150. In fact I have that combo and it's awesome - I recommend it over the Mola.

At the moment my favorite dish is the Profoto Silver. The silver coating is the reason I like it so much. I could get any other brand and probably be just as happy, but at the time Profoto was the only one available in the size with silver coating that fit my lights.


I'll throw another thing at you. Since you own a BD, and maybe want to add another one consider Elinchrom Deep Octa instead.
It isn't the same as the BD, but similar results can be obtained. If you shoot on location Deep Octa is so much easier to carry around (I hated dragging Mola Euro with me). Euro is collecting dust, I used it only handful of times since getting the Eli DO.
Deep Octa 39" is one of my favorite modifiers for location work. You could also try their 27" version, which I have no experience with so I won't recommend it.

I'd really like to try Setti in silver. I'd most likely love it, but it's too bulky to take outside of a studio.

If you are looking to get Mola Demi because you think it will blow you away in terms of image quality you'll be disappointed. It's good, but so are the other dishes.



Dec 19, 2012 at 11:18 AM
jzucker
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Mola BD


i love the kacey. I bet nobody could pick out a mola vs a kacey in a test. Plus the kacey is extremely light and portable. No worries up on a boom .


Dec 19, 2012 at 04:19 PM
jdear
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Mola BD


Love the Mola softlights.

I have had in the past the white 43.5" Mantti and the silver 28" Setti. I now have the white 22" Demi, the polished silver 33" Beamm and a 16" rayo on order.

For what I shoot, I don't find myself needing anything else. I can use them soft and subte for a hint of fill, use them with a grid for a harder light output or I can turn up the flash power and overpower the ambient but still get that gorgeous BD light falloff.

FWIW, I shoot mostly outdoors with these and I dont find them too big or unwieldy with an assistant.



Dec 31, 2012 at 10:13 PM
Rob573
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Mola BD


I am not seeing a way to do this but I need to leave great feedback to ozpall. I saw in this thread that he was selling his Kola Demi Beauty Dish and contacted him via PM. We immediately worked out a price. I paid and within 2 days Oscar (ozpall) sent the Mo;a to me in pristine condition and even included several extra items.
ozpall was a perfect member to deal with. Honest, great communication, fast shipping and a very fair price. He is a prime example of why I love doing business with the members of the FM community.



Jan 10, 2013 at 04:30 PM
stuuke
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Mola BD


I'm excited to try the new Sollo. The wind is a big issue here and I'd like to try a larger dish than the demi. The new interior also gives you an extra stop of light.


Jan 10, 2013 at 04:37 PM





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