1: No speed ring needed. The flash sits inside, even with the \"big\" 50\" unit.
2: You get better spread / diffusion of the light, because the flash points towards the back and bounces off a silver surface, before hitting the sides & front panel. This is important because a Speedlight has a built-in fresnel that directs the light forward, as opposed to a strobe which uses a bare bulb.
Some other designs (Lumiquest, etc) add a thicker piece in the center of the front, to even things out. Photoflex offers a special dome, which goes over the Speedlight & spreads its output nicely. Unfortunately, both of these solutions cost you some light, and is still not as good.
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The Apollos have 3 disadvantages-
1: The Speedlight is enclosed, so to make any adjustments you have to open up a velcro\'d flap. Not a huge deal, but it seems to bother some folks.
2: Because the flash is enclosed, it will not work with ETTL, though most folks like to work in manual mode anyway.
3: You can\'t use the same modifiers with monolights & flash heads, so if you use both you will have to buy twice as many modifiers.
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I\'m currently looking at the Photoflex systems, which can easily be used for all lights. There are many other options, but Photoflex seems to have a very good design vs price (esp vs the Magic Slipper) and they answer tech emails quickly and in detail. They also have really excellent tutorials on their website. I\'m just liking this company.
Jun 21, 2009 at 03:31 PM
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