NiceFoto Octagon Softbox 39 inch/100cm Quick Set-up Soft Box ES100 Modifier with Bowens Speedring Mount and Honeycomb Grid for Monolight Photo Studio Strobe Lighting

It’s a great easy to transport softbox. It works welll. It’s my first one I’ve ever had.

This is a good on-location light because of how portable it is, and it does a good job lighting a subject in the way you would want to do that for a location shoot--think family photos (you aren't controlling every single ray of light). Because of the thickness of the mount some bulbs won't make it much past the opening of the modifier, which means that you will have hot spots. The double diffusion somewhat mitigates against the effect of hot spots, which are not a huge deal at all for on-location lighting. Also, I am not someone who buys into the hype of "deep" parabolic softboxes, but there is a happy medium between super shallow and crazy deep. Some depth actually does help manage hotspots. The hotspots here are really a product of the fact that there is very little depth to this modifier.It is also a location light for a particularly good reason, it is very lightweight, and the shallowness of the dish helps keep the center of gravity of your assembled light and modifier closer to the shaft of the stand as opposed to way in front of it. No tipping hazard here (except for if you get a big gust, but that's it's own challenge).Some collapsible softboxes come with a quick deployment mechanism. This one, unfortunately does not, but it is also significantly cheaper. For me, the extra minute or so of assembly is worth the discount.Overall, I am happy with this modifier. I only occasionally do paid shoots, which tend to be family sessions, so I am not looking for top-of-the-line gear. I just need stuff that gets the job done, and this works perfectly for my needs. Super packable, not too expensive, minor compromises in build quality and features. It is a practical modifier.I was able to request and get this softbox for free from Amazon Vine, and I would have no problem spending my own money on this if I had to get another one. I recommend it.

This is my second NiceFoto softbox, and it's just as well built as the first one. It has a nice locking mechanism that slips under a lip to hold it in place. I can deploy it without tools, and as long as I keep the diffusers velcroed on, I can have it set up fairly quickly.The mounting ring is all metal, and the entire inside is covered with reflector material. Even the pockets that hold the rods are covered. This allows for the maximum light being used for my scene. They didn't hold back.It has 2 layers of diffusion. The bottom layer snaps on, and the outer layer is velcro. It also has a honeycomb grid to make sure the light coming out isn't bouncing off of walls. It's nice to have, but I don't need it for my application.I found that I get a soft level that I prefer with a single layer of diffusion, so I only use the outer layer, and this also allows me to turn the light down a bit more as it's not wasting power with the extra diffuser.It's a little bigger than 3 feet, and it's much shallower than my big parabolic softbox, so this is a lot easier to deal with, and there's very little change in the result.Overall a great softbox.Highly recommended.

Once I figured out the assembly, the NiceFoto octagon softbox was, well,...very Nice. The minimalist instruction sheet did correctly show the the center hub and umbrella spokes, which required a lot of effort on first assembly. The other components- 2 white fabric pieces and a flat black web with lots of Velcro , bore no relation to the pictured components, or their assembly. Perhaps if I had consulted the visual instructions on YouTube I would have been less challenged, but I did not. (I have since viewed the video on Amazon -duh!) The smaller white fabric octagon had snaps at its corners, attaching to elastic snaps inside of the reflector. The black webbing unfolded into an octagonal grid of black fabric which then attached to the inside edge of the reflector as a baffle. Lastly, the larger octagonal white fabric attached to the edge of reflector, for added diffusion. Quite a nice setup, and well constructed in the end. The hub was heavy alloy casting, and the robust umbrella itself would put many a dome tent to shame. It is quite a bit larger than anticipated, but it tears down for storage and portability in the included bag. Great price for a quality soft box, but ignore the instruction sheet and watch the video for quick set up!

So I got this octagon softbox to replace one of my other octagon softboxes that came with a video light that I purchased recently. The main difference was that this softbox was larger, and it comes with a honeycomb grid as well.Personally, I didn't know what size softbox I really needed until now that I've been getting more into video and content creation. I realized that I did need a bigger softbox due to the fact that I was shooting larger subjects. Prior to this, I was using a 14 inch softbox that and I was trying to use that to light a big subject. This allows me to improve the quality of my videos whenever I have larger subjects I need to light, such as me!Overall, I do recommend this product. It's quite easy to use due to the fact that it uses a bowens speedring mount system. Do make sure that your lights support this system, and I'll probably buy another one for my second light!