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Question: I own this kit and am enjoying it except for the stands.  Does anyone know if I can obtain better replacement stands for these softboxes?
Document: Does anyone have a suggestion for replacement stands that are more sturdy and will work with the softboxes?? I'm all ears..
I mean seriously, I got these for under $200, including next day Amazon Prime shipping. You can't beat that. Are they going to be as well made as $500 Westcott Spiderlites (over $1500 for three without bulbs)? Of course not. But that's not what you're buying. You're buying a 3 light kit with softboxes, stands and bulbs for under $200. That's freaking amazing. If that's not worth 5 stars. I don't know what is.So yes, the softboxes are a pain to set up for the first time but, I just gaff taped the rods to the softboxes, now they only take a minutes to assemble.
The bag can easily hold all the bulbs, light stands, power cables (which are removable by the way) and sleaves which are made to hold all the contents of the softboxes.I would advise sand bags for the light stands, or if you can afford them, get better light stands. these are cheap stands, they aren't the best materials nor are they constructed in the best way. They are usable until you can manage to get better ones. I personally, will probably use them for atleast a year before investing in better ones.The light fixtures are made of pretty good quality.
I first discovered this kit through the OliviaTech website review; after watching her review, I went ahead and ordered. While assembling all the pieces, I discovered that one of the sleeves that tightens via a wingnut for the vertical section of one of the tripod stands was defective. So I was not able to raise and secure one of those stands.I wrote to Richard directly at ePhoto through their website, described the problem and sent a small video demonstrating the problem. After confirming my Amazon order number with him, two days later, I had two replacement sleeves in my mailbox - that's great customer service!
One of the electronics when I received this setup was not functioning in the stand when received. The company was excellent in getting me a replacement. This is one killer substitution setup for beginners. I not only did an entire winters worth of shooting in my make-shift studio, but I also took the softboxes on the road for some of the best indoor people images I have created. I love the multiple toggle switches on the back. In fact, when I toyed with UV or black light one of the five lights in all three soft boxes was UV.
The stands are complete crap. They hardly even hold the lights with all 5 bulbs at less than max height.You have to be VERY careful that they don't fall over.You can NOT use them outside, as even the slightest wind will knock them over.The base of the stands are also pretty tiny, so sand-bagging them isn't very practical.The bulbs themselves are great, but extremely expensive to replace should you break one.To replace all of the bulbs, you are better off buying a new &#34;kit&#34; as the cost difference is negligible.ePhoto pushes marketing kits over Frankenstein-ing your own kit --which really sucks if something breaks and needs to be replaced.
The lights are great, no complaints with them! The stands that come with these lights just aren't any good if you need to raise them to their highest setting. They're just not beefy enough and become top heavy and bend. Also, the joints which join together the sections of the stand are not good and break easily. To ePhoto's credit, I did contact them and they did send replacement joints which was great. Next issue that just came up today is that the hole at the top of the top pole section is so close to the top that it actually ripped and is no longer usable.
I photographed everything in the carrying case so that I wouldn't have any problems packing. Truthfully, its kinda hard to not pack it correctly. One need not master rubik's cube to figure it out. The one aspect that was troubling was assembling the softbox. It took me almost 40 minutes to assemble one on my own. However, working with my wife, it took us less than 10 minutes each to assemble the other boxes. Clearly, four hands are better than two. Other than that, everything works fine and I'm seriously considering added one more kit to my collection.
Excellent deal and quality. They are better quality than I thought they would be. The stands are obviously a little &#34;thin&#34;, but could have been worse.I believe the bulbs kelvin changes slightly during a long shoot as I had to white balance again even though I was in a controlled room. It wasn't bad though. Also, there was slight variance in temperature between bulbs.
I prefer the replacement's dimensions because it's easier to carry because of the smaller width. Everything fits into carrying bag with room to spare.The light you get from these is amazing. Nice and bright and with the 5 separate switches you can easily control the overall brightness. You can diffuse the light by using the two fabric diffusers. One attaches to the inside of the softbox with velcro and elastic and the other attaches to the outside corners of the softbox (almost like a fitted mattress sheet) and is secured at the edges with more velcro.The stands flex a bit under the weight of the assembled softboxes, but I don't think they will topple over as long as you orient one of the legs to be in line with a softbox.
Answer: Mike C. These stands suck hard. Fortunately they are a pretty standard light stand. Look for any nicer stand and they should work.