UK equivalent of the westcott apollo?

jamesoliverstone

jamesoliverstone

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I have coveted Mr Arias's 50" Apollo for sometime now and cannot get one for love nor money in the uk... Well, not unless you are willing to pay through the nose for it.

Does anyone know of a large soft box that goes up like an umbrella that I can put a hotshoe flash inside?

Or somewhere where I can buy the 50" westcott in the uk for a reasonable price?
 
Warehouse Express sell the Westcott Apollo series now but the big one is £235 and not in stock at the moment.

As an alternative, there are a few generic softboxes which open like umbrellas and have Bowens speedrings. You can combine them with a speedlight bracket that has a Bowens mount on it.

Umbrella Folding Softboxes:

Speedlight-Bowens adapters:
 
jamesoliverstone said:
I have coveted Mr Arias's 50" Apollo for sometime now and cannot get one for love nor money in the uk... Well, not unless you are willing to pay through the nose for it.

Does anyone know of a large soft box that goes up like an umbrella that I can put a hotshoe flash inside?

Or somewhere where I can buy the 50" westcott in the uk for a reasonable price?
Click to expand...

I hate to say it but you'd be as well ordering one from somewhere like WEX or Premier Ink as by the time you pay the duty and shipping buying one from the States works out at roughly £240 or exactly the same as buying one here.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, doesn't the Westcott allow you to fire the speedlite into the back of the soft box, rather than fire straight out the front?

Though I've not tried it, I'd guess front firing a normal speedlite out of these large boxes, listed above, will not give a very even light. I reckon you'd get a hotspot in the middle, unless of course you've got a bare bulb speedlite :)
 
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Thanks for the replies all, and yes Mark, the reason why I want one is the rear firing mount for nice even light. I have huge soft boxes and octabanks already. But when using a speedlite, I really want to fire it backwards into an umbrella type back that then fires out into the huge soft box.

Looks like another WES purchase then!
 
Though I've never used or seen one, I have read that the Apollo does not give as even a light as you might imagine. Might have something to do with flash being well up in the top of the box due to the mounting. Looking for the information link, but typically cant find it....

Fire through boxes can be even with extra layers of diffusion, if that is what you want. I quite like a hotspot and the easier feathering you can achieve.

Also, I think that the internal mounting hampers the infra red signals if you are using Canon/Nikon wireless ttl.

I wouldn't say no to one though...
 
Well I have to say that the Apollo gives fantastic light, and its very even. Yes they are expensive but I feel they are worth the money. Talking to one of the managers at Calumet earlier this year, it was mentioned they might be doing a version of the 28" one. I suggested that they might do the 50" but I've not heard anything since.

Mart
 
Kris said:
Though I've never used or seen one, I have read that the Apollo does not give as even a light as you might imagine. Might have something to do with flash being well up in the top of the box due to the mounting............

Also, I think that the internal mounting hampers the infra red signals if you are using Canon/Nikon wireless ttl.
Click to expand...

Yes, the flash does sit a bit high, I intend to mod mine with an L-bracket to bring the flash down to a better angle.

With regard to the infrared signal, I was told that the Apollo wouldn't work with Nikon CLS, but, much to my surprise, it does, so that's what I use with it :D
 
Most flash/ brolly brackets have an angled brolly hole. This makes the flash sit in the centre of the brolly. The 28" Westcott is fantastic. I'm after one myself. I think I'll end up getting one from wex £94.
Dean :)
 
I was in similar thoughts about the 28" Apollo that I ordered one from B&H photo. It is a great tool but it has its limitation, quite annoying ones (tilt and access to speedlite). Ended up selling it. :)
 
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