evan balbier wrote:
Can anyone recommend any better quality softboxes for the alien bee/white lighting strobes then the alien bee brand ones?

Photoflex, RedWing, Westcott, Chimera, Plume, and Larson. There's more, but those are the 'big players'. All of them have speedrings available for different light mounts. (Use the Balcar/White Lightning/Alien Bee ones.)

evan balbier wrote:
To use photoflex what speedrings would i need

A Balcar/white lightning ring will work. If you already have a W/L ring from them it will work on a Photoflex

shootrrdave wrote:
I don't know your price range but this is my current favorite softbox.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 … _with.html

It doesn't need a speedring since its based on an umbrella frame. That also means I can have it set up in about 90 seconds. I only wish they made a strip version.

Just be careful not to over heat your bees if you use one of these.

Double Eagle Studios wrote:

Just be careful not to over heat your bees if you use one of these.

My strobes have 250W quartz modeling lights and I haven't had any issues with leaving the modeling light turned all the way up for several hours at a time.

RichK wrote:
AB boxes are good, but light weight. If you want some heavy weight boxes, check out ebay for a company called Amvona,they also have their own website ,but you can do much better on ebay. Their stuff is meant to work with 1000 watt hot lights and is well made I have 6 of them up to their 7' Octagon and I have 2 AB folding softboxes (I bought these because they are fast to setup and take down). In my studio I use Amvona and on location I mostly use AB.

Anyone (Rich) know?...
I've got a few Amvona softboxes that mount to the 1000 watt hot lights. If I get the AB speedrings for my AB 800s will the softboxes fit?

When I look at the pictures of various speedrings, they don't have the same little notch that the Amvona hot light has that lets you pop the last support frame (flexie arm thingy) in to place.

AB's speedrings don't have that notch, so you have to flex them a little more to get them in,but these speedring do work with Amvona softboxes. The only problem I have is with my 7' Octagon softbox the AB light is not strong enough to stop it from swinging down(I have a cheap $99.00 stobe made in China that will hold it ,but its also heavier on the back end) , so I'm trying to ad a counterweight to the back of the AB useing the umbrella rod holderwith a weight on it to counter this

Bradley Laurent wrote:

Anyone (Rich) know?...
I've got a few Amvona softboxes that mount to the 1000 watt hot lights. If I get the AB speedrings for my AB 800s will the softboxes fit?

When I look at the pictures of various speedrings, they don't have the same little notch that the Amvona hot light has that lets you pop the last support frame (flexie arm thingy) in to place.

Yes...thats the set up I use....the boxs are made poorly and tear at the seems, then you wont use them.

RichK wrote:
AB boxes are good, but light weight. If you want some heavy weight boxes, check out ebay for a company called Amvona,they also have their own website ,but you can do much better on ebay. Their stuff is meant to work with 1000 watt hot lights and is well made I have 6 of them up to their 7' Octagon and I have 2 AB folding softboxes (I bought these because they are fast to setup and take down). In my studio I use Amvona and on location I mostly use AB.

yup