FotodioX EZ-Pro Beauty Dish Reviews
Good quality and value a little tough at first to setup
By Chuck
Rated 4 out of 5
Date: 2023-01-03
Good quality and value a little tough to setup at first
Pros: Good quality, good company, nice travel bag, standard Bowens mount, light weight, packs tight for transport
Cons: Assembly is tricky or you have to beast-on-the rods, cheapish screws, and per shoot setup a takes time. Overall all products by Fotodiox they need to reinforce the velcro stitching to prevent rod poke out after 1 yr use.
Detail review:
If you are looking for Profoto quality and have Profoto bucks then move on. If you need a decent quality soft box middle of the road this maybe for you.
Assembly:
I am a big guy with strong fingers and hands and in a past life was an ex-auto mech and had to beast-on the rods at first assembly.
Extra products I use on all these soft boxes:
Loctite Blue 242 Threadlocker and Specialist Protective White Lithium Grease
1. Unpack everything, and unscrew the holding screws from the mount. Then using a paper towel and a q-tip spray a small amount of the grease into the towel and dap the q-tip in the grease. Then apply a very small amount to the area where the mounting ring attaches to the frame. I do this to limit the metal-to-metal scrapping noise in-front of clients when I am turning the Bowens mount and to cut-down on rusting.
2. Prepare the area: Take an old rag or towel and place on the inside of the soft box around the mounting area, or you could tape the screw holes from underneath. This is to limit the spilling of the thread locker product.
3. Take all the mounting screws except the one with the big adjusting nut and coat the threads with the Loctite Blue 242 Threadlocker and screw in with washers on. Be careful not to drip or spill on the blue locker on inner reflective material because it will not wash out. Reason: I do not want these mounting screws to come loose. They will eventually work out but you need to inspect your gear for each shoot anyway. You can remove with a normal screw driver.
4. Back to the q-tip with slight grease on it. Go to the rods where they will go inside the socket holes during setup. Coat the inside of the socket holes and the rod big ends with light grease. This will help initial assembly and setup and take down at shoots.
5. On a hard surface floor or a heavy duty table put down another old rag or towel to product the surface and place the soft box with Bowens mount down on top of the rags and confirm the rods are through all the inner liner hold downs, and with some force get the rods into each socket. This is where the beast-ing- part with your hands and fingers will come in (note you might want to wear gloves yard or construction type). I really had to use some force to get each rod into their sockets. I may have bent a few. Then un-do it, take down, and setup again, repeat a few times (to break-in). Once all rods are in the soft-box will be as-tight-as-a-drum. Good or bad
6. Wipe up any excess grease or thread locker, clean up the area.
Practice a few times setup and take down with this soft box so you have muscle memory.
My recommendation: Before a shoot with a client setup of this box so all you have to do is mount it on your light. If your car can hold this box already setup the better. Else you maybe fumbling in-front of a client trying to get the box setup.
I have not yet used this for a shoot but have many soft boxes from FotodioX. They are decent quality just take care of them they can take some daily abuse but will need repairs and care.
Previous experience with another FotodioX soft box: After about 1 year of heavy weekend use the rods will start to poke out the ends. Why? The stitching used to contain the rod guide to the velcro and inner lining is weak. The rods will wear down break the stitches and poke out. To repair: Use a heavy duty sewing needle with black upholstery thread and sew up with many rows of stitches on both sides of the rod guide.
Also before each shoot check and inspect all of your gear. You do not want poking rods, or missing screws in-front of a client.
Summary:
Good soft box and company quality but the initial assembly takes some force. If you can setup before you meet with a client.
perfect for location/studio
By James
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2022-10-23
I've used beauty dishes my whole career however they are a pain to store and travel with. These foldable beauty dishes are light, quick to open and produce a beautiful even light.
nice portable light
By James
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2022-10-17
very nice portable light tool. The only improvement is to include 4 center post holding the cap diffuser instead of just two.
Never again
By Todd
Rated 1 out of 5
Date: 2022-08-18
You get what your pay for...this product comes with no instructions on how to assemble, and the attached .pdf manual from the B&H website was NO HELP. I can't figure out how to attach the reflector or the speed ring adaptor. I was looking for something that would be relatively quick and easy to use in the field. This is NOT IT.
Backplate will not fit
By Alton
Rated 4 out of 5
Date: 2022-08-09
Arrived with no instructions, had to look up on YouTube. Photogenic backplate would not work with Photogenic Studiomax lll. Had to custom fabricate modification to backplate to assemble beauty dish to moonlight. Photogenic needs to get with Fotodiox and correct this oversight.
Wanted it to be good but
By Steven
Rated 1 out of 5
Date: 2022-02-10
I really wanted to like this as a beauty dish because it's the only brand with a white interior instead of silver. However, with just the reflector dome installed, light leaks past the dome directly to the subject off to the sides, making it unusable unless you install the front diffuser which then spreads the light and causes it to lose direction. The reflector is either not large enough, or too far away from the light. In addition, as you lock the ribs in place, the tension required becomes increasingly hard making it very difficult. Just not a good design unfortunately.
Long term review
By Ken
Rated 3 out of 5
Date: 2022-12-16
I've have couple of different sizes of this modifier. I use profoto lighting and wanted some cost effect modifiers. Almost all of my sessions are outdoors, so I knew these would get some knocking around. They are not bad for the money but I've got a little over a year out of them. The rods are now starting to push through the fabrics on the tips but more importantly the diffusion material has turned a dingy yellow color. I emailed Fotodiox about purchasing new diffusion and they responded by saying they dont sell any replacements parts and I need to buy the entire unit. To me that isnt a good service policy, however I go back to the price and you get what you pay for. Consider these disposable with about a year or so shelf life if used regularly. I do have to mention I do leave mine open all the time and do not collapse them so I cant speak on the longevity if opened and closed often.
Cheaply made!
By Roger
Rated 2 out of 5
Date: 2022-10-27
The Method for attaching the Bowen S mount to this dish relies upon two differently threads on three different styles of screws. The Mount is held is place by four undersized washers. You have to guess how to position each washer to hold the mount in center. Otherwise, it pops off. No instructions in the box. I had to find this online at B&H. You still have to guess how best to position screws and washers for this to work. I didn't even try mounting this to a flash unit. For any price, this is junk! For this price, it is worse than junk. It should not be on the B&H product list. Looked really cool in the their photos. Don't fall for it. RGP
