Review: DIY Ring Flash

The ring flash from DIY Lighting Kits comes as a kit (of course).

It's very easy to assemble even our 9 year old neighbor boy who doesn't speak english, could see how to put the kit together.
The inside is cardboard with silver print and the outside is soft plastic.
It's done in a few minutes.(by me, not my next door neighbor boy)

To put my Minolta 5400HS into the ring flash, I had to make some cut's in the corners as discribed in the manual.

My first impression: Good, it looks and feels solid.

The next thing to do is bend the bracket for the flash. Now there are marking where to bend the bracket in the manual, only not for Sony. So out comes the tapeline to see where i should bend it for my A900 w/ grip.
Only to find out the bracket wil only fit without my grip on the camera (the bend and the holes for the bracket can not be in the same spot). So I go for option two in the manual; tape the flash to the ringflash.

First to test the light output compaired with my Orbis ring flash.
At first no surprise to me, the orbis in comparison with the DIY has a higher output at 1/1 an a zoom of 105mm with a 5400HS, but what if a change the zoom for the DIY (for the orbis they advice is: max zoom) to 24mm. Surprise the DIY has a slightly higher output. See picture below.

As comparison I shot three photo's of Linsey one with the Orbis, DIY and my FE4M Ring flash:

Straight out of camera

1. Orbis @ 400ISO f4.5
2. DIY @ 400ISO f4.5
3. FE-4M 100ISO f9.0

Oke, the FE-4M has a lot more output (it was set at min. power), but its a 400Ws flash.
But compaired with the orbis there is not much difference.
Yes the orbis is more rigide and durable but it will set you back about 150euro.
As for the DIY ring flash it will set you back only 25.95 USD.
If you use a ring flash on location a lot, the DIY ring flash may not be durable enough, it's not made to travel (it's made of cardboard and flexable plastics so you can't stuff it into you bag).
But if you shoot around the house/studio and occasionally on location, or are a bit carefull with it when you travel it's a great alternative. (and a lot cheaper)

Will be editing some photos of the shoot I did with Linsey. Put them one later this week.

Here is the first one:

Linsey (DIY-Ring Flash test), a photo by Ragoem on Flickr.