The Fong Lightsphere

Hoorah! My Fong dongs & diaphrams arrived today! Ha ha, those are the nicknames given to Gary Fong's Lightshpere flash system that came in the mail today, woohoo! As you see, (if you choose to look at Gary's website and invention: www.garyfong.com), the cup portion was quickly called the "dong" when it first came out. Later, with his "dome" innovation, it was given the nickname of "diaphram". I wonder if it had anything to with its shape...

Anyhow, here's my little experiment: all shots taken on program mode, w/ 24-105 lens, iso 200. Flash fired at 1/60 at aperture 4.5 from a distance of about 6-7 feet from subject (guess who) that posed nicely and never moved. What a great assistant, yea?

1) Shot w/ Canon 420EX with flash pointed directly towards subject.
2) Shot w/ Canon 420EX with bounce flash off low ceiling.

3) Shot w/ Canon 420EX, bounce flash with Gary Fong Cloud Lightsphere.

4) Shot w/ Canon 420EX, bounce flash with Lumiquest Ultrabounce diffuser.

Looks like the Lightsphere works as described. While the Lumiquest performed up to the task, you can see it leaves a reddish tint on the image. The Lightsphere captures a more realistic color, adds sufficient light to the subject (opposed to image 1) and does not give off shadows from the direct bounce light (image 2). Sweet!

Of course, this is not a plug for the Lightsphere (Gary's not paying me to post this nor do I think he'll refund my money), but I've always been one to give praise where praise is due and I think his invention deserves a favorable review. Hmm, I wonder if I can take the Lumiquest back...

Ok! Time to find some more models and some future brides!