Some of you may not like the idea of dealing with a company in China, I can only tell you of my experiences with the items I have purchased.
The 1st thing I bought was the diffuser you can see above, then I bought the bag below
I have just ordered the soft lighting box you can see below
First let me say that all deliveries have been good with no extras or problems, and the standard of construction and materials used 1st class.
The diffuser just works, £9 including postage, 10 days to deliver.
It twists and folds in to a small zipped pouch about 3 inches in diameter, to use, open pouch pull it out and catch it, the moment it finds room it springs open so you have to make sure you have got hold of it, push lens through the hole DONE.
It takes about 1/2 a stop of flash output but if you are using TTL flash metering that sorts itself out.
In manual mode have a play, you get a nice spread of light with the built in flash, but even better with an external flash gun, shadows are not removed but are given a nice soft edge.
The value shown with the diffuser got me looking at the rest of the stuff on offer, lens cleaning equipment, screw in filters, lens hoods, bags and loads of studio type kit.
I made the decision to have a go at a bag, the one you can see above, plain canvas no camera logo's ( why tell the tea leaves what you are carrying ) adjustable inserts and plenty of pockets for bits and pieces.
This and a lot of the other stuff with a bit of value is delivered by TNT not the Post office like the smaller stuff , delivery is much quicker 4/5 days, I ordered the bag on Friday PM and it arrived AM the Wednesday after.
The bag is big enough to take my FZ 10, Olympus E500 with 3 lenses, Canon compact, flash gun and all of the batteries and bits and pieces I need, it has a well padded shoulder strap and a waist strap.
It is made better than the £32 incl P&P would lead you to expect, it is no Billingham but it is £150 cheaper.
The soft light box is the 16 inch version and with P&P costs about £25 with the lights and bulbs supplied, the order was placed on Thursday night ( late ) so I hope to see it about the middle of next week.
Let you know if it works when I know, the link to the site is below.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Photo-Special-Equipment
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Soft box arrived as expected middle of the week, good packaging once more ( if you can read Chinese I have loads of news papers )
all the bits as listed and the free black background.
Inside the box on the rear panel are Velcro patches to match up with the ones on the backgrounds, making positioning and replacement simple, the lamp holders might not last a lifetime but are OK and work ( spare bulbs @ B&Q £1 each ). The lamps are the correct voltage for here but have 2 pin continental type plugs, so you need an adapter or swop them as I did.
The lightbox comes in a black pouch and self erects when you take it out, problem is I have not yet managed to get it back in, I think you need a degree in Origami.
First impressions are good, it gives good even light and is big enough to use for something about the size of a SLR plus lens, they do bigger ones if this is not big enough. A third lamp might be of use to give overhead or backlighting. Just a thought.
Still not bad for the price.
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