Hey everyone, it's Rob from Hypop
and welcome back to another video.
In this one, we're unboxing and taking a closer
look at the brand new Aputure range of softboxes,
including the light box 60 x 90, the light box 30 x 120,
and the brand new Aputure light OctaDome 120.
Don't forget to hit that subscribe button
for more videos just like this.
Hit the notification bell to be updated
on any new content we release.
Leave a like on the video if it's helped you.
Feel free to leave down in the comments section
below your thoughts or if you have any questions
about these brand new range of Aputure softboxes.
Follow us on social media
@hypop and visit our website hypop.com.au.
Let's get into it.
So, I've got with me the brand new range of
Aputure softboxes which include the Aputure light box 60 x 90
which is a rectangular softbox, the Aputure light box
30 x 120 which is more of a stripped softbox.
And you've also got the brand new
Aputure light OctaDome 120 which is 120 cm octagon softbox.
These are all bowens mounts softboxes made by Aputure.
And they're pretty much brand new releases
as of February 2022. So, if you're familiar with
Aputure softboxes, they do have a range already,
as part of their entire series of modifiers,
which include the light domes and the mini dome.
So, if you're familiar, they had the mini dome
and light dome version one.
And then they've got the version two now,
which is more of a quick setup
and quick collapse type of softbox.
And you've also got other light
modifiers such as the space light.
You've also got modifiers for some of their other lights,
including, the RGB P300C, etc.
But also they have that really huge and recently released too,
the Aputure light dome 150 which is a larger 150 cm
Octa box basically.
So these ones here are brand new.
You can see the OctaDome 120 is probably the popular one here
that we'll be looking at. But this softbox in particular
is slightly smaller than the 150 obviously.
But it's more in that affordable price point
and a lot more compact.
So, we'll take a closer look to see what's included.
Firstly, we have the 60 x 90.
So you can see it comes in a carry bag,
which is really nice.
So it's good to have a softbox in a pouch.
A lot of other softboxes come in pouches,
but they don't really have these larger holding handles.
So that's really nice.
Then jumping in, we have quite a few accessories in here.
So firstly, we have the user guide.
That's the product manual there.
You've also got the honeycomb grid
or the baffle some people like to call it.
You've also got the speed ring.
And this is a bowen speed ring. Typical speed ring stuff.
You've got the loosening knob there.
So you can actually spin the speed ring around reposition
if you need to.
You've also got some new features
that I haven't seen really in many other softboxes.
The little red dots here that allow you to know
where to position the rods that helps you align the softbox
when setting up a lot better. So it's good to see.
Now, you've got some softbox diffusers here.
Firstly, you have the inner diffuser.
So the inner diffuser is the smaller diffuser
that can be clipped on to the inside of the softbox
so you can determine that with the metal clips there.
We've also got a diffuser with a Velcro attachment here.
This must be a thicker diffuser here.
It looks like more of a one stop diffuser,
but we'll take a closer look at that one.
And then lastly is just another diffuser here
which looks a little bit more translucent.
So, this is perhaps a half stop and then a one stop diffuser.
So, we'll take a closer look at those when we set up.
And lastly, we have the softbox itself.
So, you can see there the Aputure light box 60 x 90.
Now, without setting this up, first things first
is I can tell that the softbox material
and the quality especially the internal lighting here
does feel like it's of high quality.
So that's really good to see.
It's lost a bit of the branding as well.
So, Aputure really likes to hit home with the red branding here.
But this softbox doesn't have any of that red branding.
It's gotten really minimal with basically the black,
the grey trim, and then the white
Aputure branding in text there.
It's also not a quick setup softbox.
I mean it's only got four rods being a rectangular softbox.
So you can see there, it's only about the four rods,
but you still do have to construct this one up yourself.
Now there's a few pros
and cons to having these constructable softboxes.
Firstly, is that obviously it can be really compact.
If you just have the sort of style softboxes
versus the collapsible ones.
The collapsible ones tend to be quite big.
And they usually have a spring or an umbrella mechanism
that allows you to set them up a lot quicker.
But with the setup ones here, the constructible ones, they can
obviously be deconstructed into each component.
So you can have this a lot more portable.
It just requires a little bit more setup time.
So it really depends if you're going to be shooting
on location with them.
Or if you're going to be having enough time
to set up your lighting and your modifiers on set.
So I guess for a lot of photographers,
a lot of the time you want really quick
type setup softboxes for a lot of filmmakers,
and videographers and cinematographers out there,
you'd have enough time to set up your modifiers on set.
So I guess that's the direction
Aputure has been looking at here,
being more of a filmmaker type brand.
They've gone for these types of setups.
That being said, they still do have their quick collapse
and set up softboxes such as the Light Dome Two.
So they're weighing up the options
in terms of the different range of softboxes they have to offer.
So what we'll do now is we'll throw up on screen me
setting up the softbox and approximate time on setup.
So it'll give you a good indication
on what to expect when you're on location
or when you're setting up the softboxes for use.
Being a rectangular softbox, there are certain use cases
that you would be using these types of softboxes.
If you're after more of a window type of catch light
or a rectangular catch light,
you'll definitely be using more of this shaped softbox.
If you're lighting subject's from head to toe,
so perhaps a person
and you're just wanting to light them up completely
and it's just an individual subject,
it'd be great for that too. And also just mimicking
a wide range of different shapes of lights,
especially when using the honeycomb modifiers.
You can really cut down the light when using the grid
and we'll show some demonstrations on screen.
Next softbox is the Aputure light box 30 x 120.
So this is more of a stripped softbox shape.
So same thing again, we've got the Aputure
carry bag with those larger handles.
And similar to the 60 x 90, you've got the Aputure softbox
there with the rods. So it's only got the four rods
there being a rectangular softbox.
And same thing with the softbox, it's fairly minimal.
It's got the black grey trim, white logo.
We've also got the thicker and the thinner diffusers here,
they're the two and a half
and the one and a half stop diffusers.
You've also got the velcro fabric honeycomb grid,
the product manual, and the speed ring.
So pretty much exactly the same thing.
You've got that high quality speed ring.
You've got those two outter diffusers
that you can choose from depending on
how you want to diffuse the light or the inner diffuser.
And the grid so you can cut the light.
Now one thing to take note of inside the softbox
which I didn't show earlier
are the little tabs on the inside there.
So those little tabs there, they allow you to mount
the inner diffuser with those hooks.
And then it's got a Velcro trim all on the outside here,
which is nice to see, it's a nice thick trim
that allows you to mount the outer diffuser
as well as the grid when needed.
Now, it looks to be of decent quality
in terms of the reinforcement of the rod pockets
at the corners here, which is really important.
I've seen softboxes before just really pierced through that.
They're not really of high quality.
But this hasn't been tried and tested yet.
So this is only on initial look
at the actual mounting point here.
But you can see there the rods just slide in
and out fairly easily. So it's always good to make sure
that this is nice and reinforced.
So we'll show the setup and approximate time
to set up up on screen now.
For a strip box like this here,
it's perfect to be used as a rim light.
You may have two of these positioned
on either side of your model
to use it as more of an accent light,
being a long, rectangular softbox.
It's really great to be used for models.
So yeah, just the wide range of uses to really position
this more up close to your subject,
rather than further away.
You can most definitely also position this horizontally.
A lot of people do that so they can cut the light even more.
So a lot of play with this shape softbox in particular.
Now, we have reviewed many different styles of softboxes
and how the output and look of those softboxes
come out with photos and videos.
So if you want to take a closer look at that video,
click the link up above.
Now, the last but certainly not the least is the one
that I'm most excited to see,
which is the Aputure light OctaDome 120.
So same thing.
We see the carry pouch once again.
And it looks like
basically everything that we've seen previously,
including the thicker grade, the thick of diffuser,
we've also got the thinner diffuser.
So those are the one and a half
and two and a half stop diffusers.
You've also got the honeycomb grid.
You've got an inner diffuser
where you can see it shapes slightly differently here
because obviously this is more of an octagon
or a circular shape.
And you've got the Speedring. Looks exactly the same.
So in this case here, you can see,
I didn't note this in the previous two,
but you've got the two red dots.
But you've also got some arrows here too.
So these arrows,
I'm assuming are going to be for different positions
for the different softbox setups.
So, I'm assuming the closer more narrow ones here
are for the strip box.
You've also got the red dots for the rectangular softbox is 60 x 90.
And then obviously, you've got the other positions along
the speed ring for the Octa box because it requires eight rods.
And you've got the product manual.
So here's a softbox. And interesting to see,
Aputure have gone with a little bit of red on this one here.
So slightly different,
I'm assuming because this is the largest softbox.
It's one of the more
I guess popular sizes that people will be going for.
So that's why they've probably gone with the proper
branding on that one there.
But the same thing, you've got the grey trim,
the black softbox. Now, there's a couple of things
that I particularly don't like about
Octa boxes that you have to construct.
Firstly, you've got eight rods. There's a lot of fiddling around
when it comes to installing along a speed ring.
Now, obviously we've got quite a few softboxes from other brands
including Godox and even the larger brands
Profoto and others,
where in the past you've had to construct them yourselves.
So I like where the market's going,
where it's moving away from constructible softboxes
and moving more towards a quick setup,
quick collapse type style softboxes.
And once again reiterating the fact
what I said in the beginning,
there are pros and cons to having these sorts
of constructing softboxes and collapsible ones.
The main Pro for having these types of softboxes are,
in general there are a lot more affordable.
They're also a lot more compact.
They don't occupy too much space in your kit.
So, the setup time that's required on location
if you have an assistant,
it's not too bad to have these softboxes around.
However, if you are time strapped,
which most photographers are or if you're a one man show,
or if you're just on location and you don't want the hassle
to be setting up these types of softboxes,
then most probably you'll be looking at
quick collapse softboxes.
I have seen even up to two people
trying to construct these, you need a hand sometimes.
Especially with the larger softboxes.
And this being the 120, it is quite a large softbox.
So we'll go and see how this sets up, how long it takes.
We'll see if I can even do it on my own.
And we'll throw that all up on screen now.
So that was just a quick look
at the brand new range of Aputure lighting modifiers
including the Aputure light box 60 x 90,
the Aputure light box 30 x 120,
and the brand new Aputure light OctaDome 120.
So for more videos just like this,
don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Hit the notification bell to be updated of any new content we release.
Leave a like on the video if it's helped you.
Feel free to leave down in the comment section below your thoughts
or if you have any questions about these brand new
Aputure light modifiers.
Follow us on social media @hypop
and visit our website hypop.com.au.
Thanks for watching.