In this video, we'll be unboxing and reviewing
the brand-new Foldio2 Plus.
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Let's get into it.
For those of you that don't know what the Foldio is,
Foldio is a product by Orangemonkie.
that was made popular through their Kickstarter project that they had up.
It was really popular and successful
because it was catering to the everyday person.
Someone who is a hobbyist, perhaps a small business
or you have a little online store
and it's perfect and it's an all-in-one solution
for taking perfect product photos.
So, you can see here, it's actually quite a small package.
It folds down into a nice portable little package,
it actually has its own inbuilt lights.
It's LED lighting so they last quite a long time
without having to replace them.
And yeah, it's basically a neat little package that you can store away
and pack away when you don't need it and easily set up when you do.
I've got the brand new Foldio2 Plus here with me today
as well as an additional accessory which is called
the Foldio2 Plus front cover.
So, let's give these a quick unboxing and see what's included inside.
It looks like it's about the same packaging
as the original Foldio2, about the same dimensions.
On the inside here, we've got two parts.
We've got a long rectangular box here inside,
it includes an international adapter pack.
So, that has a dimmer switch,
it has plugs for the EU, Australia,
the UK and the US by looks of things
and it's also got the international plug there as well
which you can attach all the different international adapters to
depending on where you're located.
Let’s put this one aside.
Inside here, it looks like we've got the Foldio2 Plus
and just a sheet with some instruction manual
and ways on how to set-up the actual lighting tent.
Let's open this up.
Okay, so, on the inside here, we've got the Foldio2 Plus
all folded down and collapsed into it's a neat little package
and you've got the backdrops here as well.
You've got white, black.
These are made what feels like a felt material.
Opening up the Foldio2 Plus, it's the same as the original Foldio2.
It looks like a quite similar design so it is that cube sort of box.
Let's set this all up and see how it all works.
I've got all the different components that's included
with the Foldio2 Plus in the package.
You've got the dimmer switch here, once again,
we've got the AC adapter, we've got the Foldio2 Plus itself
and we've got the two backdrops that are included in the package.
By the looks of things,
they've included this new dimmer switch
which was only a component of the Foldio3.
So, the previous Foldio2 didn't actually have this dimmer switch.
They had the dimmer knobs and dials
actually attached to the LEDs themselves
so this is a nice little addition and it looks almost identical
to the Foldio3 dimmer switch.
That means that you should be able to attach
Halo bars to them too if you wanted to.
Now, this is the international adapter. It's simple to use.
All you need to do is just slide in your international adapter
for whatever region you're in and you've got the two backdrops here.
Let's open this Foldio2 Plus up.
There's three different parts through the Foldio2.
It basically makes that sort of shape, the cube
and you've got it to flap here which are magnetic
and that's how you construct this all up.
You basically need to open up each of those magnetic flaps
in each of the three segments and then join them together.
And then, the last one is there and it's as simple as that.
What you can see here is a few changes
that have been added to the Foldio2 Plus.
Some of the LED strips here.
These LED strips is now three that are already inbuilt into the Foldio2 Plus.
Previously, you had the two LED strips
that you had to mount yourself with double-sided tape
and there were only two LED strips provided.
Now, there's three which means that there's additional light
and also means that should provide
better lighting in terms of clearing out that backdrop
and providing ample lighting for any of the products
that you choose to take photos or videos of in your Foldio.
On top of that,
you've got a little opening on the top here now.
On the top, you've got—
just flip that around so you can have a look.
There's a little magnetic opening
and that's just a little circle opening at the top
so you can shoot some of the top-down shots.
If you're taking any flat layers or anything like that,
you can do that now directly on the Foldio whereas previously,
you had to rotate your entire cube or your Foldio tent
to take a flat lay down like this in the front opening.
Now, you can actually just do that directly from the top here.
That's a really good inclusion.
Also, by the looks of things,
you've got the magnetic mounting points here
so we can definitely attach some of those Halo bars
if you want additional lighting to the three LED strips
that you have on the Foldio2 Plus.
I've got the adapter plugged in now and basically,
the adapter plugs into the bottom of the dimmer switch here.
There's a little port that you can plug that into.
And then, on the other end here,
you've got a cable which plugs into the top point here of your Foldio2 Plus.
There's also another input here at the top of the dimmer switch
which is for your Halo bars.
So, I've got a pair of Halo bars here as well as the cables.
These are for additional lighting.
So, they're an additional accessory
if you want more lighting in your Foldio
whether it be the Foldio2 Plus or the Foldio3.
The Halo bars are a great addition.
A really good way to cable manage the cables here,
rather than having them come from the front
is to feed them through into the back openings here in the Foldio.
So, there's two at the top and two at the bottom here,
some openings and what you can do
is actually just feed through the cable through the top opening here
then pass that through into the connection point of the top here.
And, you can actually pull that cable a little bit
so that's a little more taut there
so that way, when taking photos or videos,
the cable is not in view when you're taking your shot.
That's all connected.
Now, let's connect the Halo bars.
These are the additional lights that you can go for if you want.
It's basically a Y splitter cable like that
so there's two ends on one side and one connection point.
So, the one connection point goes into the dimmer
and the two inputs we can feed through the top two openings of your Foldio2 Plus.
Insert that into one of the Halo bars here.
Now, the Halo bars are really great
because they're sort of like a triangle or a pyramid shape there
and they're quite a long light and they're actually magnetic at the back here.
What you can do is attach them magnetically to your Foldio2 tent.
You can have them pointing upwards
so the lights actually coming from one side
of the of the actual Halo bars here.
What you can do is you can either have them
pointing upwards up to the top of the Foldio2 Plus
and have them reflect the light back down
or you can have them pointing downwards as well.
I'd probably prefer to have them pointing upwards
so that way of their lights reflecting up top
and it's helping remove and eliminate some of that shadow.
Now, on the other side here,
we've got the second cable that we can plug into.
There's an input on one side of the Halo bars
and have that mounted to the side of the Foldio2 tent there
with that really strong magnet
that can hold up the lights as well as construct the tent.
Now, on the back here,
we've got that single connection point that we can attach
to that dimmer switch and that way that's all connected up now.
What you'll see is I can actually control the Halo bar lights there.
On the left side of the dimmer switch there
is the dimmer knob for the Halo bars
and then you've got on the right side
the dimmer bar for the three LED lights that are inbuilt
into the Foldio2 Plus tent.
There you go.
You can see there's ample lighting there
and you can see, once I put the Halo bars up there you can see the intensity.
You can control this.
This is a stepless dimmer switch for the LEDs
that increases the intensity
and there's quite a substantial amount of light there for this sized tent.
More light is always better
because, basically, what your phone will do
is automatically adjust to the light so the more light you have,
the sharper your image and video
or for your camera, obviously, the sharper the image and video
if you're shooting with a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
One last thing you need to do for the Foldio tent
is to actually mount the backdrops.
The backdrops, just like everything else in this tent
is also magnetically mounted.
There is a little magnetic mounting point right at the top here.
There's little strip there which has two magnets
on either side and that sits at the top here of your Foldio2 tent.
When you open your tent for the first time,
it's going to be mounted on the ceiling of the actual tent.
Just remove that really quickly and then grab one of your backdrops.
Just grab that magnetic mounting point
and attached that to the top.
There you go.
Your white backdrop is now mounted.
These backdrops, they're made from sort of like a felt material on one side
and then like a sort of paper-craft type material on the backside
so you could potentially use the other side if you wanted to.
This felt side is, obviously, used to absorb some of that light
so it's a non-reflective material
so that way you're not getting reflections and things like that
especially if you're shooting reflective products or items
like rings, jewelry and things like that.
We put our little subject in there.
There you go.
You've got that perfect backdrop for taking perfect photos for your products
or videos if you're using the Foldio360, for example.
What you can see is the backdrops are actually a little bit curved there
and what that's doing is actually mimicking a cyclorama backdrop
so this is like a little mini studio, basically.
If you are like a professional photographer or filmmaker,
if you're in a studio, they use cyclorama backdrops.
That basically makes it look like an infinity backdrop
so there's no edge on the bottom there
so that way you, basically, don't see the backdrop
and it's a nice smooth white backdrop for your subject.
The last part to look at and the last additional feature
would be the top opening here of the Foldio2 Plus.
That's a new feature that they don't have in the Foldio2,
the first model and also, the Foldio3.
Previously, when you wanted to shoot a flat layer,
you would have had to rotate the actual tent around
so that the opening was positioned at the top
but now they have this little convenient circle opening at the top here
with this little magnetic cover that you can just reattach at any time
and yeah, it just makes it a lot easier to take a flat layer.
I've got a few bits and pieces here that I can put together a little flatly
and just demonstrate that.
I got a little camera here, I have a wallet
and some keys
and it's super easy to take the flat layer now.
All you need to do is just take it directly from the top here.
You can see I'll position the lights for the Halo bars
pointing downwards to the subject and I've got the top three lights,
obviously, assisting with that.
I found that smart phones tend to automatically adjust to the lighting.
It’s so easy to take a flat lay now rather than having to rotate the tent
or you've got the additional included lights
and everything in one neat little package.
So, a new accessory that Foldio has released
with the Foldio2 Plus is the Foldio2 Plus front cover.
The front cover is actually a cover that sits at the front here
of the Foldio2 Plus.
It's magnetic so it attaches straight on the front
and it basically covers the front opening here.
The reason for that is it helps with reflective materials
or reflective products so if you have something like jewellery or glassware
or something like a little trophy that we have here that's reflective
so when you place that inside and you take photos of that,
there may be some reflections in there.
What the front cover will do is actually assist with reducing those reflections.
This is the package that it comes in.
On the back there, you can see a small photo
of just what it looks like when it's set up.
Let's get this opened and attach it onto the tent.
There we go.
It's basically the same material as the Foldio2 tent.
It's got three parts to it
so you've got the two sides that are attached by the magnetic holding there
and you've got the front
and all you need to do is simply mount it on to the front here
by the magnetic attachments on the side.
There you go.
So, what you can see here is that it's got this round opening
on this little tunnel-shaped opening at the front here for you to shoot through.
What the front cover will do here is help reflect
with some of this white cover on the front back onto the subject
rather than having it completely open where if you're taking a photo of say,
something even more reflective like glass, for example,
you may even see yourself in the shot.
This will help with that and allow you to shoot
with your camera lens or with a smartphone.
I'll quickly demonstrate just with a smartphone here.
I've got an iPhone taking a really quick product photo with the front cover on.
Basically, I can see that the light is evenly lighting the subject.
It reduces shadows at the back
with the addition of the three installed lights
as well as the two Halo bars and then using the front cover,
you're really achieving the best result for your product photos.
That was a quick unboxing and review of the brand new Foldio2 Plus.
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Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, @hypop.
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or visit our website, hypop.com.au.
Thanks for watching.