Обзор комплекта освещения для софтбокса Fovitec SPK10-037

Комплект для непрерывного освещения софтбокса Fovitec SPK10-037 включает в себя две прямые стойки с регулируемой высотой от 32 до 90 дюймов и две софтбоксы с пятью гнездами, а также подставку с такими же регулировками высоты, регулируемый рычаг стрелы от 30 до 58 дюймов и одна головка лампы накаливания. Также в комплект входит большая сумка для переноски и противовес для мешка с песком для стрелы.

Рычаг стрелы имеет большую регулировочную ручку и металлическое кольцо на одном конце, чтобы прикрепить противовес мешка с песком. Ничего не было включено, чтобы фактически прикрепить противовес к стреле, поэтому мы использовали брелок, который мы носили вокруг.

Подставки являются самой слабой частью этого комплекта освещения. Два прямых огня очень тяжелые из-за большой головки патрона и количества лампочек — при увеличении высоты выше 70 дюймов дешевизна подставок становится очень очевидной, и они сильно колеблются. Если вы расположите софтбокс в том же направлении, что и одна из ножек, подставка немного стабилизируется.

Стенд бум это отдельная история. Его противовес почти необходим, если софтбокс не установлен очень близко к остальной части подставки. И даже при наличии противовеса подставка очень шаткая и не очень прочная. 

The setup for this Fovitec kit can be time-consuming with the number of bulbs and rods in the softboxes. With some practice, you can probably get setup and breakdown to about 15 minutes or less. But if you haven’t used a lighting kit before, expect a learning curve here.

There are 11 lightbulbs in this kit, and you’re required to do a decent amount of assembly to construct the softboxes. One thing to note is that the fabric diffusers fit somewhat loosely over them, but there’s no need to worry as it won’t affect the functionality of the lights.

Once the softbox heads are set up, they easily attach to the stands and boom arm. You’ll also need to attach the sandbag counterweight to the ring at the end of the boom arm, and there’s nothing for this included in the box. We used a key ring, but we think a carabiner would work better and be easier to put on and take off.

This was the brightest kit we reviewed and overall it performed very well. The three power switches on the straight stand softbox heads have diagrams for bulb configurations, so you can turn on paired adjacent bulbs and the center bulb by itself in any configuration. This is helpful when you already have some decent light or are in a situation where having all the lights on would wash out the subject or the background.

Like all CFL bulb lighting kits, these softboxes do produce some heat but they are capable of running continuously for long periods of time. We tested this kit continuously for four hours in a larger studio situation, and the heat wasn’t too bad. If you are shooting in a small space, however, they might make it uncomfortably warm after a while. 

This kit is very portable—it only weighs about 26 pounds and everything fits nicely into the included bag with some room to spare. 

The stands fold up very quickly and the softbox heads can quickly be collapsed. If you want to shoot at different locations but still want the benefits of an overhead boom, this system fits the bill.

The most time-consuming part of setting up and breaking down this system is the number of bulbs. You’ll want to keep the boxes and styrofoam they came in to protect them in the carrying bag.  

At $189.95 (MSRP) the Fovitec SPK10-037 Softbox Continuous Lighting Kit is a little on the expensive side. We think it’s worth the price, though we do wish the stands were a little more heavy-duty. Either way, this kit is still a pretty great value and we think it’s a keeper.

If this is your first lighting kit and you are a beginner, you might want to look at a cheaper two-piece kit since the boom light isn’t necessary for most applications. For anyone who specifically wants a boom, though, this kit is priced right where it should be.

A slightly less-expensive competitor to the Fovitec SPK10-037 is the StudioFX 2400W Large Softbox Lighting Kit and we got a chance to test them side by side. 

The StudioFX is also an 11-bulb system but uses a larger 85W 5500k CFL bulb for its boom softbox. It has a more heavy-duty boom stand and two counterweights that come in very handy. The five-bulb socket heads also benefit from a set of five power switches that allow you to turn each bulb on and off individually.

The StudioFX softbox kit is $149.99 (MSRP) but isn’t without its problems. This system packs into two carrying bags that are nowhere near the quality and durability that the Fovitec kit offers. It’s also much more difficult to fit all the pieces of the kit into the carrying bags, and the boom arm adjustment is frustrating.

After several hours of testing, we concluded that the more heavy-duty stands didn’t offset the problems we had with the adjustments on the boom—ultimately, we would choose the Fovitec SPK10-037 over the StudioFX lighting kit.