Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I was dismayed to read in an earlier post that PCB has no plans to produce a larger strip box. Personally, I think it would be a popular item, and I'd certainly order a few. The small one I just received is quite nice and will see a lot of use both in my studio and on location.

That said, I would like to hear suggestions on creating a strip-type box from a larger rectangular box. My initial thought is to purchase a large box, purchase a spare front diffusion fabric, and then block off part of that fabric on the interior with foil or some other material. I would like to know if others have tackled this problem, and if so, what they used and how it worked for them.

Since the staff of PCB reads these, I will ask here what it would take to get the company to produce a run on full length (60-80") strip boxes. I'd gladly pay several hundred dollars for one just to keep me from having to go to Elinchrom or Profoto for one. Because if I can't get this to work, that's what I am going to have to do. I've ordered a few thousand dollars worth of stuff from PCB in the past 6 months, and am due to order some more in the next few weeks, but would love to stay with the brand for these boxes if I could.

Thanks,

-P

For the time, effort, and cost of adapting a giant soft box or buying a special order softbox (which we cannot do, by the way); why not have two lights with PCB stripboxes mounted one over the other? A light stand with 2 superclamps mounted sideways with studs will allow 2 lights to be aligned one over the other.

That's an interesting thought. Do you have an example?

The ugly part of course is now I need 4 lights to do this on two sides of the model. Two lights plus two strip boxes per side means it's cheaper for me to buy the competitor's solution.

I'll have to weigh the pros and cons here. But I am very curious to see this superclamp solution you speak of.

I have done exactly what TS suggests: if you already have the lights, and you have two strip boxes, this works well, and even allows a bit of separate power level control between upper and lower if you have need of it.

Of course, if you need TWO long strip boxes, then this method means two more lights and two more strip boxes. I wouldn't go this route, but if you were, as you say, willing to pay several hundred dollars, then you could do this, too. And you would have extra lights and boxes hat could be configured differently.

An alternate route for the longer strip boxes is to do a search for Fotodiox on Amazon. They make a lot of stuff with AB mounts. Note that they are not generally foldable like the AB boxes. But they are affordably priced. I suspect the nylon is not well matched to the AB nylon in terms of the color temp it produces, but they do make some long strip boxes for a pretty low price.

One caution about Fotodiox: their products are less expensive for a reason: the build quality is not at Paul C Buff level, and their Customer Service is atrocious. I ordered a barn door assembly from them (in a foolish effort to save a few dollars), they shipped it in its on-shelf box (a thin white, tight fitting cardboard box) with NO packing material. It arrived damaged inside the box, unusable. They wanted me to pay to ship it back, wouldn't send a replacement, and asked me for pictures to prove it was broken before they would do anything. When I mentioned this on their facebook page, they deleted my comment, and those of others who had chimed in with similar stories. I had to escalate it to Amazon A-Z. They've had my money, and I have had a useless product for weeks now.

So, ymmv, but just wanted to let you know that if you get a good item from them, everything is great. Any problems, though, and you will regret doing business with them. It is a crap shoot, and you have to ask yourself "Do I feel lucky?"

I won't buy their products anymore. But if it is a product that you cannot get here at all, then it might be worth the gamble.

Superclamps are about 30 -40 bucks (manfrotto super clamp)

but you can also do this with lightstands, and if you have any mini booms or c-stands with the arm: Set one up low, then use the boom/arm to position one over the first.

Another advantage to this set up is that you can angle them differently: grid them, angle the lower one up a tad, and you are not lighting the floor/feet quite as much. Lots of possibilities.

Ahh, I gorcha.

I have c-stands, and I think I know the clamp you're describing. I'll check into that.

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I have Einsteins and PCB strip boxes and was also wondering if there was a larger one in the works to!

I like Tech Support's suggestion, but if you don't have the xtra lights, I found this on Amazon that may do ok.

http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Diffuser ... 570&sr=1-3

Never tried it, can't vouch for it, but it's huge - 12" x 80"!

Say's it's speed ring is compatible with Alien Bees, but not sure if it will fit Einsteins.

For only $89 may be worh a gamble. Just be super careful that it doesn't fall off and break your flash head and diffuser dome.

I would also like to find a source for a larger strip box. In addition to a full length strip box, I also need several with dimensions of about 12" x 48". The current PCB product is superb, but it's a little undersized for my portraiture and headshot photography.

Frank