DoPchoice has announced the new Snapbag Airglow. It’s an inflatable softbox designed for 2×1′ LED panel lights. It’s an interesting design, both in terms of its inflatable nature and how it modifies the light.
Unlike most softboxes that simply diffuse the direct light from the LED, this one bounces it. Your panels lay flat, pointing straight up. The light bounces off the top/back surface at a 45-degree angle, and then it shoots out of the front diffusion.
DoPchoice Snapbag Airglow – unconventional
It’s a very interesting design for a softbox. It reminds me of some of the things we used to put on our on-camera speedlights shooting photos a couple of decades ago. Except, this is much larger and far more useful.
While any softbox’s goal is to try and create a cohesive and evenly diffused output across its surface, many softboxes for LED panels don’t live up to the expectation. Many hold the diffusion material too close, which means you still see a lot of individual bright points.
By reflecting the light off a surface before sending it through the front diffusion, this guarantees you’ll never see multiple light sources and multiple shadows because the LEDs weren’t diffused enough.
There are three different diffusion materials that come with it, including quarter, half and Magic Cloth. There are also several different backs you can choose from, shown below. From left to right: unbleached and bleached muslin, Hard Silver or Ultrabounce.
Inflatable Softbox?
Inflatable light modifiers are not a new idea. There are a number of them out there for various uses. You might remember we checked out Aladdin’s giant inflatable tube lights at NAB last year. But this design is one I haven’t seen before – not in an inflatable flavour, at least.
Its inflatable design means that when it’s not in use, it packs down extremely small – much smaller than the fully assembled unit. And it comes with a bag that you can fit everything into, including the pump.
To be clear, DoPchoice shows the pump and the bag on the Snapbag Airglow product page on the DoPchoice website. But so far, no actual release details have been provided. These may be included or, more likely, optional extras at additional cost.
Price and Availability
The DoPchoice Snapbag Airglow has been announced, but no information about pricing or release date has been provided. It will be on show at the BSC Expo in London this weekend on stand #133 for those who may be attending and want to see it in person. For more information, see the DoPchoice website.
