Get ’Em While You Can

So smitten am I with the Janco 3-Color Pop-Up Flash Diffuser that I decided to order a second one as a backup. At its low price, why not.

Upon doing so I discovered that it’s no long available in the “Nikon” version, only Canon and Olympus (part of my reason for ordering it now, before it’s no longer available, period). Not to worry though, as I’m 99% sure that it’s a universal product marketed for different camera brands. So, I took a chance and placed the order.

Not too long after I ordered the Janco, I ordered a different brand of pop-up diffuser of a different design. The domes were considerably more compact, and considerably more dense. Also, the quality of the molding was not nearly as crisp as that of the Janco model. I’ve never bothered to use them.

If I’ve learned anything from Strobist.com, it’s that the apparent size of the light source is what governs the end results, and by this account the area of the Janco diffuser is nearly twice that of this “other” brand. So, I was extra careful to order the right one. Sometimes you can’t always go by the pictures in Amazon.com, but I gave it a try.

I was happily rewarded today when my order from Amazon/DBRoth arrived. Not only was it the correct one, with an identical bracket to the previous Janco model, but the color of the domes has changed slightly. Instead of a cyan and yellow dome, this version shipped with a green and orange dome. (Honestly, the differences are subtle but nonetheless significant.) I now have two brackets, two clear domes and four different colored domes.

The orange dome works much better than the yellow in warming the flash exposure. In fact, with a flash white balance, pictures taken with the warm dome in place look amazingly similar to available-light pictures with an incandescent white balance. The yellow dome gives a nice Lomo effect.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with the colors, but I’m mostly pleased with the clear domes. They make me feel good about using the on-camera flash.