I had a bit of time on my hands last week, so I got innovative...
I have three flashes; two bounce-flashes, and one fixed flash (
Vivitar 2600-D). Unfortunately the only one that can be safely mounted to my digital SLR is the
Vivitar fixed flash. This means if I want a diffused light from a bounce flash, then I need to mount both the camera and a bounce-flash to a bracket, and trigger the flash remotely. Not a convenient arrangement sometimes.
Being a skinflint, I wanted to solve this problem without forking out for a dedicated bounce-flash. The solution is my humble
BounceBox, which fits directly to the front of my fixed flash and reflects the light 90 degrees straight up. As it only has that single angle of reflection, the usefulness of the
BounceBox is limited, but suits its purpose of allowing me to use my diffuser on the dedicated flash.
This is made of
4mm MDF and good ol'
aluminium foil.
Velcro tabs hold the box to the flash, and a cheap
vinyl diffuser fits over the top rim of the box, held in place with more velcro. I'd considered using a glass mirror as a reflector on the assumption it would do the best job of bouncing maximum light from the flash, but I settled with foil glued to stiff card and glued into place (because I'm lazy and too tight to buy a mirror). As it turns out, the preliminary test-shots show no difference between the light output of the
BounceBox, and the output of either of my bounce-flashes, so the foil is doing the job quite nicely.
I painted, spray-varnished and sanded the box, so that it looks less conspicuous when used in public.
I added the logo badge to the front panel because I'm bragging (and a bit of a w-nker).
All up, the whole thing took about six hours to make and cost me next to nothing. The MDF was scavenged (it's the backing of an old photo-frame), the foil came from the kitchen, black paint from an old tube of craft acrylic. The only thing I bought was the velcro stripping (about $4).
Last edited by marcdsgn; 09-30-2008 at 08:04 PM.