Westcott White/ Black Umbrella

[moloko]

So many people in forums asking about what studio equipment and modifiers to use. Since I am new at this stuff I decided to help those with some information on this product. I bought most of my gear from BHPhoto.com. I find it reliable and shipping to me is reasonable and fast. Two days from order to delivery. Price is $25.

There are many, many umbrellas to choose from. And even more price ranges. I chose the Westcott brand as something reliable and affordable for me. My other choice was Impact. Below the pictures are my descriptions of each. This is the White shoot through with Black backing.

This is what I got in the mail. Smaller than I was expecting. I was thinking a full size umbrella and something I had to put together. The plastic case is nice protection for the gear. When you take it out there is a fabric cover to the umbrella also. Take note of the style number #2011.

This is the umbrella extended. To the upper left you can see the secondary black cover to the umbrella. This keeps the umbrella compressed and tidy. Then umbrella feels sturdy. Pull the main rod and it extends and locks into place. Seems sturdy to me. The Main umbrella section has a nice plastic covered metal to lock into place.

This is a close up of the nibs at the end of each spoke. It seems this model number #2011 is the only one that has this feature. The other ones have sharp edges.

Here it is in action. With an impact umbrella adapter $15.

Conclusion: I see many brands and prices. Starting from 15 to 100's of dollars each. This Westcott White shoot through looks like a great value for the price. I would recommend to use these. Again I have not tried any other brands to "compare" but for what I see I am not disappointed in my value purchase.

Feel free to recommend any way I can improve this review and the reviews to come. Any questions or comments please leave them too.

[episode]

This is the first one you've used, right?

I just can't see how you can review something that you've never used another of. You don't have anything to compare it to in order to make a judgement.

Shrug. Sorry, don't mean to be a jerk, just doesn't make much sense to me.

[moloko]

When you get something and use it you can tell if it good or not. This is not a comparison test. Just a review and opinion of this

Westcott umbrella. I did a lot of reading to find out what I wanted to get. I looked at other ones in person but did not purchase so I will not review them.

Getting detailed information about particular products is difficult in photography with so many brands and tools out there. Each bit of information helps. I like to share things that I learned and not keep them. If someone finds this product not as good as product B, share with all of us.

Please feel free as I stated in the last few lines to put information on the brands you use and why or why not you use them.

I appreciate your criticism and will work to improve my future reviews. Again I am not doing comparisons of products. I will leave that for the pro's.

[Draconian Guppy]

wow, nice and cheap! Good review IMO.

I would get one of these except my tripod isnt as fancy as yours and doesnt allow it to dock anything on it.

[s0nic69]

It was a really good review and im glad to of read it. Hope to see more reviews from you.

I totally agree with ur comment back at moloko. I don?t see anything wrong with making a review of ur first of an item. Like you said, u didn?t make any comparisons to other products like this one, your just expressing ur thoughts on this item and you hope it helps someone els:) :)

[Aperture]

Hey moloko, try putting the umbrella in the umbrella adapter, the other way round, see how it tilts down a little? If you put it in the other way, it'll tilt up a little, and your light source will hit the center of the umbrella more directly allowing a better spread of light.

Good luck with your studio fun!