Whether you’re doing photography or filming, lighting is an incredibly important part of your creation, and luckily, RaLeno are offering their PS30 Softbox kit for £41.99, which is an excellent price for a lighting kit.
**The PS30 Softbox was reviewed using hardware provided and sent to us by ReLeno, but in no way influenced the review.
The PS30 comes in a very handy and well packaged travel bag, that whilst looking professional, also feels as though it can protect the contents, which is always a good bonus.
Inside the bag, you get
26.7-inch – 78.7-inch Tripod
Softbox head
Diffuser Panel
85W 5500K CFL Light Bulb
The softbox itself is a 50 x 70cm monster, that is large enough to use as a fill light for most environments, whether for filming or photography, and the included 5500K light bulb is incredibly bright – with my only criticism of the set being that the PS30 comes with simply an on/off switch, so there is no adjustments for the amount of light you get – you simply get on or off.
An easy way around this would be to use a smart bulb and dim the light with an your phone – but you may struggle to find a 5500K E27 equivalent.
Lighting wise, the PS30 looks fantastic, and is a really good studio light, especially for photography. The large style of the softbox means you can fill an area with ease, and as the tripod goes up 78.7-inches (around 6.5 feet) you can get it as high or as low as you need with relative ease. The tripod itself is very sturdy, and the separate locking systems feel really robust and solid.
The connector for the softbox is a simple cube version of a ball joint, and allows the softbox to be set at multiple angles – just ensure you have sandbags ready to weigh it down, whilst the tripod is strong, a slight nudge could send the whole thing down, as it’s still top heavy. This isn’t too big of a deal indoors, but if you were using this out and about for shoots, then you’d definitely need some counterweight.
For filming, I found the PS30 to be a bit too bright to use as a fill light for my set up, as it completely blew out the blue ambient lighting I typically use for backgrounds – which is where lighting control would come in real handy, which is a massive shame.
That being said, using it for filming still looks really good, just be mindful that you may need to be more conservative of where you place it, as you don’t have control of the brightness.
The PS30 is a fantastic light, that whilst not perfect, is still tremendous value at £41.99, and really my only gripe with it, is the lack of a dimmer control to adjust the lighting for more controlled shoots.
I honestly really like the PS30, but as a photography softbox only - using for video is recording is far too bright, especially as I like the look of more subtle and ambient filmography. That's not to say others won't feel differently, and some may even prefer a more brightly lit shot, in which case the PS30 excels at that, but for me personally, it's better served as a photography companion, something that it's absolutely fantastic at, I just wish there was more control over the excellent light it produces.
Check out the RaLeno PS30 HERE.