I haven't visit dpreview forum for few years now and I am seeing Godox strobe mention a lot.
What happen to Alien Bees users? Is it pass it's prime? I have AB myself and sure hope they are not going die off...
Secondly, anyone uses Westscott Rapid Box? I am looking for a octabox and the Rapid Box interest me for it's ease of use.
Thx
AlienBees is still good. But for moving around, Godox's barebulb flash is much better. As a matter of fact, even when inside, I use Godox 360 with my B800. Both put out similar amount of light. I think AlienBees puts out a bit more, and, of course, being AC powered, recycles a whole lot faster. But for the stuff I do, I don't need that and Godox AD-360 is plenty good enough. If Godox AD-360 had come out sooner, I might have gotten just two AD-360 flashes instead of B800. But, of course, B800 costs less and has modeling light also.
Godox introduced
TTL version of the AD-360. So, the prices on the manual version of AD-360 dropped quite a bit. So, I think the manual version is a really good deal now.
So, between
AlienBees B800 and
Godox 360, I think you have to consider what your needs are. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. When you consider shipping costs, the price difference is only $100. Can't go wrong with either one. As much as I like AlienBees, I much prefer the convenience of battery powered Godox AD-360.
As for the softbox, I also have Westcott Rapidbox. But I mainly use SMDV Speedbox.
Here's an interesting comparison between Westcott's RapidBox and SMDV's Speedbox-s65.
My own comparison of the two confirms what's reported on the blog. I think the quality of the light and quantity of light is better with the SMDV Speedbox. The limitation of the Speedbox-s65 is that it can't be used on AB B800. It's because the Speedbox uses plastic speedring. B800's modeling light will melt the Speedbox's speedring. But then the Rapidbox can't be used on AB anyhow even if it's made of metal. For my AB B800,
I use SMDV's Alpha Speedbox-A90 which is like a big brother version of their Speedbox. The A90 is basically a Speedbox for monolight users, but it can be used with Godox AD-360. I think the A90 is a different league compared to the Rapidbox. It's quite a bit more expensive also, but the quality is solid.
But for using with Godox AD360, Speedbox-S65 does the job well. The biggest difference between the Rapidbox and Speedbox is that the Speedbox is much more rapid than the Rapidbox. The speedbox is so much easier and faster, I feel that it's not a fair comparison.
Also, one thing that no one mentions is that the ribs on the Rapidbox is fixed. So, if you your Rapidbox falls over and the rib is bent, you are pretty much left to your metal working skill. However, the SMDV Speedbox has replaceable components, including the ribs. So, you can just replace the bent ribs. Had to do that recently. Luckily my flash didn't break on me.
