Hi--

>David...I almost always use, and LOVE, my Lumiquest SoftBox with both my
>SB-26's and Q flash! (No, I don't use on on my studio strobes -), but
>I do love softboxes!).
>
>I can't argue with what you say, but I do like the benefits that I get
>when I am close. As of yet I haven't had the urge to see if a lone
>SB-26 can adequetly light a group of several hundred at it's theoritical
>maximum distance of 100 meters! -)
>
>As of yet, they haven't made a big enough portable battery (or a big
>enough bracket!) so that I can carry a Ultra 1800 to get that "extra"
>power. I wonder how many flashes I could get with that setup with a
>Turbo battery?
>
>Just a little (possibly very little) humor!
cjc2@bellatlantic.net

Ah....;-)
BTW, I always recommend testing of flash ad-ons...
Generally, if the distance is greater than a few feet,
and there are not REALLY close reflective surfaces, they
do nothing but cost power. The ones that effectively
don't increase light source size significantly don't do
much at any distance (if you pop the flash with it pointed
at you with the Lumiquest, you will see (in the after image...)
that most of the light output is about the size of the
flash head behind the "diffuser" (you can see that I'm
sceptical of these things...;-). I did find one that does
appear to work, but I've never bothered to carry it to
a job the "Scoop" (last night I used two large styrofoam
cups fitted with the rims together, with the flash head firing
up into them through a hole, and with the back sides covered
with crinkled aluminum foil - I will see the prints later
this week...;-), though I use a styrofoam cup over the
up-turned flash head when I need to lose light, get it
above the lens, or widen the coverage for superwide
lenses - but not for "softening shadows", 'cuz I don't think
it does that...;-) BTW, I've illuminated whole symphony
orchestras with one SB-24 on camera, though I try to use
high ambient-light fill - and I prefer to use two on-camera
SB-24's to allow a bit more control in directing the light
(this set-up allows bounce-and-direct lighting in rooms when
shooting group photos, too [the main light is raised to shade
down the feet and more evenly illuminate front-to-back from
a ladder shooting position, the bounce light is used to
soften things a bit, as is the ambient light, when high
enough...]).