American Recorder SIB-101CS Classic Photo Studio-in-a-Box
by AMERICAN RECORDER
|
List Price: Our Price: $49.95 You Save: $60.00 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of American Recorder SIB-101CS Classic Photo Studio-in-a-Box
Customer Review: Great for small items.
Summary: 4 Stars
I own the previous model, the SIB-100 that was upgraded to a SIB-101. They're identical other than the lights. They're UL listed with the SIB-101, they were not UL listed with the SIB-100. I'll make more comments below.
First the bad. The camera mount won't hold a camera that's much heavier than a point and shoot. I use a larger camera with a standard floor tripod. I gave this four stars because I think the camera mount isn't that useful.
Now the good.
I bought the Photo Studio-in-a-Box to take pictures of items I'm selling on eBay. I got tired of using the dining room table with the associated problems of getting even lighting and a neutral background. This provides very even lighting with no hot spots. I'll put the pictures I take with this up against any professionally taken pictures. The lighting is that good. I've posted two pictures I've taking using the Studio-in-a-Box.
More about the lights. When I started searching for replacement bulbs, I couldn't find any so I called American Recording and talked to a very nice gentleman. He told me they had redesigned the lights in order to gain UL approval. He then sold me the new style, UL compliant, bulbs and light stands for the price of new bulbs. Talk about great customer service!
For those who complain about the lights getting too hot...
To preserve bulb life, I'm in the habit of using room lighting for composing and setup, then turning on the SIB lights to take the picture. After taking a few pictures I got tired of having to turn the lights on and off for each shot. I bought an extension cord with a foot switch and plugged both lights into it. Makes things much simpler and easier.
Customer Review: Good product, horrible directions
Summary: 4 Stars
This product was given to me as a gift by my boyfriend since I take a lot of pictures for my food blog. The natural lighting in my condo is terrible so even with a wonderful Digital SLR camera I have been struggling to get great pictures. So far this product has been a great solution. It is big enough to fit even large bowls of food and has greatly reduced the shadows in my photos and made the images crisper. Overall I really like this product.
So why not give it 5 stars:
-The biggest negative for me was the directions. They do not indicate whatsoever how to get the retractable legs out of the lights. If it wasn't for other reviews I still would be lost. I recommend reading all the reviews here before setting this up.
-The backgrounds. As others have said, the colors they give you are not the most logical choices and they do tend to crease very easily. The later would not be a problem but since there is nothing to indicate what kind of fabric the background is made out of I don't feel comfortable ironing it.
-The lights. After having this for a couple months I have seen that they are really delicate. I've only carried this set (in its case) from room to room in a 642 square foot condo and already one of the bulbs no longer works. I don't know that I would feel comfortable using the case to take this studio long distances since it doesn't seem to protect the contents very well, even with delicate handling.
Those nits aside I really enjoy this product. The lights are bright enough to give me the picture quality I need and the set as a whole has made getting blogworthy pictures a piece of cake.
Customer Review: Good purchase
Summary: 4 Stars
I use this to photograph my wife's jewelry. It does work very well, and the light is diffused nicely (so as not to give that harsh light effect). Specifically, this is good for photographing small things...like the jewelry and stuff. Anything big will require a bigger box. The only major complaint I have is the tripod. Basically, it's pathetic. I have a Nikon D60 DSLR camera. The tripod is too whimpy to be able hold the camera at anything other than very level. If you try to put it at any sort of angle, the small ball mount will slip. I tried cranking down on it to get it as tight as I could, and it would still slip. I ended up throwing it away and using my personal tripod. Other than the weak tripod, I have no other major complaints. I've gotten many compliments from the photos I've taken with it. Also, you may want to consider buying additional backgrounds unless you can use blue and gray colored backgrounds for all your needs.Customer Review: fine for short takes
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, a great deal. I deal in a small way in 18th-19th C. swords, and this setup makes it easy to produce the kind of close-to-professional closeups that mean everything when one sells antiques via eBay. The only weak link is the lights, which are fine at lower shutter speeds but start to overheat at about 15 minutes - though they cool off nicely in another 5. So,if you're not taking hundreds of shots on a busy schedule,this isn't a real problem - if you are, I don't see anything in this price range that will work any better.
Customer Review: Very good for small pictures
Summary: 4 Stars
This studio is great for product catalog pictures and ebay pictures. It allows good lighting to be displayed through the two lamps. The reason I gave it four stars is the difficulty of getting the legs of the lamps out. I had to take the lights away from the handles and then hit them at an angle to get them to extract. After the first time, you should not need to fully insert the legs back into the handle. This is just a recommendation for future purchasers of this product.