The biggest feature of Photojojo’s Ring Flash Adapter is its price. At just $40, it costs less than many home-made solutions.
Like any other adapter, the Photojojo RFA uses the light from the flashgun you already own to provide illuminations. This light fires into the plastic interior and is channeled into a loop around your lens. Thusly redirected, the light now projects evenly onto your subject, giving the tell-tale ring-flash look.
And what is that look? The point of a ring-flash is to give even illumination. Because light comes from every point around the lens, shadows cast from one side are filled by light from the other, giving a flat effect with kind of shadow “halo” behind your subject. It is really meant for macro work, but gives some great effects for all kinds of photos.
A ring-flash adapter will succeed or fail depending on its efficiency. A real — and expensive — ring-flash has its own lights and offers the best, most even coverage. As an RFA uses light being pumped in from the side, it has to hold onto as much as it can as it redirects it. Looking at the example shots on Photojojo’s site tells us that this cheap adapter gives us a somewhat uneven result, somewhere between the harshness of a bare, on-camera strobe and a more expensive adapter. It also has a chunk missing between the 11 and 1 o’clock positions, which adds a shadow to the top of the picture.
Still, it’s $40, and at that price you can forgive almost anything. It’s also light, at just 1.5 pounds (700 grams). That’s not as light as the 18 ounce (500 grams) Orbis RFA, but then, it’s $160 less.
The Ring Flash Adapter [Photojojo. Thanks, Jen!]
Photos: Photojojo
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