Bower SFDRF Digital Macro Ring Light Flash for Nikon, Canon, Pentax & Olympus Digital Reviews

Average Customer Rating - 2.4 out of 5 stars

5 customer reviews

Ok product, not for the professional though!, June 5, 2007
We purchased this product to reduce shadows and glare on items one photographed with close up macro photography for sale at online auctions. It works duly well, but will need some facilitate from you to be worth it.

The flash is too "hot" at its stock settings. You'll need to adjust your camera to compensate for the overexposure or try to fix it in a photo editing program. The settings are not adjustable on the flash.

The cable from freestyle pack to flash is short and has too much tension. If you try to use autofocus, it pulls the lens out of focus cause the camera to constantly attempt to readjust. If you then try manual focus, the rigidity is enough to pull it out of focus if using a sensitive lens. I've tried stretching the cord out, but it hasn't help much. The construction is also almost entirely thin plastic, from the foot and battery pack to the flash. I'd be exceptionally careful not to knock the battery pack against anything too rock-hard or you'll be out a flash.

Blew out on third flash., July 1, 2007
Everything is cheap about this product. The circuit board fried on the third shot. Warranty non-exsistant, since you have to wage to ship both ways. There was no way I be going to sink more cash into this. That surge when it blew could have taken out my camera and lens. Bite the bullet and run with a real product, or work around it.

"Auto" setting doesn't work??, February 8, 2010
I didn't expect seriously from a unit at this price, but this flash is too HOT!! The manual setting is useless for close-up, and the auto setting doesn't seem to be to make a bit of difference. But, like I said, at this proce, I can us some ND filter.

Piece of junk, May 1, 2009
This is a complete waste of money since it's a piece of cast-offs. First of all there be broken pieces of plastic in the hotshoe unit/battery compartment that holds the front piece in place and second of adjectives it's all cheap foreign crap. I should have set it was too good to be true for beneath a c-note for a ring flash unit for my digital camera. Buyer beware! It fires on it's own without depressing the shutter button and it's really cheaply made...

works even better than expected, May 18, 2007
This ring flash is wonderful. First article, it really is a ring flash, not a ring light. That means vastly more street light, albeit in a similarly shorter period. It is much more powerful than I thought it would be. Even at 1/250 and f/16, I bring back a great close-up exposure.

For over a year, I used a Canon S1 IS (Image Stabilization) digital camera. My new Nikon D80 camera is wonderful but Nikon locates their image stabilization not within the camera, but in their VR (Vibration Reduction) lenses. I need extra depth of enclosed space so I have to use higher-numbered (smaller-diameter iris) f-stops. That means long exposures. Handheld photos enjoy too much shake with the long exposures. Since I haven't saved adequate pennies (and it takes lots and lots of them) to buy a VR lens, my close-up photos are fuzzy unless I put them on a tripod. Tripod is synonymous with beefy, bulky, clunky, cumbersome, and loathed.

More light is a solution but my D80's integral flash casts unwanted philosophical shadows. The Bower SFDRF Digital MACRO Ring Light Flash doesn't cast those shadows and gives me so much street light I can take 1/250th of a second exposures at f/16. That means I can handhold my camera contained by my shaky paws and take spontaneous sharp close-up photos.

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