MagBox First Impressions Review
MagMod is a small company known for magnetic light modifiers. They typically launch their products through Kickstarter. A few months ago, they announced a new product on Kickstarter and I pledged to be an early recipient of the MagBox, receiving it last week.
All camera accessories, from lenses to flashes to other accessories, serve one of two main purposes: Make your photos better or make your photos easier to capture. I’ve been using off camera flash with modifiers for some time, and they certainly make photos better. The MagMod MagBox Pro is a combination kit, priced nearly $500, which in theory can elevated the portable softbox shooting experience. It’s rather expensive for a softbox. As I discuss in this article about my portrait kit, I typically have used a cheap Godox softbox. The 24″ Godox softbox retails for around $25, so $500 for a 24″ softbox is quite a steep increase. Still, the best portable collapsible softboxes aren’t necessarily cheap. For example, the 26″ Westcott Rapid Octa Box runs about $150., not cheap but still a lot less than $500. The MagBox pro kit also includes a case, gels, brackets and other accessories but even with everything included, it’s a lot of money for a soft box kit.
So why did I rush to buy it? If you’ve shot with softboxes on the go in outdoor environments, you know it can be a real hassle. The boxes tend not to be super portable and can be cumbersome to set up. The various brackets also can get complicated. With various features and supports, MagBox has promised a superior off camera light experience that is also much easier to use. Let’s take a look at what’s included in the unboxing…
Un-boxing the MagBox Pro
Pictured above, we see the MagMod case, which promises to hold everything in a portable fashion. Before we open the case, there was another critical product I had to order, the MagGrip:
The MagGrip attaches to the head of a standard speedlight or the Fresnel head of a Godox AD200. (The Godox AD200 is one of my favorite products, you can see it on Amazon / Adorama). It’s necessary to attach modifiers to your flash or attach your flash to the sofbox. It’s a bit difficult to stretch the rubber to fit, but once attached it is sturdy. You shouldn’t have to remove it again.
Above you can see the MagGrip attached to the Godox AD200. Now, a great thing about the MagBox system: You can attach two flashes or two AD200’s. Two AD200’s would give you the combined power of a pretty darn powerful strobe. Unfortunately, the MagGrip is not included with the MagBox. I already owned one and purchased another. (MagGrip on Adorama).
You’re see on the botton left, the MagBox itself, collapsed. You will notice two types of diffusion panels that magnetically attach to the front of the softbox: a fabric diffusor and what MagBox is calling their “FocusDiffusor.” The fabric diffuser makes the box operate like a classic softbox. According to MagMod, the FocusDiffusor creates a more focused narrow beam of stronger light, making the box behave more like a beauty dish. So getting a regular softbox and a beauty dish in one, certainly enhanced the value of the kit.
In the middle of the frame, you see the MagRing and MagShoe — essentially the brackets for your flashes. You can use them with or without the softbox.
Above,we see two flashes attached to the MagShoe and MagRing. I will say, they attach and install super easily. With magnets, they just pop into place. The back of the MagRing has panels that close, to doubly secure the flashes. The whole thing is well built, feels really secure. Most importantly, the set up is much faster than traditional brackets.
The best part is that the MagBox itself just connects quickly with magnets to the front of the MagShoe. It can take me several minutes to attach a traditional softbox, but this is done in just a couple of seconds. The magnetic attachment feels super secure — it only detaches with the press of a button that disrupts the magnetic field.
Again, this is a well built and sturdy item. But it is pretty heavy. For shooting in artificial light, it can be helpful to shoot with correction gels. Gels are cheap thin sheets of colored plastic. They are cheap, but can be annoyed to set up. In the kit picture above, you’ll see a packet of gels in the top right corner. I haven’t had a chance to use them yet, but they should snap easily into place right in the magring.
Above, the Magbox isn’t fully expanded. But a quick click in the center, and it opens fully:
As you can see in the photo above, two flash heads ready to go. You then just attach the fabric diffusor or focus diffusor to the front — again, just magnetic attachments all the way around, so no strings to thread, etc.
When it’s all put together, you have a set up that can be handheld or attached to a light stand:
I was impressed with the build quality. After a couple of tries assembling and breaking it down, it was definitely a much easier process than my traditional set-up. The entire assembly/breakdown took less than 3 minutes, where I can often spend 5-10 minutes with my more conventional gear.
One of the best things is actually the case, which is a double sided duffel bag. The bagbox gets inserted into one end and all the accessories go into pockets on the other end. And then there is left over room for 2 flashes/AD200’s. Finally, I was even able to get my light stand boom into the middle of the bag:
Once all packed, it becomes very portable but it is a rather large heavy bag:
Sample Images
I received my MagBox just a couple days ago and have not had any real opportunity to put it through its paces for real shooting. I’ve only been able to shoot at night with it.
First, let’s see a couple images taken at night with the Sony A9, Sony 85mm F/1.8, and the MagBox with focus diffusor and a single AD200 as the light source:
The image above and the image below both had the MagBox positioned camera top right. A reflector or fill light on camera left would have been helpful, but you can certainly see the high quality of the light.
As only being a 24″ box, it can be challenging to use for full body shots. Ideally, you’d want a larger box, but it can work. Based on a survey from MagMod, they are certainly contemplating larger boxes in the future.
Below, we see another shot taken indoors with the FocusDiffusor, which definitely did concentrate the light more like a Beauty Dish:
Conclusion
I do not regret this purchase. The MagBox kit is not cheap but let’s put it in perspective. $500 would be nothing for a full frame lens, and a good softbox kit will actually do more to improve your portraits than an expensive lens. There are cheaper softboxes certainly, but the MagBox kit will succeed at delivering very high quality off camera light with greater ease. The entire package has the extra benefit of great portability with the case. There is a cheaper kit available for under $300. It can be pre-ordered from Adorama here. It includes the basics: MagBox, MagRing and MagShoe. But it doesn’t include the gels, FocusDiffusor or the case. In my opinion, the extra items are worth the extra cost.
Pros of the MagBox system:
- Extremely portable
- Extremely easy to set up and disassemble
- Very high build quality
- High quality off camera light
- two in one, beauty dish and softbox, essentially
Cons of the MagBox
- Heavy
- Expensive
The MagBox Pro kit is available for pre-order from Adorama here.
