Completed Foldio 2 - Kickstarter

[SamuraiJack]

they said these lights are too powerful to run off a 9V battery so they have to be plugged in... i'm in for $1.. have to make sure i don't get a photo cube for Xmas first..

[Adrift]

Here's a link to my review of the first Foldio.  http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/54503-foldio-portable-light-box-review/?hl=foldio

 

After using it for a while, I would say it was well worth getting and I think I will be picking up the larger one as well. It takes only a few minutes to set up and take down. Though the leds were placed differently than my review shows. They are now both mounted on the top.

Based on this review I think I'll back this. I'm tired of a certain friend of mine hating on my pictures!

[MonkeySloth]

I backed. The first one looked promising but I wasn't sure I wanted a 1.0 product. This one looks much improved--especially the size so I could use the nicer backdrops. Having a dimmer is a nice bonus too now that that's unlocked.

[Thes Hunter]

My husband bought me this. It's nice but the supplied lights are under powered for minis, I need to add brighter lights. I don't remember what he paid for it, but $65 is about right.

 

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/a205/

 

If we didn't have this already I'd be tempted by the Foilo 2.

[Wren]

I was given the same studio set-up Thes linked to as a gift. (You can buy similar ones on Amazon.) I agree the supplied lights are under-powered for our uses. I added a light from above, and a small one from the front. I know other people who have gotten just the cube, and then cheap but strong clip-on lamps from the hardware store for side lights.

 

Until receiving that gift a few years ago, I propped up a binder filled with heavy TCG card sorter pages and taped my background sweep to that and the table, and then used 2-3 lamps (with taped on tissue paper covers to diffuse the light a little). You don't necessarily need a fancy set up, it can just make it easier to set up/tear down and decrease the learning curve on getting decent photos with your particular camera option. 

 

One tool I have found very useful is something called a Whibal card. It is a small plastic card in neutral light grey, with patches of pure white and black. You can use it to set up your white balance, then when you import the pictures over to an editing program, use the Levels option to set the white, black and grey for the picture. I was getting very frustrated with colour shifts in my pictures, and it's helped immensely. I used to use a bottle of paint with white and black on the label, and then a grey background, but the colour correction was not as precise or easy to do. (There are other brands of greyscale cards.)

[Doug Sundseth]

Based on the side-by-side shot, it looks like the new one has brighter lights.

 

Different color temperature and about a stop brighter is what it looks like to me.

 

Neither of those matters if you're using automatic exposure and automatic white balance.

 

For that matter, as long as the image files aren't getting noisy (requiring multiple-second exposures or the auto-ISO is pushing up too high) the total amount of light is not relevant to the exposure when you're not in a manual mode. If you want brighter images, use a darker background, use exposure compensation, or use a manual exposure mode and set the exposure time long enough to get the image bright enough.

 

Note that this says nothing about the directionality of the light. For that, make sure you have light shining directly on the places you want to see. For flat light, where the shadows are the ones you painted on, not the ones from the lights shining on the figure, use big lights to either side of your camera or use a ring light.

 

All that said, if you know why you want this kind of light box rather than a pair of softboxes, the price looks fair to me. (For something intended for photography, where the price automatically rises by the time you get past the "ph" in the name.)

Edited December 16, 2014 by Doug Sundseth

[Arbiter10]

I'm about 99% certain I'm going to back this, but I have some questions for some of you more knowledgable folks.  The basic pledge comes with two LED strips.  Will this be enough for taking good-quality photos of minis, or should I pledge for additional LED strips?  Also, I get the impression that I should also get diffusers, but maybe I'm mistaken.  Any advice?

 

I created my own home-made lightbox a few years ago and got decent results using desk lamps with it (you can see some of the results here), but I think I'm ready to upgrade to a professionally-designed product.

[MonkeySloth]

I'm getting diffusers, you'll want those and they're only $3.

 

Not sure about more LED lights but it appears all their demos were only using 2 strips.

[araziel]

Price seems pretty bold being what it is, I mean I could maybe understand 20-35$ since they've done this before and all. But really. 60$ for some thin plastic sheet and a led strip?

I'll make mine myself

[MonkeySloth]

Price seems pretty bold being what it is, I mean I could maybe understand 20-35$ since they've done this before and all. But really. 60$ for some thin plastic sheet and a led strip?

I'll make mine myself

I've priced good liteboxes and this is pretty cheap for what it is.

[The Gibbergeist]

I asked them yesterday if they have a PayPal option too. I don't have access to CC so hope they'll get back to me.

[lexomatic]

They got back to me really quickly about non-courier options when I asked.

Though near the end it might be a bit slower.

[MonkeySloth]

update time:

 

We are manufacturing Foldio2 in South Korea. The New Year’s holidays is Feb 18 ~ 22th, so production will start right afterwards. We expect to finish production around the forth week of March. The packaging process for each backer’s unit will start immediately after that. If we meet any unexpected situations that will cause delay in fulfilling your reward, we will let you know.