Introduction
Most people have heard about Fotodiox because of their wide variety of lens adapters. I actually spotted their adapters over at the Sony booth at PhotoPlus Expo, which should tell you something. They also took a little bit of heat last year when they launched their Flap Jack LED Panels because people just want the power aspect of the LED panels. Fotodiox wasn’t concerned about the power. Instead, they were focused on creating soft, diffused light. After chatting with them a bit today, I am excited about this company as a whole. I love their vision. Three products really stuck out to me, but before diving in, I’d like to say thank you to B&H Photo for sending me here to New York so I could meet with companies like Fotodiox.
Fotodiox Pro WonderPana
As most of you know, up until now there hasn’t been a way to protect your fisheye ultra wide lenses. The Wonder Pana not only protects your lens, but it also provides a few filters like a UV or ND as well as Grad filters. (More will be available when upon launch. You are looking at images that are the prototype model). You do have to remove your lens to attach the WonderPana onto it. It’s extremely easy to put on. You simply slip the red ring over your lens and hold up the filter part, and it just screws on. That’s it!
The new Wonder Pana that launches next month will be able to accommodate the new Canon 11-24mm and will cover 145mm-186mm. All the same filters will be available for it as well. I’m excited to get my hands on this once it launches.
Fotodiox Pro Cinema Shark Cage
I Â love the slick look of this cinema cage. Most cinema cages are big, bulky, and boxy. Photodiox really made an effort here to make sure the cage is catered to the camera. Made from aluminum, it adds very little weight. The wood handle is a nice accent to the cage.
Below you can see the leather hand strap which provides two-handed stability.
Below you can see the cord pinch adding even more stability as well as making it, so they don’t keep falling out.
The handle is mountable in a wide variety of positions and can lock in any position as well.
Fotodiox Pro FlapJack LED Panel
The FlapJack is designed, so all the LEDs point inward toward each other rather than pointing out towards the subject. This allows the light to pass through the diffusion material which produces beautiful, soft, lightbox quality light. The FlapJack is available in 18in, 10in, and 7in sizes and is now Bi-Color. You can adjust the power from the knob on the right and the temp from the knob on the left.  All sizes utilize a power cord, or you can use the Standard NP-F960 style battery.
Most people shy away from a Bi-Color panel because of what has become known as the Bi-Color Curse. Most Bi-Color panels lose half of their power because they use alternating tungsten and daylight LEDs. The FlapJack utilizes newer chip technology, so you only lose about 7% of the power.
It is worth mentioning that these panels are not meant to light up an entire building or anything like that. They are not crazy bright on purpose. They are designed to produce beautiful light, and they do just that.
Conclusion
I was really impressed with everything I saw from Fotodiox. I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with any of their products before today. I really love their approach to product design. In an industry that is just saturated with endless amounts of products, I feel like they have found some really key areas to focus in on. Fotodiox is all about ease of use, stellar design, and clean, attractive looks.
Again, a special thank you to B&H Photo for sponsoring the SLR Lounge trip to PPE!
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Will there be any opportunity to pre-order the new Wonderpana system for the Canon 11-24 lens?
When it comes to front-filter UWA zooms, ‘accommodating’ your lens and ‘covering the entire focal length range’ are often two different matters.
Lee Filters cannot cover all of that Canon 11-24 with their SW150 setup — it vignettes around 13mm or so, taking away the reason why you bought an 11mm prime in the first place (who are you kidding, you bought an 11mm prime, you are not fooling anyone. :-P)
So hearing that Wonderpana will cover that same lens with its filters and cover that gargantuan FOV has me thinking it will suffer a similar fate and state it can’t get down to 11mm without some form of obstruction in the frame. But who knows? Wonderpana’s filters *are* bigger than the SW150 setup, so perhaps it’s possible.
Hey there – Bohus here from Fotodiox. Indeed, the whole point of manufacturing our own filters has been to ensure that the Wonderpana system doesn’t vignette. The main line of WonderPana round filters are 145mm. For the new Canon, we’ve had to grow those filters to 186mm. So yeah… we’re on it. :)
There is a version of the WonderPana called the “Absolute” that will let you use Cokin or Lee filters, but then of course we’re subject to the limitations of those filter sizes.
The WonderPana 145mm filter system for about 20 different lenses or so is shipping now. The Canon 11-24 version should be ready in about a month.
Awesome! Thanks for the heads up.
Also, Bohus, I see the phrase “145mm filter system” coming to the 11-24, but then you mentioned the filters have to be 186mm.
Can you explain that for me? Will the 186mm filters work with the basic 145mm Wonderpana setup? If not, will there be a 186mm system we need to buy hardware for?
Yup. Perfect for my A7R. Just what I wanted.
The shark cage is looking pretty good. I have a good rail system but no cage. I like it. I do lots of handheld work over tripod work.
Very cool man! The cage is only made for a select few smaller cameras right now. But each one is designed specifically to each camera. Can’t wait to see them continue to expand it.