Pop-up flash diffusers

Anyone have experience of variants of these - and if so can they recommend one?

There might be some good ones out there (e.g. the Lumiquest one ), I don't know, but I received one included with my used K20D, and it isn't very good In theory and in the flesh, it looks like it would do some good, but looking at the resulting photos I struggle to tell the difference with it on and off.

The one I have looks like a translucent white plastic radar dish, about 10cm x 5cm, with a W-shaped plastic bracket which attaches to the hotshoe (Edit: it looks identical to this this one).

I tried the old slot cut into a film canister trick way back.

Pretty much useless.

you will get best results using other, bigger light sources, and the on camera flash as "on axis fill" to reduce shadows giving the illusion of softer light.

I used one of these from here

Seems to work OK

Regards

Thumbs up for the one that Weldingblues posted - I have the same and it works OK, especially at parties.

You have to be careful not to rotate the camera too much, though, it slips away on my K-x.

Yeah the one weldingblues posted looks like a lumiqyest one, gets decent reviews.

Thanks for the feedback all - and the link Colin. At £1.99 that's definitely worth a punt, even if the results aren't dramatic.

I was considering that other type you linked Tim, so good to get your assessment of this. I checked out your Microglobe link. If their website is up to date they have some interesting lenses at a decent price (eg. new FA50s for £250). I got my FA35 from them ages ago - and this is still in stock apparently (£300). Though I recall from other posts here that their stock consists of grey imports. Still, if the price is right - though as has been demonstrated once again with the K5, buying from SRS is generally preferable.

Microglobe might have to revisit their DSLR pricing - how do you fancy a K10D + DA16-45 at just £1,200?

I think those are a waste of time. Can you guys really see a difference with them? i built one just to play around with and the difference was minimal.

However i did have good results with holding a small plastic travel mirror, or white card in front of the pop-up flash and bouncing off the ceiling. Though it's a battery killer, it does work pretty well. they sell fancy brackets to do this, but it's easy enough, cheaper, and i would think more convenient, to just hold it there with your hand

I have tried bits of paper (business card, receipts... rizlas) with OK results too. Works with compact cameras as well - rizlas that can be stuck on and folded to the desired angle work well there!