The second one (Fotodiox) is far better, in terms of construction. It's actually rather impressive considering the price. And the price is pretty much the same for both options, since you don't need the umbrella holders for the Fotodiox. Just keep in mind that disassembling and reassembling it is very time consuming. I have never broken mine back down, it took long enough to put together. The first one just unfolds like an umbrella, it's up and running in two seconds.
If you have studio space for two big softboxes, and don't plan on taking them 'on location' then absolutely get the Fotodiox boxes. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I really like the 24x36 rectangle shape of my umbrella softbox. If I was to get two Fotodiox boxes I'd probably get one rectangle and one square. Actually, I'd probably get both rectangle. Or maybe an Octa. choices, choices...
Here's the spectral highlight that the Fotodiox (square) makes. You can see that even with the double baffle there's still a bit of a hotspot in the center. Not enough to bother most, and you can just photoshop it if it bothers you. But just so you can see a real world example:
And here's the highlight from the 24x36" umbrella box I listed (first one). It's not really a fair comparison, but I didn't have a closeup of the rectangle box handy. Still, you can see that the spectral highlight is more consistent, less hot spots. I also like the rectangle shape for eyes - not to mention I think it's a better shape for lighting people (even little ones).
@rswannabe wrote:
I can see what you're saying about a hotspot in a larger softbox. I'm curious about how you would add more that one light to a softbox though. Don't they just have one port for a speedlight? As far as the modeling light goes...I guess you just try to keep ambient light to a minimum? Just enough to focus?
They make hotshoe adapters to put multiple speedlights on a stand. There's a ton of different types, like rails:
Or multi-adapters:
They're also easy to make if you have cold shoes. But me personally, I don't need anything fancy, I just strap a second light onto the first with a bungee cord, kinda like this, only the first one is on the bracket, and the second just strapped to it:
On the internal softbox, the Brolly, any of the options work. But on the Fotodiox boxes where the flash sits at the rear you have less space. The ring is big enough to fit two speedlights in it, but only if they're strapped close together, long sides next to each other. That's why I've never bothered buying a rig, it's easy enough to just MacGuyver it. Also, there's a diminishing returns with multiple speedlights. A second light gets you an extra stop, but it takes two more to get a second stop, and a total of eight for the third, etc. If you need more than two speedlights, then you need a studio light.
As far as modeling lights and ambient. With flash you don't have to worry about ambient, unless you're doing really wide aperture stuff. At ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 1/160 ambient doesn't have much effect except on glossy reflections. If I want a pure black background sometimes I'll turn down the lights a bit, because the 6D dynamic range can pull detaiil out of the darkest of shadows. But really you can just fix it in post by checking your levels.
