Recently my trusty double fold Westcott shoot though umbrella went the way of most conventional umbrellas – the fabric ripped from the structure of the umbrella. It served me well. Instead of replacing like for like I decided to look for a portable softbox to allow better control of the light.

When it comes to portable softboxes there are three main players I learnt, the following is a few pros and cons of each from my point of view, hopefully helpful to someone else also.

The main three are the Westcott Apollo softbox, available in various sizes; though I was looking at portability, so was interested in the 28″ version. Following the Westcott is the Lastolite Ezybox available in various sizes, but again, in the name of portability I was interested in the 24″ version. Lastly and I say lastly because I didn’t discover this one until I had almost decided on the Ezybox, the Cheetah Qbox which also comes in various sizes, but I was interested in the 24″ version.

Lastolite Ezybox

Westcott Apollo

Cheetah Qbox

Both the Ezybox and QBox are very similar in design, they both fold up popup style, both have a flash mount behind the softbox, thus making it easily accessible for adjustment, and both are 24″ square in size. The Apollo is a bit different in that the flash is mounted internally to the softbox and the softbox folds up using the same mechanism as an umbrella. Of the 3 the Apollo is probably the most popular and has a great reputation for producing excellent quality light.

I discounted the Apollo though fairly quickly as I didn’t like the fact that I had to open the softbox to make adjustments to my flash, this would be less of an issue if I used ETTL capable radio triggers but as it is I use Pocket wizard PlusII’s which are fully manual.

The Ezybox solves this issue by mounting the flash on the back of the softbox, thus making it easily accessible, problem solved, however the decision is not so simple if price is considered, the Apollo being approx $120 and the Ezybox being approx $220. One other issue I had heard though with the Apollo is that adjusting the angle of the softbox is tricky due to its design, again less of an issue with the Ezybox.

I then came across the QBox which is produced by a smaller company than Lastolite, but for all intense and purpose it looked to be identical to the Ezybox, save a couple of key differences… it folds up smaller, it is slightly deeper, it comes with a grid included, it comes with a baffle to create round catchlight, it is $100 cheaper than the Ezybox at $120!

Qbox Grid

QBox Round Mask

After some more searching and reading in the internet I ordered the QBox. Though I haven’t received it yet, after experiencing Cheetahs customer service, I felt compelled to write something about that aspect at least.

The day after ordering the QBox, I received a phone call from Edward; the owner of Cheetah, he had noticed that on my order I had selected second day air shipping and called to see if I really needed second day shipping!
This was a first for me, normally when ordering items online, they just get shipped via which ever shipping method you selected at the time of ordering, not the case with Edward. He wanted to know when I needed the item by, on hearing that I needed the item for a shoot on Saturday, he quickly checked to see how long ground shipping would take to my shipping address. It looked like ground shipping would get the softbox to me by Thursday, in plent of time and for $14 cheaper than two day air shipping, so he updated the order and refunded me $14 making the QBox more than $100 cheaper than the Ezybox.

For now I wait for it to arrive and will report back on my findings once it arrives, but so far, I find it hard not to be anything but impressed with the Cheetah customer service, there are a few other companies could learn a thing or two about Cheetah!