ASITIS, a polish company manufacturing the RoundFlash ring flash adapter, has recently launched a new version of its product called Magnetic Edition 5. As we mentioned in our RoundFlash review, the only concern we had with this ring flash adapter was whether the metal rods would eventually wear out their sockets causing the product to fail. With Magnetic Edition 5, ASITIS not only addressed this concern but also added other improvements making the RoundFlash even more appealing.
The main improvement, which we believe made a dramatic impact on the usability and durability of RoundFlash, is the elimination of separate metal rods. Instead of the six metal rods that you had to insert during the product assembly, there are now five built-in "collapsible" rods. They pop in place utilizing magnets in the middle and fold in half when the diffuser is collapsed for storage. This is simply brilliant compared to the previous design: there is no damage anymore that the rods can potentially cause, the assembly/disassembly time is now a breeze, and there are no separate peaces to lose (RoundFlash now is a single piece unit).
The following two images show RoundFlash Magnetic Edition 5.
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In the image below, you can see the original design.
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Aside from that, the outer rings are now about three times wider, which makes them less prone to bending. We never really had a problem with that, but stringer rings are certainly welcome.
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Another improvement is the cord that keeps RoundFlash sitting on your lens. The cord is thicker and it seems to hold onto the lens a bit tighter.
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There is also a number of small tweaks done to the look of RoundFlash, like logo placement, color of some parts, etc. There is nothing major, but it all still looks good to us.
The internal system of the reflectors and diffusers remains the same, and therefore, the light quality is still great: RoundFlash delivers a truly full circle of light, which other ring flash adapters struggle to do.
To conclude, ASITIS made a big leap forward in the design of its RoundFlash ring flash adapter. The built-in collapsible magnetic rods significantly simplify and speed up the use of this light modifier. We have to admit that we already liked RoundFlash quite a bit, but the new Magnetic Edition 5 got us really excited.