Flashing in circles

A new photographic trend may be in the making: ring flashes. We spotted an LED ring light for point-and-shoot cameras last week, and now we have the Ray Flash from Expo Imaging, as well as a conceptual shooter with built-in ring flash.

The Ray Flash is an adapter for your hotshoe flash unit and is currently compatible only with Canon's 580EX series and Nikon's SB800. This is clearly targeted at dSLR users who are venturing into fashion and portraiture photography. The light from the Ray Flash is soft and wraps around the subject, producing an almost shadow-less picture. The great thing about it is you still get to utilize the "TTL" (through-the-lens) function on the camera so your picture will be properly exposed.

But at a price of $250 on its Web site, we think you'll be better off getting a ring flash unit from the manufacturer.

The Ring Flash Camera is a concept camera by Lysandre Follet. Although there is no mention about its specification, it is not hard to gather from the tagline--"now you're ready to become a fashion photographer"--that this shooter is targeted at David Lachapelle wannabes. Hopefully, when it's commercially available it won't go under the umbrella of Lomography.com and be overpriced.

(Source: Crave Asia)