Walt Anderson Flash Extender

Tele flash/project-a-flash, the newest in equipment catch phrases. There are many on the market, but I've only found one really worth owning and that's photographer friendly. The Better Beamer is a simple design, making a whole lot of sense in the equation of solving problems. I wish I could write volumes on it, but it's just too simplistic for much discussion.

The Better Beamer is made of four parts: two sides, an elastic band and the Fresnel lens. It?s so simple, it hurts! Simply put the elastic band around the flash-head, slip the two sides into the band, one on each side of the flash-head, and then attach the Fresnel to the wide end of the sides via the Velcro strips. The two sides have rigid supports on the narrow end that slide over the flash-head, preventing them from pivoting. They also have a small lip on the wide end with Velcro for attaching the Fresnel. This method allows the flash to be turned vertically or horizontally without any slippage. That's literally all there is to setting up and mounting the unit; it takes less than a minute! All this and it only adds just 21 ounces to the flash! And when not in use, it folds up completely flat for easy carrying and storing. It can easily and safely go in any vest pocket for easy transportation. There's no bulky milk container to carry around!

Better Beamer flat One point of confusion though on these units seem to come from application. All the tele flash units provide two stops of increased light. This does provide for some extra carrying distance for the light from the flash when shooting. But think about it for a second. Let's say we're photographing a small dickey bird, say the size of a sparrow. If we're not at least within twenty feet of that bird, it's going to be just a dot in the frame, right? Now most flash units such as the 540EZ or SB-26 can easily reach that distance with ISO 100 film without any tele flash gizmo. So why then do we need a project-a-flash?

The real use of these units should not be to get light out there six miles. These units should be used to increase the amount of depth-of-field we're obtaining when using flash. They should really be named increase-flash-DOF. Remember that the light from flash is always falling off at an extremely quick rate. So even with The Better Beamer, those two extra stops really only provide a stop or more of extra DOF. But heck, I'll take all I can get!

There are two models of The Better Beamer. For most flash-head models with a flash-head size of appoximately 1 1/2 to 19/16 inches (Canon 430EZ, Nikon SB-24, etc.) you need the FX-1. For larger flashes with a size of 13/4 inches (like the Canon 540EZ), you need the FX-2.

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