Choosing a flash diffuser

I need some advice on with type of flash diffuser to buy. I am trading my Minolta manual focus equipment to Adorama. I am planning on getting a Canon 420EX for my Rebel XT (maybe a 550EX if they are more generous with the trade amount). I currently have a Westcott Micro Apollo softbox but it is pretty large and I think it will block the auto focus assist beam. So now I am trying to decide if I should get a LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer, a LumiQuest Mini Softbox, a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce or a Sto-Fen Two Way Bounce. I will be using this for portrait and wedding photography but I have never used anything but the Micro Apollo or just bouncing the flash from the ceiling. Any suggestions would be great because there isn’t much in the review section on any of these

I've got two of those - the StoFen Omnibounce and the Lumiquest Mini Soft Box. I prefer the Omni for a lot of reasons:

It's durable.
It doesn't need velcro stuck on the flash.
Easier to pack and doesn't feel flimsy mounted on the flash.
Not quite as big and ugly. :)

I went to a workshop with a guy who swears by the Lumiquest. I don't think it's big enough to make a difference in most cases, you'd have to be pretty close to your subject for it to have any effect (bio picture in my moderator page was done with one though). The Omnibounce lights in all directions, but you have to have a fairly low ceiling (say 10' or less) and light colored walls - won't always do too much but can help. The only downside is that if you have more than one type of flash you might need different Omnibounces so they'll fit, different sizes available.

They're all largely worthless.

I owned the omnibounce for my Nikons, and bought the Lumiquest for my Canon flash, and there is no way I can tell the difference between pictures shot with both. They do largely the same thing.

The only time they get used is if I'm in a tight area and want to spread the light around me to help fill in the shadows a bit more than direct flash does. None of these things do any actual softening of the light, they just bounce it around some. It's the size of the lightsource that matters, and the omni and the lumiquest both keep the size of the lightsource exactly the same as direct flash.

I've always wanted to try one of those little softboxes, but they are not much larger than what I am already using, and are way too unwieldy to put on and remove when situations change.

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Originally Posted by Stina

I I am planning on getting a Canon 420EX for my Rebel XT (maybe a 550EX if they are more generous with the trade amount).

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If you can stretch to the 550 (are they still available i thought the 580 replaced it) then it has a built in bounce card / difuser pannel which makes a lot of this redundant. Having said that i have a very nice lumiquest softbox on my sunpack 4500 and it gives very nice soft results. I have never noticed an improvement when the softbox was on my 550ex though.

I would love to have the 550EX (so far I can still find it) but since I just got the Rebel XT and a Tamron 28-75 f2.8, I will probably have to settle for the 420EX unless they give me much more for my trade than I am expecting. I may just wait and try my Micro Apollo on whichever new flash I get because so far I have had good results with it. Thanks for you input and if anyone has photos taken with the diffusers I listed above I would like to see them so I can decide on one of them later.