Why gary fong

Amazon will sell some and the forger will sell some. Pretty sure Amazon did not order fakes - but somebody tossed fakes in the hopper and amazon and others are now selling them.

Who cares - A cheaper offering might do the job just as good. He has to blame himself for being too expensive and there would have not been a knockoff made in the first place. The only problem I have with this is that it carries the name of Garry Fong. So that makes it unacceptable. Not the fact that somebody made a lightsphere flash diffuser. Only the fact that this is a counterfeit carrying his brand name is the problem. Not the device itself.

There are plenty of car brands too. All these cars offer four wheels a steer and a motor - are they also disgusting knock offs of the original Ford? Interesting how people constantly accuse DPR of his to do the will of the parent company Amazon, yet when an article clearly shows DPR's independence, not a word.

People are still buying Gary Fong flash products? I tried them as a noob in Sold them in It's sad when everybody is trying to make easy money. Also I don't know why Amazon let's sellers continue to make money with fake products. Its ironic how many excuses photographers make for supporting intellectual theft, of all the professions you'd think have a better understanding than most. He appears hurt more than angry.

He's a creative who's carved out a business for himself and now some dirtbirds are ripping him off; even ripping off his name. No, I don't use his products but I have seen my work used without permission.

It's a violation of ones person as well as a theft of ones property. I hope he can sue everyone even remotely connected with this crap! Though articles tend to skirt around it as with almost the entirety of the worlds "fakes market " for almost all goods. China is the origin, fueled by China's indifference to others intellectual property. It has cost other countries billions in revenue. Generating epic quantities of pollution that are responsible for 10's of thousands of deaths to their own people.

The West has let this activity run rampant for decades, I have no idea how or even if it could be tackled. Is it China? Or is the current Chinese government, specifically the current guy in charge? Those are two different things. And let's not even talk fentanyl analogues and anabolic steroids. Sometimes you don't need an army to bring other countries to their knees. Not a product I care about, but this level of fake being sold thru Amazon is a big problem. Really impressive how far some people will go to fake a product, but the real question is how will Amazon deal with having been a presumably-accidental co-conspirator in selling fake goods?

Will Amazon go after the vendor? Fake flash diffusors are bad enough, fake memory cards or even fake LiIon batteries are even worse. Amazon does not sem to care about its customers. It does and will hurt them soon enough. Customer confidence and trust is the most precious thing in trade.

Anyone else notice similarity between this light modifier and a plastic takeout container for soup with a hole cut out the bottom?? And I'm the world's worst cheapskate and I used to think the same way you do until I had DIY light modifiers and other gadgets fall apart in front of clients. It's pretty embarrassing. First, I am not impressed by the device itself. I had one given to me, and I forwarded to another.

Second, the higher you price things, the more you are going to push the counterfeit market, not that it makes it OK. As for Amazon, with millions of products sold by millions of sellers, how exactly are they supposed to vet which are genuine and which are not?

And, at looking at the video screen shot, the issue is not only a matter of knocking off the product, but counterfeiting in that it is packaged and sold as a genuine part. Both are bad, but the counterfeiting is certainly worse, IMHO, as it not only steals potential customers, but can damage the reputation of the original in quality and customer service. That "millions of sellers" thing is no excuse. If the site can't police all the people selling they need to cut back to a number that they can keep on top of.

And here's an idea, instead of hoarding more wealth than he could ever possibly use, the owner of the site could hire engineers to develop systems to identify and stop counterfeiters and turn them over to the police in their respective countries.

Gary has been fighting fakes for years. While I wouldn't buy one it is really sad to see Amazon selling fakes as original. It's a shame that someone who works hard to develop a product then has to use resources to fight and protect patents. I hope he sues Amazon. This has been happening to Gary for over a decade now; shortly after he first invented the Lightsphere, fakes appeared, especially Amazon.

Amazon themselves need to start doing something to help protect copyright laws internationally, because the types of things that this "global economic boom" has tolerated in the last decade have been utterly criminal. Sure, the major corporations can afford the millions of dollars in legal expenses that it costs to take on counterfeit items like shoes or cosmetics, but smaller companies don't have a chance.

Matthew saville, I absolutely agree with you, counterfeiting is terrible for the victims like Gary. However, Amazon has millions of vendors, and billions of products. The most they can do is punish those that get caught, by cancelling their accounts.

Of course the perpetrators can open a new account a minute later. This is a difficult situation. Amazon doesn't sell anywhere near "billions of products. As someone else pointed out, when you are the richest gazillionaire on the planet, you can pay people and systems to police your website to avoid or deter conterfeits.

I think you are indeed underestimating the profit margins that Amazon is raking in. All of these online giants, from Amazon to Facebook, employ armies of web designers and coders and legal teams who handle the design of various systems, TOS, and other infrastructure, They're just unwilling to pay for their teams to design a system that would inevitably harm their profits, even if the company could totally afford to do so.

So, you must mean the real world where large corporations are allowed to create entire new economies for themselves, and shirk various legal responsibilities that have previously afforded smaller businesses a fair chance at making good money? Unless you're a wealthy executive, Conrad, an attitude of "that's capitalism, get over it" means the joke is on YOU, not us and our LOL-worthy notions.

How about, quit making excuses for corporations that generate millions or billions of dollars as they let "small" unfairnesses slip through the cracks of the global economy? What's so unrealistic about asking them to better screen the system they created for what is, quite literally, criminal activity? Oh my heck, how is Amazon supposed to become experts on counterfeit items of every variety. And you are suggesting that they be held economically responsible for the actions of others.

You do realize that of the million items sold on their website, fewer than 10 million are ever in an Amazon warehouse, don't you? So are we to pay double the price for shipping so that every item is sent to Amazon and then inspected by an expert to determine if it is "counterfeit"?

My gosh, you haters of the rich live in a world full of frustration, don't you. There were hundreds of invited people at my party And why do you hate parties?? The I suggest you don't use Amazon, or Walmart. Go and inspect whatever the heck you plan to buy yourself. Good grief. You people are poor for a reason. You're not seeing the reality behind the situation. Don't be fooled by these giant corporations' status quo It's not about Amazon becoming the police.

It's about making them create a system built into their platform that allows different countries to pursue their own copyright infringement enforcement or criminal prosecution. I understand the thought behind your logic, I really do, but it is flawed. You state statistics and status quos as if their very existence makes them both fair and unstoppable. This is a classic fallacy of logic. You say if we don't like it, we should just shop elsewhere. Also, a fallacy.

The platforms can exist perfectly fine, AND allow for criminal activity to be curbed. They just want more money in their pockets. I'll make it very simple: they created this platform from nothing. It's their responsibility to make sure the platform's commerce complies with various laws within the various countries where products are sold from or to.

Oh, you can't see logic, that's the problem. Glad I can now see my exit from this conversation Spectro I guess you're in the tight fisted camp then haha I guess the price of any photo is relative to the cost of data then? I do have a very cheap priced knockoff. It isn't that much better then a speedlight that comes with a gel cap.

I actually use the gel cap more as it is easier to use and move around. I do event photography quite a bit. What about you. Specttro so you're fine with your customers just copying your images and distributing them as they want as data costs almost nothing it means all your photo's are worthless yeah? Spectro the absolute hypocrisy of photographers justifying their support companies that steal IP is dumbfounding.

I am not talking about imposter fake product. He didn't invent anything that wasn't already there, he just modified the design, like the one that came after him. These fake imposter are are ripping people off the his brand name. The cheap tupperware I have is from some other brand, not sure the name.

There are tons of cameras, flashes maker. Patents don't last fore ever too. I am not for the the fake product with his name, I got a different cheaper brand. You comprehensions is confused here. He filed a patent for the lightsphere. He never got a patent. Other idea that got patent has patent date and number not a publication date or number.

Photographic light diffuser Publication number: Abstract: A photographic light diffusing device is provided. A flexible, transparent cowl is adapted to be mounted on a photographic light source, the cowl including a plurality of ribs and an opening through which the photographic light source is visible when the cowl is mounted on the photographic light source. The cowl elastically deforms to fit onto the photographic light source.

A removable, flexible cover is placed over the opening of the cowl. Learn how patent works. Hopefully you learn something because ignorant is bliss. Spectro excuses excuses blah blah The court will throw your argument out like Gary fong copied a speedlight gel cap idea that isn't even patent-able.

Did I say not a patent. Most product, idea aren't original, the one that do are patent. But gary fong fboy don't understand. What a hypocrite and thief you are. Hey Gary Fong Danger did I hurt your feelings I don't care. Will buy it again and again. Lax enforcement brings us all down. They're great products that produce a unique look and solve a lot of practical problems when you use them properly.

In other cases nothing will do but a snoot made out of 35 cents worth of Cinefoil. Even those dumb Stoffen diffusers can be lifesavers in certain situations. That's why my camera bag keeps getting fuller and fuller and heavier and heavier. For one, the sphere does allow light to distribute evenly around in a circular perhapd donut shaped area, versus being bounced in one direction only, as a bounce card would mostly bounce the light forward depending on how you have it angled.

All it does it turn your flash into a omnidirectional point light source. Not groundbreaking. It's sold as the lazy man's perfect lighting in all situations And that's how I see people using it. I'll be out in a photographer hot spot, and there's wedding photographers outside with this Tupperware on their cameras for every single shot. Guess what?

That does absolutely nothing more than just using regular direct fill flash except drains your battery faster. The only thing dumber that I see is those photographers who bounce flash outdoors I guess they're bouncing off the clouds?

These devices are for people who are not interested in learning about lighting, and want to take the laziest approach Actually that's not entirely true, as it has one other purpose; it's a complete cash cow for Gary. Bounce flash outdoors, I can explain that one.

Lighting the ground under your subject when shooting outdoors is the sign of a photographer who doesn't know how to control his lights. So to prevent it, you feather the flash head upward so you only hit the person from about the neck up.

It also helps keep the viewer's eye on the face because it it will be just a little brighter than everything else. The reason you use a sphere outdoors is to control the shape of the catchlight and again keep the light off the ground. On a sunny day, neither of those things will make any difference compared to standard fill flash, except burning through batteries and over heating your flash.

They're all lazy lighting for people who are afraid or not willing to work with off cam techniques. Off camera flash is for people who are too lazy to learn anything new and lack the technical finesse to use on-camera flash.

So now we're even. I'm sure half of the portrait photography community would disagree with you. If anything, off-camera flash is more cumbersome to setup and use in many cases. The Gary Fong thing has a use, but it's limited in my opinion, not to mention there are just many other options that do the same thing many are cheaper, but some are more expensive, like a Magmod sphere. I will do on-camera flash if I have to, but if given the option, I prefer off camera and I think many others are probably the same.

This morning for instance I was shooting a home inspector who was posing in an unlit attic full of loose Fiberglas insulation.

I was afraid to breath let alone set up light stands. I kept my flash on the camera and used a snoot and bounced the light off the attic ceiling. Two hours later I was shooting an office full of Realtors and put my speedlights on stands, a bare one for the hair light, one with an umbrella for fill.

The key was the sun coming in the window. Hold on You had loose particles floating around and you shot on cam flash? This is one situation where off cam would definitely be the way to go. But anyway, you basically just also confirmed what I said about being lazy; you did it this way because it was fast and you wanted to get out of there. Edit: sorry, didn't see the bit about the snoot, as we were talking about the Gary Fong here. A snoot is different.

On camera flash can be done, and it can look great, but it takes pretty much the same effort and steps as off camera flash. Joe McNally is a good example of this. He can light scenes with an on-camera flash that you otherwise would have thought were lit with ambient or natural light or something else other than on-camera flash, but he's probably one of the few exceptions. This just goes to show it can be done, but some people lack the experience or enough skill to really make it good, sp it's not so much about being lazy though.

Manual model might be be a better argument for laziness as one is like "auto" mode for your flash, and the other requires manual adjustment obviously. I disagree re: manual vs ettl. That's just two methods of controlling flash power levels. For 12 years I was a pure strobist. I have used every setup. Every technique. Every situation. Every modifier I'm now in a different direction; capturing reality.

I'm over the need to control a photographic situation and embracing the art of documenting reality. XeroJay, that's what i mean about lack of real-world experience. In the colder parts of the United States, it is fairly common to have houses insulated with Fiberglas fluff imagine the fur shed off of a pink dog that is blown into attics to a depth of 1 to 3 feet or more, God help us.

Once the insulation has settled it doesn't move unless disturbed so visible particles are not floating in the air. Individual fibers that look like they're coated with dust do tend to float around making breathing fairly uncomfortable.

The insulation is so deep that you can't see the joists, meaning there is no safe spot to set up a light stand. And because safe footing is equally very difficult to find, it's dangerous to have more than one person walking around at a time in such a tight space—the chance of collision is too high.

That's why I stood at the top of a ladder to shoot my subject and got my shot with the speed that only on-camera flash can offer. He keeps saying "Amazon", but when I look at the site there are a lot of sellers offering it, so maybe it's one of those sellers that's shipping the copies or stocked Amazon's warehouse with them. There are a couple listings for Amazon Warehouse, but those could easily be returns of copies that people wanted to replace with the real thing.

Yes, with commingling of produtcts this can happend I believe that's an option though , and that's why I said another vendor could have caused this, not Amazon. It is Amazon's job to look into and fix the problem though Glad I didn't buy flash diffusers.

I don't use a flash anyway, so either product would be pretty useless. Mortal Lion, points off for your first post but bonus points for your retort :- Most folk here reply to any criticism with less humor. No way, they're known for their integrity and genuine products!

I can't believe it. I don't know where else to buy camera gear. Well, I'm sure this is only a fluke. I once bought some speaker cable, installed it and later the next day noticed a sickly smell in a home theatre room. I traced it to the Chinese-made speaker cable plastic cladding. I have NO idea why it was emitting such a smell, but I quickly disposed of it.

A few years later, I met Gary in person, and had a long chat about the global marketplace and intellectual property etc. Simply put, that attitude is unacceptable. It is highly unfair to whoever puts in the hard work to design something, let alone file a patent and bring the product to market. This will result in only large corporations doing the innovation, and monopolizing the new products. Large online stores like Amazon need to screen their sellers and products better, it's that simple.

It's not just "fair to the little guy", it's a legal obligation. Just watched some youtube videos all offering paid courses on how to make millions in the FBA program - basically find a Chinese manufacturer to copy some successful product on Amazon and sell it for cheaper and all you have to do is pay the Amazon FBA fees and you could be sipping drinks on the beach ;-.

Yup, I've seen those "learn to make millions on Amazon" workshops. Rule of thumb- if someone is trying to teach you a "hot new business model", chances are it's already played out years ago. Otherwise they'd be too busy pocketing millions doing it themselves, lol. I've seen the Alibaba etc.

The "landfill lifestyle" is very disturbing, to say the least. I'm all in favor of daily necessities becoming dirt cheap thanks to the wonders of modern automation and global supply. Heck, I'm shocked that food and water aren't freely distributed to every human being on the planet by now, with the advances we've made in global production and shipping. Cant remember last time I reached for a speedlite, everyone at the club uses a profoto or godox battery head on a stand now..

Wait, they run around with a battery powered studioflash on a stand to take nightlife shots? I must have missed that memo. Sorry, I learned everything I know about the British class system and urban decay from being a Clash fan. Is Birkenhead like a modern day Brixton? Well, the problem is Brixton is now 'hip' and 'eclectic' decipher that as you wish! Is it worth the hefty price tag? We take a look at the Cine, the high-end model in this series. The Nikon Z9 is the company's first camera to feature a stacked CMOS sensor, which brings a raft of new features, including blazing speed and autofocus performance to the Z lineup.

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Via: PetaPixel. Tags: counterfeit , diffuser , fakes , gary-fong , light. View Comments Comments All Horiz Opposed As a lot of people have said, his products are pricey. Fergus Ferguson I bought one of his Tupperware things years ago. Larabee Amazon get the blames because the product is fulfilled by Amazon and ship from Amazon warehouse with its seal of approval.

I will leave it at that. Fergus Ferguson Sixty bucks? Camera System Accessories. Travel Accessories. Laser Rangefinders. Also in Optics. Audio Recorders. Projection Screens. Drawing Tablets. Pro Video Cameras. Video Rigs. Also in Pro Video. Live Streaming. Security Cameras. Home Automation. Small Appliances. Also in Smart Home.

Lifestyle Gadgets. Computer Accessories. Shop By Brands. Hot Deals. Gift Cards. Sort by: Position. Bestsellers Product Name Price. Add to Cart. Category Flash Accessories Brand Gary Fong Gary Fong Condition New Pre-Orders Yes 1. Cable Type Flash Sync Cord 2. Cord Type Sync Adapters 2. Fits Light Type Portable Strobe 1.

Grid Type Honeycombs 1. Interior Colour White 1. Modifier Type Ring Flash 2. Number Umbrella Segments 16 1. Umbrella Type Softbox Umbrella 1.

Accessory Type Receiver 1 Transceiver 1 Transmitter 1. A Side Connection Miniphone Colour Black 2 Silver 1. Compatibility Fujifilm 1 Manual 1. Mount Type Proprietary Mounts 1. Number of Grids 3 1.

Range m 1 1. Size 60x60cm 1. Top Mounting Accessory Shoe 2. Umbrella Size cm 1. Flash Connection Hot Shoe 2.

Radio Frequency MHz 1 2. Reflector Type Beauty Dishes 1. Reflector Size 20" 1. Channels 4 1 52 1.