413 4-Socket Adapter

This little gadget gives you one more option to use when you are short of light, and it does it in a no frills and inexpensive way. It is no more complicated than it looks.It does have certain limits, but these are imposed by the lamp you screw it into and by the type and size or bulb you choose to use. Depending on the physical size of the bulb, you might get three or four in. I haven't bought any specialized bulbs, I'm using standard daylight household bulbs.My greatest limitation is caused by the lamps I have. The total size of the unit is small (smaller than I visualized 4x4 to be) and this is a plus since I could use it on a goose-neck floor lamp I already had. Of course, standard household lamps have a stated limit of 60W. Of course, 60W is not going to do the job, so I screw in 4 60W bulbs or 4 100W bulbs. The lamp overheats after a few minutes. I start getting nervous. I shut off the lamp until it cools. I shoot again for a few (really few) minutes. Stop again.I can hardly blame this limitation on the adapter, however. It does it's part and, for $15 it really does solve my problem temporarily. It is a handy thing to have in a pinch and doesn't break the bank.

Okay, first off, I received 3 of these so far and all of them works, no problems there. I must warn you is you get what you pay for and its a cheap quality piece of plastic which I must warn becareful of dropping this thing because it doesn't hold up to well to resist impacts. One of mine fell on the carpet and 2 out of the 4 sockets plastic part broke and exposed the wires.Also, I'm going to super glue the black piece of the plastic (shape of a rectangle holding the socket in place. Yep, because its loose and that was the part that broke off so, I'm super gluing it.Like I said, you get what you pay for and don't expect high quality materials. Main thing for me is that it works and that you have to be careful when handling this thing.

A well made unit that is able to use a variety of photo CFL bulbs in each of the outlets. The rear of the unit (not shown in the photos) features a single male screw in that fits well into most photo-umbrella stand adapters without the need for additional hardware. The socket adapter appears to be made or durable plastic and is not likely to crack easily unless abused or exposed to high wattage lamps for long periods of time (heat). Lights in the adapter are not individually adjustable, so that if you have four bulbs in the adapter, four bulbs will light at the same time.

This part is marketed by Westcott under their "Photo Basics" line and came in a small plain white cardbord box with only a sticker identifying the box as the "Photo Basics 413 4-Socket Adapter New." There was no documentation or instructions (not that any would be needed). The actual part does not have any name, numbers, or brand markings and would appear (by on-line photos only) to be the same exact part that is sold everywhere - including MANY Chinese e-bay sources. But, regardless, with Westcott putting their name on it (perhaps only in marketing and on the box) one would believe the quality would meet some reasonable standard.With that said, I was very happy with the part - while it appears to be entirely plastic (besides, of course, the screws, wires & contacts) the overall quality appears to be very good. Everything fits together well, aesthetically it looks good and it works as it should. For my use with CFLs I think the part is ideal (no idea how the plastic would hold up to hot tungsten lights). Add an inexpensive Home Depot Clamp Light, an umbrella and umbrella holder and one has (almost) a poor man's Spiderlite :-) I would have NO hesitation to recommend or buy another (which I will).

Although packaged well and showing no sign of shipping damage, one of the sockets was not attached to the base because the screw was either too short had been overtightened and stripped its hole. It is not easy to disassemble the socket to replace the screw but I was able to use methacrylate plastic cement to re-attach the socket but this was extra trouble I had not expected. The overall quality is fair---for example, the plastic sockets have only a small strip of metal to contact the screw contact of the lamp rather than a full metal female threaded contact. For low wattage, light weight compact fluorescents the fixture is adequate. But handle delicately and maybe avoid heavy LED lamps.

I can believe that other reviewers had these sockets fail if they used traditional incandescent bulbs in it. The heat from those bulbs would undoubtedly take its toll on the plastic, making it brittle. If you want to use incandescents, buy a more expensive UL-Listed unit that has ceramic sockets (I've seen them elsewhere, not on Amazon). Otherwise, use CFL (spiral) bulbs in this one to keep the heat down (and pay attention to it, as I will mine). It is not UL listed, I suspect, because it cannot handle the heat generated by incandescents. Oh, I should mention mine is working just fine initally; I'm using 4 ordinary 27W CFL (spiral) lamps in a ceiling fixture.