MyStudioPS5LED Tabletop Lightbox Photo Studio with LED Lighting for Product Photography

This is probably one of the better product that is available on Amazon for this particular purpose. I did a bit of research before deciding to order the MS20J Tabletop Studio and so far, I am more than satisfied with the resulting pictures but I cannot give it a 5 star review because of a few quality problems I ran into (see below).My initial thought was to give it 3 stars but after takings a bunch of photos, I changed my review to 4 stars.Despite assembly instructions that were not very clear, I managed to get the studio assembled in short order and immediately started shooting pictures after scrubbing the infinity background with SoftScrub. The product works as advertised - and actually works very well as the resulting pictures are of very good quality. I am shooting with a DSLR and have full control over exposure, aperture, white balance, metering, shutter speed and other settings and I believe that I should be able to figure out the best layout/position of the props and the bounce cards fairly quickly.Now, much as I wanted to give this 5 stars, there are a few problems that SHOULD NOT be present in a product at this price point.Problem #1I am quite used to assembling products and I prefer following written/illustrated instructions rather than videos. Assembly instructions are not very well organized and are not very clear - and the pictures provided in the manual are a little too dark/small so it is difficult to make out details. ON top of that, the text and pictures are separated: all text is grouped together and all picture are grouped together, and one has to flip back and forth between pages quite a bit. it would make so much more sense for each step to have its associated pictures immediately below, or inline and for instructions to be clearer and more detailed.Problem #2The white necklace holder arrived with its stand DETACHED (it came unglued) - this should NOT be the case for a product that cost $250!!! I I had to go find some strong glue and spend time gluing the stand back onto the necklace holder and this is the main reason for the loss of 1 star.Problem #3I was EXTREMELY careful when removing the plastic diffuser from the light strip - and despite that, 3 tabs broke off! Again, not acceptable for a product that cost as much as this one. And I lost a tab when trying to put it back in. Now, the diffuser is ever so slightly loose! It is very fragile. Second reason for the loss of the star.Problem #4One side of the bounce card is slightly glossy and the other side is matte but nowhere on the instructions does it state which side should face the light light. I used the glossy side in order to get better reflection.Problem #5The jewelry kit arrived with small sealed plastic bag that contained 6 squares white material of what appeared to be glue of some sort. There are no labels on the plastic bag and nowhere do the instructions tell you about what this was. So I had to jump back to amazon.com to read the description of the kit to find out that this was wax that could be used to hold items in place. A label & mention in instructions would be useful.A little bit if QC (quality control) would go a long way and probably result in 5 stars.

I purchased this kit in order to take product photography for my ecommerce website. Before I get into the review, I did want to mention that the first one that arrived from Amazon was damaged in shipping. Amazon took care of it of course, but, the way that these are packed makes the white plastic background susceptible to damage if the box is crushed vertically in any way. Mine was cracked and bent in multiple locations. That said, the second one arrived and it was perfect - so, I just wanted to mention this. I am not including this information in my star rating at all.On to the product itself. The background is what really makes this product awesome - it is SO much better than trying to use white posterboard (which dirties quickly) or other backdrops which have inconsistent results. It appears as though it will be super easy to clean, and it does provide a nearly perfect white background for product photography.As for the lighting - well, as other reviewers mentioned, the included lights (the MS32 comes with 2 of them) are quite weak. I read the reviews so I purchased 2 additional MyStudio lights - and they really make a difference. With my camera set to overexpose about 1/2 of a stop, I can get really natural white color out of the set up. My suggestion is - count on purchasing more lighting if you want to use this without doing a lot of post production work.Because I feel the setup is incomplete without additional lighting, I'm knocking a star. If MyStudio would include additional lights as part of this product, it would be a 5 star product; even if the price reflected it. If I had purchased just this kit, I would have been disappointed immediately.As for the other construction of the product, yes, it isn't super heavy duty, but, it wipes the floor with all those pop up tents and stuff like that. If you keep your setup permanent (I set mine up in a 52" x 52" closet under a stairwell), I don't think the flimsy construction is a problem. If you're planning to set it up, and tear it down a couple times a week, I think you'll be disappointed in the construction.All in all, with a little help from some more lighting, this is a great product and I would definitely recommend it.

I would love to give this product five stars....but, it was sorely lacking in the materials provided to put together and there was a major flaw. That said, I'm giving it four stars because I think the basic product is a very good design.What I like - the seamless background is nice and really does what it is supposed to do. Like others have said, it is big and not that easy to store but I can live with that. I put it in the corner of my jewelry room on a standard card table. This, I hope will encourage me to take pics immediately. The light fixture, though very challenging to put together (see below), once constructed, does a good job of illuminating the products. The jewelry prop kit was nice enough, though nothing special and if I purchased alone, I probably would have been disappointed to pay over $70 for this part alone. There was a helpful DVD that came with set up and shooting tips but it would have been nice to include jewelry shooting tips since I purchased the jewelry display component.What I did not like - the holes drilled on the feet were a different size than the holes drilled on the legs and the screw would not hold at all. When I say different, I mean significantly different, like I could see the difference with my not so good eyes. There was no way to attach the feet and without them, I could not stand the lightboard up. Now, I did not contact the manufacturer because I was very impatient and I wanted to use it right away so I went to my local hardware store, pieces in hand and they were happy to sell my four special wingnuts with round bases that did the trick (after laughing hysterically at the company who could not drill matching holes). I went home and continued with set up, happy to have a work around. There was one more little mishap though - one of the hand screws would not tighten and one of the other screws which holds the lightbar to the side bar would not go in fully. To really correct, I should probably take the whole thing apart, go back to the hardware store and buy a new screw and have them use a little tool to open up the hole where the hand screw goes (which by the way, the DVD claims was included but not), but I am too lazy at this point. I am able to make it work - it's a slight wobbly but I have done a little rigging to stabalize.In closing, the manufacturer clearly needs some quality control procedures in place. It's a shame to have to give negative comments about a product that is very effective.

If you're reading this review, chances are you're like me, an amateur photographer with an in home studio. Well, either that or you're looking to find a way to improve photographs of your jewelry.As far as light boxes go I've had a few of them in the past both hand made and the ones with the nylon screen panels. I looked around for something better and after watching a few videos by the manufacturer Pro Cyc Inc. decided to give this set up a try. it was disappointing and here's why.When this huge box arrived everything and I mean everything seemed to have been arbitrarily dumped into the box, no protective wrapping, no instructions, no promised DVD nada - zilch, with the exception of form letter that stated if I wrote a 5 star review I would be rewarded with a free light bulb, seedy marketing tactics I abhor. You can't "buy" a good reputation - period.* Strike One.If you're wondering why there are so many glowing reviews, you're not alone so was I and so are other Amazon shoppers who've written me with this very concern.In checking the 42 reviews I found over 96% of the 5 star reviews were written by reviewers who have written only ONE review and that's for this product. I find this highly suspect and over the years of writing reviews on Amazon I've seen this a handful of times in the past. They are in my considered opinion "Planted Reviews" Meaning compensated lies .* Strike TwoThe selection of jewelry display and related items are of marginal quality at best -another glaring issue I find odd that hasn't been brought up in any other review. For those of you who photograph jewelry you already know what the bottom of the barrel display items are. Velveteen over cardboard plastic watch and bracelet displays, some positioning wax and reflective boards - it's junk.And what is more it's so haphazard . If the wall of the Infinity background is 12" high why include displays that are 12" high? Why not choose 7.5" so at least the consumer can make use of the background - it's a reasonable question to ask. As for the Tripod, that's yet another issue it's flimsy and poses a genuine risk to your camera. You'll always be better off paying extra for a high quality well weighted Tripod.Pro Cyc sells their "Jewelry Display" kit for $75 so I put together my own package of the same items, but upgraded to better quality and more innovative pieces, all available on Amazon and less a Tripod came in at fifty bucks and change.There are other quality issues as well. For example the bounce cards are 100 LB coated stock that's poster board and thin poster board at that. My first reaction was "Really? these guys buy all this ABS plastic and they can't provide customers with decent bounce cards?"I know nothing about manufacturing these things - I've worked in Advertising for 35 years and do know this, whatever you sell, promise silver and deliver gold.It's not difficult deliver more for less money not less for more money - period.They cut corners everywhere and that's a fact.* Strike ThreeWhat it boils down to is this - I've been taking great looking photographs of my items with the Infinity background, it's an excellent product and could stand on it's own merit with a little more integrity from Pro CycIf Pro Cyc wants feedback from customers of their niche market products they should know they can't bribe it out or pay for it and they can't build a reputation on false and planted reviews. It's ironic because the background is such a great tool that I have no doubt if given the chance it would do just fine on it's own.Is the system worth $250? No it isn't, not to me. You need brighter light overhead and as I stated earlier side lights. If you want to try the MyStudio product I suggest buying only the seamless ABS background and choosing your own lighting and display gear - unless of course that "Free Lightbulb" really appeals to you.

Provided you are shooting things smaller than a breadbox, this is actually a pretty good setup in the sense that it gives good results right out of the box. The instructions are clear, the assembly is reasonably easy, and the use is intuitive. The kind of wobbly plastic feel, and the prosaic use of binder clips to hold everything together, are not really drawbacks for the application, though the PS5 probably won't win any awards for sturdy or aesthetically-pleasing product design. Obviously, the goal was to keep costs to a bare minimum so as to have a product for people who don't have a lot to spend. From that perspective, mission accomplished.My only real gripe is this. Most of the people who buy this thing, including me, are not professional product photographers. At most, we'll use this thing a few times a month, and we probably don't have a big, unused, table-sized space to leave it set up in. So, the design should make it possible to easily fold the thing up into a compact form and stow it safely away in a closet or the trunk of your car until the next use, at which point you could quickly unfold it again. In fact, you might think this is actually a realistic expectation for something called the "PortaStudio."Unfortunately, there was no effort at all towards this in the product. If you want to put it away, you basically have to disassemble it into it's component parts and try to put it all back in the shipping box again, which is probably 10-15 minutes of work with a wrench and a screwdriver. Not an impossible chore, but I have a feeling it will start to get old over time and I will get less use out of the product than I otherwise would. (Helpfully, they did include a large-diameter mailing tube that will accommodate the cyc and the colored overlays, which at least prevents these crucial items from being folded, spindled, or mutilated.) So, in that respect, I'm a bit unsatisfied and I feel the manufacturer didn't really follow through on their "portastudio" vision.I think the product is still worth buying if you have a need for compelling images of smallish objects, especially if you have the space to just leave it set up. But it would be great if the future PS6 or whatever will take the "porta" idea to the next level. Hopefully there will then be an upgrade opportunity for those of us who bought the PS5.