DIY: Disposable Camera Ring Flash

A lot has been said and a lot has been made concerning Ring Flash.

I've been seeing a lot of DIY Ring Flashes with great results but all had a single flash in them except for the attempt on creating a ring flash with 6 strobes and some Tape and let me tell you that was a heavy one, but if you think that was HEAVY just take a look at this one here.

I came into this model (Disposable Camera Ring Flash by Divet) a couple of days ago at the Instructables.com and found it quite appealing except the fact that you will have to get your hands on a couple of disposable cameras and some electronic stuff but I do think this would give a pretty good Ring Flash.

Take a look at what you will need to make the disposable one:
Materials:
10" Cookie tin
6" Metal dog bowl (Dollar Store)
Disposable cameras
Radio Shack AA battery pack (with built in switch)
RD616 wireless flash trigger ($20 Ebay - search: "flash trigger 16 channel wireless")
Surgical tubing
Old tripod plate
Broken door cloths hanger
3.5mm phone jack
Packing Tape
Velcro
Wire
Bolts
Carl Vogt's $5 Photo Slave
SCR 400 Volts 4 Amps (NTE5457 or Phillips C106D)
1 meg ohm 1/4 watt resistor
.05uF 400 Volt capacitor
Perf board
Solar cell from a dollar store calculator (WARNING: Dollar stores often sell calculators with fake solar cells)

Tools:
Nibbler (Radio Shack)
Punch (or nail)
Drill
File
Screwdriver
Soldering iron
Solder sucker
Wire stripper
Hot glue gun
Multimeter
Alligator clips

Then you just have to follow the steps in here and voilá you got yourself a DIY: Disposable Camera Ring Flash.

If you do not have such electronic skills you can always attempt one of the above Ring Lights links and make yourself one.

But how did this craziness about Ring Flashes started to spread into the Strobist community anyway?

Well, it all started out when David aka Strobist put a week challenge design on his blog so people could create this accessory and experiment this kind of lighting without having to pay lot's of money for a Professional Ring Flash... hey ain't that photography all about? Experimenting, testing, shooting, lighting, lighting, lighting did I forget lighting? ;)

There is a pool on Flickr for RingFlash/RingLight photos here.

Take a look at some of the models available out there in case you wanna build one yourself:

- Ready Made Ring Flash (I got mine but lack the time for the moment for the review, soon you will see)
- David Hobby aka Strobist
- Tanya Shields
- David X. Tejada
- Jedrek
- Aki Korhonen
- Dennison Bertram
- Jason Lee
- Doug R.
- Sebastian Kubatz
- Samuel Potter
- Nick Wheeler
- Kyle Gerstner
- Ladytrae
- Mike Osborne
- James Hamilton
- Bankara
- Richard
- Jack

And I leave you with Geoff Johnson on this great video where he makes a Ring Light of a ring fluorescent light and a pan that you can get on a local hardware store.

Just see for yourself how he did it and if you have already made one and have pictures please leave a link on the comments so we can all check them out.