A brand new Kickstarter is looking to change the way that photographers use light modifiers. It’s called the SunDisc–and it’s a new product that tries to solve the problem of whether a photographer should pull out their reflector or their softbox. To do this, the SunDisc provides multiple surfaces such as reflective white, silver or soft gold. When you want to use it as a softbox, you just take the reflective surface off and expand the reflector’s body to function as a softbox.

To use the SunDisc as a softbox, the user needs to put the flash in through the bottom where the light shoots upward and then out towards the subject. When this is done, you can hope for no hot spots (as a result of flash) in your image due to the middle area of the box being blacked out. Because of this design, it functions a bit like a softbox and a beauty dish in one but doesn’t quite lean either way. I don’t believe that this is the most efficient way of using light either, but I haven’t seen the insides of the SunDisc yet.

Because of the design, the SunDisc currently only holds speedlights and hot shoe flashes.

The Sundisc measures in at being around 24 inches, which I generally don’t think that this is large enough of a reflector. You need at least something in the 40 inch range to get more coverage on a person unless you’re shooting very tight portraits. With a 5 inch depth, there also isn’t a lot of room for your flash to bounce around.

Despite the initial flaws I’m finding with the design, I genuinely hope that it takes off and works for product and food photography. A larger version is needed for proper portraiture; though this version would be incredible for tight portraits and food photography.