Finally! The Jewelry Photographer's Ultimate Enclosure is Almost Here

[zephyrnoid]

No. It's not spam. Finally after nearly 30 years of development, I'm ready to release the Ultimate Jewelry & Small object enclosure.It pays cursory tribute to the original and looks forward to upgrades that include large catalog shooter mechanization.
Just finishing up the master prototype, getting it ready for mass production and Patent Pending Application.
Here are just a few samples made with this enclosure.
seeland_1.jpg
core7093.jpg
Porsche.jpg

This is an appended FYI.....
1) This product is posted here for information. I do not expect anyone from WTF or any other watch or luxury products forum to buy this enclosure. You are not my intended customers, because you do not shoot high volume PROFESSIONAL ( ie for big bucks) jewelry images.
2) There is nothing intrinsically 'wrong' with hampers or waste paper baskets or lampshades turned into proxy light tents. I've tried almost all of them. They simply do not suite the needs of creative professional shooters operating in industrial studio environments. I'm an expert in that field, that is here because I had a big watch assignment last year that involved watches. Sorry to be blunt.
3) If you think $300 is a lot for the PlexiTent but like the way it looks, try building yourself one for less than $3,000. That's what the prototype cost me less CAD drawings and my patent expenses.
4) The Ikea Hamper type product is cheap because at $3.00 each wholesale, it only needs to be marked up 100% at retail of $30+plus shipping to you. At China fabrication costs ( not including trial runs) it will cost me $60 to make each basic PlexiTent including shipping. At $300 each, that covers manufacture, freight from China and B&H's 50% cut. That's the reality of Professional versus amateur gear. Do the math. My take is tiny compared to if I was marketing Hampers .That's why the Hamper tent inventor ( yes it is patented) is laughing all the way to the bank.
5) The initial KickStarter offering ( please follow the link to understand what kickStarter is about) is 300 units, but I haven't actually launched the offering yet. I got 50 basic units sold BEFORE they go on the market. So there! In truth, KickStarter isn't about raising a fixed funding, but about exceeding the funding goal. from the action I've seen so far, that will not be too difficult ( I may extend the offering duration to 100 days)
6) PlexiTent is not for everyone! For infinite white background effect that is so popular with some photographers, the Hamper is excellent and the plexi dome is supreme. I do NOT shoot infinite white backgrounds and my clients know that. They pay me to imbue the product with allure and their products are often in the $500,000 a piece range. Infinite white is NOT for Million dollar images IMHO
7) My innovations, in case you don't glean that from the movie are:
A- totally solid construction with no play in the 3/16" plastic surfaces
B- Semi-seamless corners and joins
C- Interchangeable and magnetically attached panels for front reflection or lighting nuances.
D- As yet to be completed remote controlled stage transport for high production environments.

[casyjones3]

Nice shots now lets see the enclosure.

[WatchFan1]

Nice shots, please do tell us more (if you can).


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Sent from my mobile device using Tapatalk.
Excuse my brevity and potential typos.

[zephyrnoid]

Good News!
I'm about to launch a funds generation drive within Kickstarter.com titled "Plexi-Tent Plus". The objective is to raise $125,000 in start up funds to roll out the first run of our Plexi-Tent Plus product.
It will be limited to 300 units worldwide.
Donors will essentially be prepaying for their reserved PlexiTent Plus enclosure. Scheduled delivery is June 2013. When the Kickstarter is 'live' I'll post a notice in the appropriate forum here on WTF.
In the meantime, I've been shooting like mad in the Prototype. I've got shoots lined up next week and am finishing up the promo video. Yee Hah!

[zephyrnoid]

More examples (individual shots) using the PlexiTent® enclosure ...

[zephyrnoid]

A recent one, shot using an old Coolpix 8800! No retouching
converta.jpg

[Left Coaster]

How is this different, or better, than light boxes already currently available?

[zephyrnoid]

How is this different, or better, than light boxes already currently available?

Just a week or so more before I can fully disclose the three fundamental advantages my PlexiTent & Plexitent+Plus but show me the light boxes currently on the market (that I haven't seen myself), and I can tell you what they CAN'T do .

[Left Coaster]

Please keep in mind that this is all intended as constructive criticism:

I've looked through the images in your Facebook gallery. They look... nice. They're nothing spectacular, but they're an ocean away from being bad, as well. They're simply "good" photos of watches. There's no "wow factor", though. There's nothing about them that makes me wish I'd taken them. There's no "pop".

You say you're looking to raise $125,000.00 for the first run of 300 units. While I applaud the entrepreneurial spirit, that hammers out to just over $400.00 per unit. That's not an insignificant amount, so it really will need to be something special, and it really will need to help a photographer get results that he can't currently get with a $40.00 lightbox and ten minutes of Photoshop.

Being a photographer (and a watch collector), I'm really looking forward to seeing your product...

[zephyrnoid]

Please keep in mind that this is all intended as constructive criticism:

I've looked through the images in your Facebook gallery. They look... nice. They're nothing spectacular, but they're an ocean away from being bad, as well. They're simply "good" photos of watches. There's no "wow factor", though. There's nothing about them that makes me wish I'd taken them. There's no "pop".

You say you're looking to raise $125,000.00 for the first run of 300 units. While I applaud the entrepreneurial spirit, that hammers out to just over $400.00 per unit. That's not an insignificant amount, so it really will need to be something special, and it really will need to help a photographer get results that he can't currently get with a $40.00 lightbox and ten minutes of Photoshop.

Being a photographer (and a watch collector), I'm really looking forward to seeing your product...

After 35 years in photography, I'm pretty thick skinned, to constructive as well as destructive criticism.I get paid to shoot and can shoot on spec or my self created images. I migrated from full-time Photography to multimedia, the web and finally IT Consulting in the late 90's. So believe me, there's a business plan and model and my training in Patent & Trademark has me well prepared for PlexiTent roll out.

Every person is entitled to an opinion as well as feelings of adulation or animosity. I'm the same way. I have served as an AD/CD so I can separate my criticism of any image from my own work. I have no ego in this regard. Most of my work furnishes content for GearStyleQuarterly.com an e-zine that I publish. Many of the non-watch jewelry pics were shot in the early 80's for high end jewelers that paid handsomely for the images, they do look ordinary for 2012 don't they? That's why I had to invent this enclosure back then. I was doing lots of catalog and needed certain special effects AND there was NOTHING on the market like my tent.

The purpose of this posting is not to impress, annoy or sell to anyone, it's to inform of what I use and how it will be different from other products currently on the market. Indeed, the enclosure, even in its +Plus version is NOT SEXY looking at all. But you know, it's the 'Hummer' of enclosures.It's designed SPECIFICALLY for high volume, high end pro shooters that have to maximize the time they spend on catalog shoots. It's NOT for amateurs, it's not collapsible and it will be a pain to ship :( but that's what I need to promote- a special purpose product.

Respectfully, your math needs some correction. $125K is NOT the total cost of production. It's the cost of 300 units PLUS advertising, promotion, Patent Application, trade show attendance and my 'beer money' profit. The units will sell for around $300 each for the basic enclosure and around $1,200 each in the fully mechanized form. There are now two versions of the enclosure- Utility, and Low Boy. There's more but that's for later ;)