Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I love the light quality produced by the octabox diffuser. will a soft sliver plm umbrella with a white front diffusion fabric produce similar light quality for a less expensive price? thanks!

Yes. It's very hard for me to differentiate between my PLM and a softbox. I can't fairly do an apples to apples comparison because my octa is smaller than my PLM, but both of them are very soft.
The only dead giveaway for me is the shape of the catch light in the eyes.

ok thanks I appreciate it.

Softbox vs PLM+WFDF are rather indistingushable. However, The softbox can be gridded for more control. The PLM+WFDF cannot be, so there will be more spill. However, a soft silver PLM with no fabric will have about the same spread as a gridded softbox, but will be a little contrastier.