Flekt Kickstarter wants to bounce your flash in new ways

Unless you're Terry Richardson, chances are you want to avoid the harsh, limited light from a DSLR's pop-up flash. A new Kickstarter wants to help you avoid that, through the use of an interestingly designed flash modifier which they're saying will give you "professional quality light from your pop-up flash!" Called the Flekt (as in "reflect"), it's already well on its way to hitting it's $70,000 funding goal.

The Flekt is based on a modular, magnetic system for setting up the various parts of the flash reflector. A magnetic base slots into the hot-shoe, and then attaches an adjustable reflector that can be positioned to sit directly in front of any pop-up flash. This bounces the flash back $180 degrees, where it hits the second part of the Flekt, a modular dish which bounces it forward, creating a softer, more diffuse light.

While it sounds like there will be various versions in the future, the first is called the cFlekt (the c is for concave), and it can use white, silver, or gold reflective inserts, depending on how you want the light to look.

It's a noble goal to try and improve the on-board flash, and by using a set of two reflectors, the Flekt is at least a little different from the usual array of bounces and diffusers that clip on to the front of your camera. That said, for the same $65+ that this project is seeking to get the Flekt, you could probably get a basic YongNuo flash, and start dipping your toes into a more controllable form of lighting. Also, while the sample images given on the Kickstarter page and video are definite improvements over the standard pop-up flash, they still seem quite shiny and harsh. But it's early days yet, and the project is planning to ship until October—which gives plenty of time for them to tweak the design slightly.

(via FStoppers)