Today we will be taking a look at the Godox P128 Parabolic Focusing System, Godox’s attempt to develop a true parabolic lighting system.
Background – Making a True Parabolic
A true parabolic light modifier like the P128 consists of a carefully shaped reflective cone in the form of a parabola with a center rod that connects to a light source that can move forward and backward.
Unlike most other modifiers which scatter the light in all directions, a parabolic reflector transfers the light in one direction. In this sense, you can think of a true parabolic reflector much like a lens that focuses the light (some also make an analogy between a parabolic reflector and a giant Fresnel).
While there are many modifiers on the market with the title “parabolic” or “deep-parabolic” there are very few actual true parabolic light modifiers.
The reason is that much like crafting quality lenses, creating a parabolic reflector requires the combination of precise engineering with the rod exactly in the center and the reflected material tensioned in a precise way to produce a uniform reflection. Even a small error in the design or manufacturing of the parabolic diffuser will result in optical imperfections and a non-uniform light pattern.
So far only a handful of manufacturers were able to perfect the creation of true parabolic focusing systems, most of them selling for several thousand dollars.
If you want to understand this topic better we highly suggest that you watch Photographer’s Ab Seasay on Parabolic Reflectors.
In the Case
The P128 comes in a very well-made padded long and fairly wide case with casters. In this case, you will receive the reflector, grip, focusing mount and focusing rod with stop ring, a strobe adapter, and a security cable (Godox, Broncolor, Profoto, or in our case a Bowens mount; there is also a special mount for Godox’ ring flash).
The Godox P128 Kit
Assembly
The P128 comes with a clear installation instruction page. Instead of pulling the metal braces as you do in many softboxes, Godox opted for the use of two metal rods which come included with the kit pulling them closer to each other opens the reflector and pushing them away closes it – fairly convenient (although the Broncolor PARA reflectors have an even simpler system with 4 leavers).
Next, you attach the grip and focusing mount place the focusing rod in, and attach a metal lock to prevent the system from coming loose. The final step is to connect the strobe adapter and the strobe and pass the cable through the side opening. This can easily be done in less than 5 min after a little practice.
Design and build quality
Everything about the P128 feels very robust and while we didn’t use the modifier enough outside the studio to comment on its long-term operability, we see no reason why with proper care it should not last for a long time.
The P128 is made from 24 braces (similar to the Broncolor PARA reflectors) which should translate into a fairly circular light beam. The center rod is about 65cm/25” long and divided into 10 segments with 10 indicating the entire rod is sticking behind the modifier making it around 130cm / 4.2ft deep. Even in our fairly large studio, this modifier can take up quite a bit of real estate.
The back of the rod has a ¼” 20 screw and while Godox did not provide any sort of counterbalance attachment we added two 1kg weights with a ¼” 20 thread which should help balance the unit.
Adding 2 wights to the end of the P128 rod
The grip feels pretty robust and does not sag when locked although a slightly larger handle might have been nice. It can be set in both up and down angles and attaches to a stand using a 5/8” (baby pin) female connector.
The inner material of the diffuser is designed with a reflective silver textured pattern. Users who worked with both the Godox P128 and the Broncolor Para 133 claim that one of the biggest differences between the two is the smoother texture of the Broncolor silver reflector, resulting in less diffusion and hence a more directional beam with harder contrast (see Robbert Dijkstra’s review of the Godox P128 on lightingrumours for more on that).
The diffuser has a hole for the flash power cable. We used it with our Godox P2400 which has pretty heavy heads without any issues. We also played around with it using a powerful COB LED for some of our testing and it worked fine. While this is not designed to be a video modifier it can be used for fashion/beauty videos when provided with a powerful enough light source.
One final point about the design. Like a number of other large circular modifiers (including the Broncolor Para series by the way), the Godox P128 has protruding braces in the front. They do have nice rounded tips but you still don’t want one of those getting in your model’s eye, so be careful.
The markings on the center rod
Accessories
The P128 has several optional accessories including two types of diffusers named D1 with 0.5 stops of light reduction and D2 with 1 stop of light reduction as well as a very well-made thick grid. We will see in our testing how each of them affects the light characteristics of the P128.
Testing
To show the versatility of the P128 and its actual performance we took a series of shots showing the capabilities of the modifier with our Godox P2400 strobe system.
Please note that we kept the settings the same for all shots and did not match them to compensate for the light loss in order to demonstrate the differences. We did however run a test to see the difference in light between position 0 (rod all the way inside the reflector), position 5 (rod in the middle), and position 10 (rod all the way outside the reflector) and it looks like the background in position 0 receives just under 1 stop less light compared to position 10.
Differences in the rod positions: left 10, center 5 (sorry for the miss focus), right 0
Differences in the catchlight (rod position): left 10, center 5 (sorry for the miss focus), right 0
You can clearly see the differences in the background illumination and in the catch light of course, but we are not sure if the actual difference overall between the two extremes is as big as we would like it to be. Regardless position 0 with the rod all the way in is probably the look that we would go for with the P128 most of the time.
Just for fun, we decided to compare the P128 to our Cheetah QSB-42″ Softbox, again with the exact same settings and you can clearly see the differences and of course the obvious light loss with two layers of diffusion on the softbox.
Comparison: left – P128 @0; center P128 @10, right Cheetah QSB-42″ Softbox
Finally, we also tested the P128 with the D1 (0.5 stop light reduction) and D2 (1 stop light reduction) diffuser fabrics as well as with the grid (which reduced about 1.5 stops of light) and you can see how these changes the light on our subject.
Comparison: left – P128 @0 D1; center P128 @0 D2, right P128 @0 D2 + grid
Working with the P128
We have been working with the P128 for quite a few months now and a while back we did a shoot with the unit and model with some bridal dresses you can see some of the behind-the-scenes in our video as well as some unprocessed and processes images we took.
Some images from our shoot (unedited)
Conclusion
So, what do we think about the Godox P128 after more than six months of using it? Starting with the positive, it is very well made, with high-quality materials, the design is robust, it is easy to open and close, it comes with a great rolling case and it even has some optional accessories if you insist on turning it into a softbox-like modifier.
The Godox P128 – a true parabolic
On the less positive side, it is big and front-heavy and can be especially difficult to handle high up not to mention trying to fix it to a boom, but these issues are not specific to the Godox design and should be equally relevant to other Parabolic modifiers.
We didn’t have the option to compare it to other true parabolic modifiers (others did do just this, like photographer Luis Gabriel – see here) but as we have mentioned before possibly the biggest difference between the P128 and the Broncolor Para 133 has to do with the smoother/shinier texture of the Broncolor silver reflector which results in more directional beam with harder contrast which is what many photographers look for in a Parabolic modifier.
Looking at the results we got it clear that the difference between the two extreme rod positions (0 and 10) is not as big as we would like it to be and the look that you get in position 0 (the rod all the way in the reflector) could have been more punchy/contrasty.
With all that said, the P128 is definitely not a bad product by any stretch of the imagination and it can produce fantastic images in the right hands.
The Godox P128 fabric
Pricing
As we discussed before making a true parabolic light modifier is not easy and requires a great deal of precision, much like making a quality lens. The Godox P128 system currently sells for around $1600. This is not a small amount by any means but if you consider that the Broncolor Para 133 kit sells for over $4000 its price tag might make a little more sense.
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Iddo Genuth 
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