Quote Originally Posted by conropl View Post
It is interesting brought the Better Beamer up... I went into a photography store yesterday looking for a Better Beam. I had heard this salesman tell customer after customer that they did not really want to buy what they can in for (he always had a better idea). So when I asked him if they had a Better Beamer he went into a long story about how they tested in extensively and a Snoot is better. Basically he kept calling it a diffuser, and I could not get him to agree that it actually focuses the light to a tighter pattern - contrary to the designed purpose of a ferensal lens, he said it diffuses the light and scaters it more. I realize that plastic ferensel lenses are not great optical devises, but everything I have read agrees with you, and now I guess I am going to have to order one on line.

Thanks for confirming what I was thinking.
That guy was certainly not giving you correct information. I would doubt he actually used one in the field. It is a plastic fresnel lens that focuses your flash at a much farther distance, so it is nice for small objects like birds. Because it focuses the light it allows you to use lower power settings on your speedlite and thus it recycles much faster and the batteries last much longer too. Using it with the flash set to a low power allows you to fill in shadows and get nice even light on your subject....it works really really well.