MSJ1 12-Piece Jewelry Photography Kit for Lightbox Jewelry Photography

I sell jewelry on Etsy, so good product photography is critical. I wasn't able to get the right lighting (or consistent success if I happened to luck out and finally get a good shot) in the set-up I had rigged up in my studio using my iPhone. My background poster was always slipping at the most inopportune times during the photography process.After shopping online and finding a variety of solutions (including pricey light boxes and DIY set-ups using cardboard boxes and tissue paper), I came across Sean's video for both the MS20 and MSJ1 and felt they were ideal for my needs. Then I saw that the company bundles the two together in this product (MS20J), so I thought I'd try it.I received my order from Amazon very quickly. Well packaged. The written assembly instructions were clear. (There are two pointed brass mounting screws that come with the light that aren't referenced anywhere, but you won't need them.) The enclosed video tutorials are excellent. Sean is fantastic.I shot some products last night with all other lights turned off to ensure I had no stray/ambient lighting that might fight me and I saw a definite improvement in the quality of my images. Some better than others, probably due to my need for a digital camera with manual settings for the tripod and possibly an additional light (first I'll try lowering the one that comes with the MS20J.) The jewelry accessories are great, though the props I've used in the past might be better than the earring stands which don't accommodate lever back earwires very well.Overall, the system is a keeper. It makes for a much less stressful photography experience and I'm pleased with the results.

Multiple defects in the order:1) The Watch stand is broken into two pieces2) The white earring stand (the main item i needed) is stained at the top AND bottom making it impossible to photograph anything on it.3) The same white earring stand is torn from behind4) One of the black bounce cards is terribly scratched.For approx 75$ this is not dirt cheap...hence I expected better quality and nothing so flimsy. The defects, just make it all the more worse. My worst amazon.com purchase in last 10 years! will definitely be looking for a refund.

This is probably one of the better product that is available on Amazon for this particular purpose. I did a bit of research before deciding to order the MS20J Tabletop Studio and so far, I am more than satisfied with the resulting pictures but I cannot give it a 5 star review because of a few quality problems I ran into (see below).My initial thought was to give it 3 stars but after takings a bunch of photos, I changed my review to 4 stars.Despite assembly instructions that were not very clear, I managed to get the studio assembled in short order and immediately started shooting pictures after scrubbing the infinity background with SoftScrub. The product works as advertised - and actually works very well as the resulting pictures are of very good quality. I am shooting with a DSLR and have full control over exposure, aperture, white balance, metering, shutter speed and other settings and I believe that I should be able to figure out the best layout/position of the props and the bounce cards fairly quickly.Now, much as I wanted to give this 5 stars, there are a few problems that SHOULD NOT be present in a product at this price point.Problem #1I am quite used to assembling products and I prefer following written/illustrated instructions rather than videos. Assembly instructions are not very well organized and are not very clear - and the pictures provided in the manual are a little too dark/small so it is difficult to make out details. ON top of that, the text and pictures are separated: all text is grouped together and all picture are grouped together, and one has to flip back and forth between pages quite a bit. it would make so much more sense for each step to have its associated pictures immediately below, or inline and for instructions to be clearer and more detailed.Problem #2The white necklace holder arrived with its stand DETACHED (it came unglued) - this should NOT be the case for a product that cost $250!!! I I had to go find some strong glue and spend time gluing the stand back onto the necklace holder and this is the main reason for the loss of 1 star.Problem #3I was EXTREMELY careful when removing the plastic diffuser from the light strip - and despite that, 3 tabs broke off! Again, not acceptable for a product that cost as much as this one. And I lost a tab when trying to put it back in. Now, the diffuser is ever so slightly loose! It is very fragile. Second reason for the loss of the star.Problem #4One side of the bounce card is slightly glossy and the other side is matte but nowhere on the instructions does it state which side should face the light light. I used the glossy side in order to get better reflection.Problem #5The jewelry kit arrived with small sealed plastic bag that contained 6 squares white material of what appeared to be glue of some sort. There are no labels on the plastic bag and nowhere do the instructions tell you about what this was. So I had to jump back to amazon.com to read the description of the kit to find out that this was wax that could be used to hold items in place. A label & mention in instructions would be useful.A little bit if QC (quality control) would go a long way and probably result in 5 stars.