Purchasing a Chroma Key BG

[Erik Pontius]

You might check out EEFX.com. They are made of a kind of looped fabric, with a stretchy nylon backing with a foam core. It’s worked great for me so far.
https://www.eefx.com/index.html

Erik

[Tonyota]

Very nice product. I’ll add that to my list for comparisons. So

So here is what I have on my comparison list:

Tube Tape
EEFX
Botero
Lastolite
Studio Dynamics

If anyone has any comments to compare these it would be greatly appreciated. Budget is a bit of an issue so I’m currently leaning toward the a 9×20 Muslin from TubeTape which comes with mounts for under $200.

[Brendan Coots]

http://www.amvona.com also sells fabric greenscreen backdrops, along with stands etc. I purchased one from them a few years ago and, while the fabric wrinkles easily (never could get the wrinkles out) and will almost always need stretching during use, it was a cheap and reasonably decent solution. Any muslin/fabric GS backdrop will suffer from wrinkles, the foam-backed option epontius mentioned is probably a better bet.

[Tonyota]

Thanks beeny – I was looking at the Amvona site earlier and most of the user comments pointed out the wrinkles as well, but as you mentioned I guess that applies to all muslin and fabric GS.

The more I come across the issue of wrinkles the more I start to lean towards the foam backed solution may just be the way to go. Of course I’ll have to cut back on the size I can purchase but that could be a fair compromise.

[Ray Apokal]

Hi tonyota,

I bought a polyester drop from J and K Group’s ebay store. The polyester is ‘wrinkle-resistant’ (still wrinkles though). The the wrinkles go away after hanging it for a minute.

Just take a look, great price and it’s keyed very well.

[Brendan Coots]

Also, you didn’t mention whether you needed the backdrop to be portable or not. If not, you really should just use the chroma green paint and build your own greenscreen “wall.” Many people just use 4×8 sheets of plywood, but there is also a product called MDO (medium density overlay) which is 4×8 plywood with a very smooth layer on one side. It is used for making business signs etc. and is very reliable. Used with primer, this type of board will give you an extremely smooth, long-lasting Hollywood-quality backdrop.

Nice thing about this approach is that any surface imperfections, dirt etc. can just be painted over. With the cloth backdrops, you have to wash them which may cause them to lose color and I doubt the foam-backed versions can handle a washing.

[Jim Payne]

EEFX:
EEFX products are very reasonably priced and great quality. Their foam layer backdrops are easy to light evenly, wrinkles disappear faster than anything I’ve seen, and they also wash well without visible fading.

Lastolite:
Makes good products, but their green screens still suffer from wrinkling problems, and are very expensive. They are known for other very nice studio supplies. I don’t get my green screens from them, but I use their other products.

Tube-tape:
Tubetape’s backdrops are thin, cheap and wrinkle easy. Good luck removing the wrinkles and watching your backdrops fade when washed. This is a case where you get what you pay for.

Amvona:
Haven’t personally used their products, but I’ve heard their backdrops also suffer from wrinkle problems.

Unlike all the other company’s listed in the comparison from above, EEFX is the only manufacture where the end consumer can custom order what size and features they want. I call them with peace of mind, knowing their product works well and the backdrop is made exactly how I need it.

[Frederik Sulser]

I realize this post is pretty old. But I have a little problem – I want to buy a high quality green screen, that doesn’t wrinkle. (12’x20′ or 15’x20′). On all the forums and even in an old tutorial I have everybody recommends eefx.com. I ordered one from there, but the company seems to be dead – no answer they don’t send it, nothing. I had to complain via paypal to hopefully get my money back, and they still didn’t answer (you can’t even record a message on the answering machine as it is full) – so it seems that the only thing this company is doing currently is collecting money…
That leads me back to my problem: I need the quality of a eefx greenscreen, but need another place to buy it, where they actually send it to me…. Any help and experience (good or bad) is appreciated

Currently I’m checking the following options:
chroma-key.com (the price is suspiciously low – any experience anybody?)
theragplace.com (there I’m pretty sure the quality is good, but the price too)

THX