Speed Graphic and flash bulbs

BrianShaw

BrianShaw

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Recently I started shooting my Anniversary Graphic with flash bulbs. What an experience... I remember having my pic taken as a kid with a variety of cameras that used flash bulbs. But all of my photographic experience has been with electronic strobe. Flash bulbs are cool -- LOTS of light at a relatively cheap cost: ASA100 guide number of 250 when using a #5 bulb and a polished 5" reflector. 🙂
 
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Where do you find 'Cheap' flashbulbs?

My crown and sunpak are heavy as sin. I would look into getting a flash unit if I could find a reliable source of inexpensive flash bulbs.
 
I have a Pre-Anniversary Speed Graphic with flash gear, and I also have a Leica flash unit for my Leica IIIa. I used flash bulbs during the 50s and 60s, but have only seen them for sale as "collectibles" in recent years. The old Press 40 and GE #11 bulbs worked fine with the Leica's focal plane shutter if the timing was set correctly.

Jim N.
 
I remember the huge lightbulb-size flash bulbs from when I was very young and my dad had a Kodak Monitor with a huge bolt-on flash gun. I really did not like flash then, and I really don't like it now, but it's a necessary evil sometimes. One thing I admit being nostalgic for, which I was reminded of on another board, is the smell of the hot plastic that you got when one of those went off. 🙂

Lately I've been trying off and on for some Weegee-style shots, and to do that right you do need flash. (Yes, I'm trying that style with a 35mm rangefinder.) I've tried two "shoots" with a Vivitar 2600 and actually got some good proof of concept shots. However, I was given a busted-up Sunpak 120, which is of the size that it needs to be registered as a weapon in most counties. 🙂 I was able to get it back together and working, and I'm going to try that style with that flash.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog! Try mounting a Sunpak 120 on a Canon GIII. It's like 3 times the size of the camera! 🙂
 
dmr said:
Talk about the tail wagging the dog! Try mounting a Sunpak 120 on a Canon GIII. It's like 3 times the size of the camera! 🙂
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dmr-

Put it on a Stroboframe flip 35, it will balance a lot better.

Wayne
 
Wayne R. Scott said:
Put it on a Stroboframe flip 35, it will balance a lot better.
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I may have to do something like that. It is clumsy that way.

That would make it almost as large as a press camera, and that was not my idea of how to do this. On another board they were kidding me that I should get a used Speed Graphic for these experiments, if only a 2 1/4 and not a full 4x5. 🙂

Well, I guess if Jackie K/O could drive one of them I guess I could too. 🙂
 
kmack said:
Where do you find 'Cheap' flashbulbs?

My crown and sunpak are heavy as sin. I would look into getting a flash unit if I could find a reliable source of inexpensive flash bulbs.
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I didn't say "cheap"... I said "relatively cheap". 😉

The price of bulbs varies enormously, but for much less than the price of a powerful strobe I can buy a bunch of old flashbulbs. My method for keeping the cost down is to be patient and simply not pay the big bucks when I know I can wait and a cheaper offering will eventually come around. Lately my average price has been about 40 cents each for a #5B bulb.
 
OldNick said:
...but have only seen them for sale as "collectibles" in recent years. The old Press 40 and GE #11 bulbs...
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Lately I've been buying bulbs to use, not to collect. I did think that some day this attitude might change. In fact, I even thought maybe I have a "bad attitude" about wanting to use the bulbs.

The screw-base bulbs are definitely being sold more as collectibles than users. I only use screw-base bulbs when I DEFINITELY need the broader coverage of the 7" reflector versus that of a 5" reflector. For now, though, the supply of #5 and #5B seems to be holding up.
 
Kin Lau said:
www.meggaflash.com still makes flashbulbs. GN of 200, 300 & 330 @ iso 100.
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From Cress Site the Meggaflash PF200 seems to be selling for $10 per bulb, case of 48 for $480 . That is a little steep for me. I can get about 50 flashes out of my 611 using four C cell batteries. That works out to be about twelve cents a flash. If I can find some NiMH C cells I may get the price down even farther.

The press camera just screams to be used with a flash. They were built for it. If I had to scrounge around for flash bulbs then, like Brian mentioned, I would start to get a real bad attitude about using the flash.

 The Sunpak 611 is a heavy beast but it works well with the Crown and supplies more than enough light for my current needs. I miss the pop and the smell of burning plastic and ozone but I can still enjoy using the camera the way it was
intended.
 
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Sealed Lead Acid is the way to go for the big flashes. You can rig one up with wooden dowels for spacers.

I've got a couple of Sunpak potato-masher flashes & a Metz 45 too. I think I might try a dual flash setup with my SG, one on the left and right.

But the Meggaflash PF330 is 330GN and burns for a good 1.7 seconds 😱
 
kmack said:

From Cress Site the Meggaflash PF200 seems to be selling for $10 per bulb, case of 48 for $480 . That is a little steep for me. (snip)
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Isn't that price I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E? I heard somewhere (can't remember where) that the movie industry is the big user of these bulbs. They have unlimited budget, or so it seems. Us regular folks probably can't afford to even buy their used bulbs. 😱
 
The aerospace industry is a big user of the 330's. Burning for over 1second means that they can use a high speed camera - 10,000 fps to capture the flying object.
 
Ahhh, thanks for the clarification... I must have heard wrong (or not completely). I can imagine how a flash bulb with >1-second burn at a GN that high, combined with a swiftly-moving aeronautical object, would be a great match with a HS camera!
 
Kin Lau said:
The aerospace industry is a big user of the 330's. Burning for over 1second means that they can use a high speed camera - 10,000 fps to capture the flying object.
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I used flash bulbs untill the late 70's. Most that I used at that time were the big #3's and could light a large area with little trouble. I had trigger boxes and chords with sockets that i could string around. Sometimes i used photoflood reflectors connected to the trip box and #11's or #3 in them. I've lit automotive service departments and condominium interiors. I did a great deal of industrial work that I used this system. I would go through cases of these big bulbs during a job. Even then they wern't cheap and there was always the risk of one detonating when you were putting it in the socket. I learned after one detonation to always use the sleeve that it came in to handle it when putting it in the flash or the socket. Major burns to the fingers if one went off.

In the mid 70's I was a staff photographer for union carbide corp. I did some ultra high speed motion picture as high as 44,000 frapes per second. I used flash bulbs to light the subject and an optical trigger to set them off (in some cases). At those speeds the shutter speed was about 1/100,000 of a second and 400 ft of film ran through the camera in about 1/10 second. For some we used FF33 bulbs with a 1.7 second peak. I still have a few of these just for fun.

I have a few very unusual large bulbs that I will try to photograph and post some pix soon.

I don't know if anyone has seen any of these but I still have one #5 infrared bulb. It emitted no visable light and was used for IR work in the dark.
 
A potato masher and belt pack battery was the weapon of choice during the final days of 4x5 press photography. Trade first degree burns from hot flash bulbs for a hernia...

At the other end of the flash bulb spectrum...
I occasionally use flash cubes with my Minox cameras. I can stick the adapter and a couple of cubes in a pocket with no weight and little bulk.
Ditto an Agfa flash cube adapter that I'll use with RF cameras.
 
Interesting recollections - thanks for sharing them! I look forward to the pix of the large bulbs. I have never heard (personal ignorance) of IR bulbs... but it makes sense now that you mention it. How did you know if it went off or not?? I suppose they still "pop"???

x-ray said:
I used flash bulbs untill the late 70's. Most that I used at that time were the big #3's and could light a large area with little trouble. I had trigger boxes and chords with sockets that i could string around. Sometimes i used photoflood reflectors connected to the trip box and #11's or #3 in them. I've lit automotive service departments and condominium interiors. I did a great deal of industrial work that I used this system. I would go through cases of these big bulbs during a job. Even then they wern't cheap and there was always the risk of one detonating when you were putting it in the socket. I learned after one detonation to always use the sleeve that it came in to handle it when putting it in the flash or the socket. Major burns to the fingers if one went off.

In the mid 70's I was a staff photographer for union carbide corp. I did some ultra high speed motion picture as high as 44,000 frapes per second. I used flash bulbs to light the subject and an optical trigger to set them off (in some cases). At those speeds the shutter speed was about 1/100,000 of a second and 400 ft of film ran through the camera in about 1/10 second. For some we used FF33 bulbs with a 1.7 second peak. I still have a few of these just for fun.

I have a few very unusual large bulbs that I will try to photograph and post some pix soon.

I don't know if anyone has seen any of these but I still have one #5 infrared bulb. It emitted no visable light and was used for IR work in the dark.
Click to expand...
 
Currently I'm starting to get interested in early 1950s electronic flash units (Braun, Blaupunkt, early Metz). They typically offer guide number 60 to 100 at ISO 100, no automation whatsoever, with a convenient battery pack that you have to strap to your waist. With a suitable reflector you can get close to what you'd get with a flashbulb, and they're reusable of course.

The idea was that I wanted to try some Winston Link-esque setups of various motifs, and I didn't want to blow 20 bulbs with each shot, but the old electronic flashes can be had for $1 a piece on eBay. If you do studio work or have a wall plug nearby, there's lots of old flashes that don't have a battery but need 110 or 220V, which typically cost next to no money at all.
 
BrianShaw said:
Interesting recollections - thanks for sharing them! I look forward to the pix of the large bulbs. I have never heard (personal ignorance) of IR bulbs... but it makes sense now that you mention it. How did you know if it went off or not?? I suppose they still "pop"???
Click to expand...

Weegee often used infrared bulbs, like for such things as taking photos of couples carrying on in theaters and such. From what I heard he made these by dipping ordinary flash bulbs in some kind of very deep red (infrared) dye. From what I remember from a thread on another system, these did emit a visible, but not obviously bright, deep red flash.
 
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