Flashbulb burn times vs electronic

[JohnTF]

It used to be common practice to place a thick plastic over the flash reflector/bulb. They came in two versions, sometimes both, and you could turn them around. One was clear, the other blue, for color correction of non-blue bulbs with color film made for daylight.

I think Kodak made those, also there was some sort of color dip-- long way to go, but the blue bulbs cost more.

J

 

[Pico]

Possibly stupid question here ... How does it work with no batteries?

It's a good question. Inside the body of the flash is a magneto. Put a bulb in the head, turn the knob at the bottom once to wind it. It locks in place. Then you fire by pressing the silver button on the flash body.

There were different models. The most common had a delay of 20 milliseconds (.02 or 1/50th of a second), and there was an FP model.

They were made just post WWII, and all still work. If you find one, it will probably be missing the mechanical link to the camera shutter, but you can make one if you are fairly handy.

 

[JohnTF]

It's a good question. Inside the body of the flash is a magneto. Put a bulb in the head, turn the knob at the bottom once to wind it. It locks in place. Then you fire by pressing the silver button on the flash body.

There were different models. The most common had a delay of 20 milliseconds (.02 or 1/50th of a second), and there was an FP model.

They were made just post WWII, and all still work. If you find one, it will probably be missing the mechanical link to the camera shutter, but you can make one if you are fairly handy.

I used to fire flash cubes in class using a hand crank generator, with the kids wearing spectral glasses-- was fun, and demonstrated the conversion of energy and exothermic reactions-- which is why I had a plastic bag of bulbs on my lap when the static set them all off at once. That was fun for the students, fortunately, I had wool pants on and was able to get up rather quickly. ;-)


John

 

[Pico]

Flash bulb work has some nuances that might be surprising. When lighting a large area by replacing the conventional bulbs with Edison-base bulbs, the surge would sometimes blow fuses. This was obviated by placing an incandescent bulb in series, usually the first in the chain.

Regarding synch - some shutters had three synch settings, chosen with a dial that was color-coded red, yellow and black. X, M, FP.

A great deal of old information regarding flashbulb use has been lost or misplaced in history. If encouraged to do so, I would consider putting up a web site on flash bulbs.

However, have you priced bulbs lately? I am aware of only one reasonable source. The rest are insanely high-priced.

A month ago I was hailed by a fellow driving a Volkswagen bug (I drive one, too). He asked if I had certain parts. Of course I did. We chatted and I mentioned I do photography. He asked, "You ever heard of One-Shot Kelley?" (Our old newspaper photographer who used 4x5 press and bulbs right up to 1999.)

The short story is that he bought One-Shot's home and there were a two cases of flashbulbs, and a case of photofloods in the basement. I traded a distributor for the whole lot. I am running out of storage space for all this stuff!

 

[Gumby]

Regarding synch - some shutters had three synch settings, chosen with a dial that was color-coded red, yellow and black. X, M, FP.

Acme synchro is one example. See this chart:

The syncronization is set as follows:
Time (ms) Dot Color Description
0 red X (electronic flash)
5 white F (gas filled flash bulbs)
20 blue M (wire-filled flash bulbs)
23 yellow S (large slow flash bulbs)

Graphlex had a shutter (as did others, perhaps) that had two different settings for "M": red M and black M. They were selected based on shutter speed IIRC.

 

[ethics_gradient]

Harry,

I don't have it in front of me, but Nikon has a workaround on their strobes that basically maxes out the flash output time to beat the top sync speed. But I don't think you will get the long duration burn that you are looking for.

Someone on this forum referred me to something similar, although with Canon. You can put their electronic flashes into an "FP" mode that will emulate the longer burn of an FP bulb. Unfortunately my 580EX is broken and I haven't gotten it fixed yet, and I still need to order a bipost-PC cord adapter to test it out. It's not really high-priority for me, because I do most of my shooting available-light with the Aero Ektar (f/2.5).

I've also got a 3-cell Heiland flashgun with two reflectors and a bunch of bulbs (including some blackout bulbs for infrared photography) that came with my Speed, but again, lack the cord I need to make it work.

 

[dmr]

Interesting flash-related conversation, part of chit-chat, this weekend.

A guy who is a FOAF was talking about his new "trick" for making himself immune to those red light cameras, of which we have a few on the Iowa side of the state line.

The idea is to place a slave flash in the rear window, pointed upwards and to the left, to "blind" the camera, rendering the image useless.

Any opinions here on if this would work?

 

[JohnTF]

Interesting flash-related conversation, part of chit-chat, this weekend.

A guy who is a FOAF was talking about his new "trick" for making himself immune to those red light cameras, of which we have a few on the Iowa side of the state line.

The idea is to place a slave flash in the rear window, pointed upwards and to the left, to "blind" the camera, rendering the image useless.

Any opinions here on if this would work?

I think some folks sold a product designed to do this, would think you would want it at the plate, but in spy vs spy fashion, some intersections shoot you coming and going. One poor guy lives near an intersection with one of these and is complaining the flashing keeps him from sleeping.

Where is "Cool Hand Luke" and his pipe cutter when we need him?

It is much like an over zealous traffic cop, it really leads to a lowering of respect in general for law enforcement when minor infractions are targeted. I live in such a city, and I know people who will not patronize businesses here because they will not generally come here. One town has 100 yards of freeway that pays most of their annual budget.

A slave attachment with a big Metz with the WA screen might do the trick, but then when the guy behind you claims you blinded him--


Regards, John

 

[JohnTF]

Flash bulb work has some nuances that might be surprising. When lighting a large area by replacing the conventional bulbs with Edison-base bulbs, the surge would sometimes blow fuses. This was obviated by placing an incandescent bulb in series, usually the first in the chain.

Regarding synch - some shutters had three synch settings, chosen with a dial that was color-coded red, yellow and black. X, M, FP.

A great deal of old information regarding flashbulb use has been lost or misplaced in history. If encouraged to do so, I would consider putting up a web site on flash bulbs.

However, have you priced bulbs lately? I am aware of only one reasonable source. The rest are insanely high-priced.

A month ago I was hailed by a fellow driving a Volkswagen bug (I drive one, too). He asked if I had certain parts. Of course I did. We chatted and I mentioned I do photography. He asked, "You ever heard of One-Shot Kelley?" (Our old newspaper photographer who used 4x5 press and bulbs right up to 1999.)

The short story is that he bought One-Shot's home and there were a two cases of flashbulbs, and a case of photofloods in the basement. I traded a distributor for the whole lot. I am running out of storage space for all this stuff!

Now if you have some MG brake parts, I might trade for some bulbs. ;-)

I hear they are creeping up in price as well.

Photofloods are not cheap as well.

There was a time when I replaced some bulbs with photofloods to give more ambient light for available light shooting, but they run so hot you run risks.

Some of the good old solutions almost burned the house down a few times.

Regards, John

 

[Gumby]

I think some folks sold a product designed to do this, would think you would want it at the plate, but in spy vs spy fashion, some intersections shoot you coming and going. One poor guy lives near an intersection with one of these and is complaining the flashing keeps him from sleeping.

Where is "Cool Hand Luke" and his pipe cutter when we need him?

It is much like an over zealous traffic cop, it really leads to a lowering of respect in general for law enforcement when minor infractions are targeted. I live in such a city, and I know people who will not patronize businesses here because they will not generally come here. One town has 100 yards of freeway that pays most of their annual budget.

A slave attachment with a big Metz with the WA screen might do the trick, but then when the guy behind you claims you blinded him--


Regards, John

I never saw a slaved flash countermeasure and would worry about the unintended consequences of blinding the other vehicles going through the red light. 😀

There were a number of products that obscured the license plate from being read. Some states have laws now that make it illegal to attempt any type of red-light countermeasure... but that law only applies if one is caught.

I would be interested in using a flash meter to see just how powerful those flashes are. They are very bright from what I've seen.

 

[JohnTF]

I never saw a slaved flash countermeasure and would worry about the unintended consequences of blinding the other vehicles going through the red light. 😀

There were a number of products that obscured the license plate from being read. Some states have laws now that make it illegal to attempt any type of red-light countermeasure... but that law only applies if one is caught.

I would be interested in using a flash meter to see just how powerful those flashes are. They are very bright from what I've seen.

The commercial versions I saw just blinded the area around the plate, though I am guessing if the company wanted to they could pixel peep and find you, probably happy enough to go on to the next "customer".

They put a few in areas where the speed limit suddenly drops from 35 to 25, and sometimes goes back up to 35 50 yards later-- classic trap, plus it helps if trees block at least one of the signs. ;-)

If you are pulled over, you have at least an opportunity for officer discretion. It seems a very involved process with the Speed ATM's if you wish to have a second look at the data.

We had one here that was faulty, and it made the news as I recall.

I am told France and England seems to like them very much, I used to drive 160 km on the Autoroute in France and had to stay right to let the traffic pass me. The rental car with the 1L motor would not go faster, but the truth is 160 was fast enough for me.

I would like a detector, not on the dash, that would remind me to check my speed, seems that if they want people to slow down they could put up radar / laser sources to just get people's attention.

Regards, John