For those of you old enough to remember

What a flashcube is!

Anyone have one or a flashbulb?

Will Class IV 445 ignite the magnesium wool inside?

I may have one in the attic, I have a few BIG ones and those are scary. Like to try a tiny one first.

I certainly remember them

I also certainly do NOT have any left in my possession

Peace,
dave

I've got a few lying around somewhere. I'm pretty sure it'll light. I'll try it later if I remember.

What is a flashcube? Sounds cool! Time to google

wannaburnstuff said:

What is a flashcube? Sounds cool! Time to google

Click to expand...

Kodak Instamatic Flash Cubes - 1960's - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv3RsrW_KsM

Yay! Something I can weigh in on with expertise! Yes, I remember flashbulbs. I've burned literally thousands of them as a photographer. I always had to watch out for the cheap East German (yeah, I said it) bulbs without the protective coating. Having one of those explode in your face was no fun!

I've been lighting steel wool all week at work w/ my 445. I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work with flashbulbs, but I DO suggest using some kind of "bullet stop" in case they're no longer safe to ignite.

I remember holding one as a child back when TVs were B&W and the curiosity got the better part of me. I thought this is a strange light bulb, it's full of shiny, fuzzy stuff!

I connected it to the terminals of a model railroad transformer, while holding it in my hand! The pain was pretty intense, like holding a charcoal briquette. Yep, lesson learned!

There's a video on youtube of those crazy guys microwaving a bunch of 'em. Their videos would be better if they started with pushing the buttons though!

Perhaps one day when we have 5000 lumen keychain lights we'll have a class V laser. That will basically ionize the air creating a plasma channel. Don't point at a thunderstorm as you will get struck. Actually that sounds pretty cool.

While we're on the topic of things that go flash, triggered lightning is pretty cool. The fact that it could be done with a laser would be even better. As fun as rockets are I'd much rather just move a mirror and push a button!

For now we just have to settle for lowly rockets!

Rocket Triggered Lightnings - YouTube

The return is considerably weaker than a natural stroke but nonetheless if you held that wire you'd still get the new look.

I remember them quite well on cheap cameras, and on polaroids. You had obviously 4 flashes, and sometimes not all of them worked. Than on polaroids you could also install one that was like a strip of bulbs, one against the other, if not mistaken there were six.
I still hold on to my old polaroid camera, it's the lx-70 land camera, I have it as an ornament in my living room.... it's cool..

Those old polaroids are cool! If you can find an SX-70, get it! They're a beautiful piece of design, and polish up nicely! I had several of them.

Most of the flashbulbs I worked with were high quality, for outdoor photography with large format cameras. By time I retired, I was paying as much a $7 each for the ones as big as my fist.

scumbagatheist said:

Those old polaroids are cool! If you can find an SX-70, get it! They're a beautiful piece of design, and polish up nicely! I had several of them.

Most of the flashbulbs I worked with were high quality, for outdoor photography with large format cameras. By time I retired, I was paying as much a $7 each for the ones as big as my fist.

Click to expand...

How old are you?

I'm 41. I grew up a 3rd generation professional photographer. My father invented several darkroom special effects techniques that were used until digital and even influenced modern software filters. I used SX-70 cameras and film for special effect art prints right up until polaroid discontinued the film, and we couldn't get any leftover stock. I used large format cameras right up to around 2005, when film got to over $1.50/sheet. It was about that time I retired from photography.

Well we aren't so far apart I am 38. My father was a photographer in his twienties. I studied photography in Italy in from 2000-2001.... I opened a the first compleately digital studio in Costa Rica in 2002, having spent arround $14.000 for the camera alone (a 6Mp Kodak 760), unfortunately it didn't work out so I ended the business a couple years later.
Professional photography was destroied by the digital era. Too bad....

I remember that old Kodak! My god, what a beast! The studio I worked at had 2-$20K Cannons and 2-$27K Hasselblad full digital, 3-color sensor medium formats.

No, digital did not kill photography. It's just one more tool to use. Good photographers can make good images with anything from that SX-70 to a Linhoff MasterTechnika Mk IV to a top of the line Cannon D50. Hack photographers seem to just keep shooting, despite the technology.

Ok I sead it wrong... it didn't kill photography, it killed the photography business....
You hardly see anyone developing pictures anymore, or stamping them to keep then in an album.
You hardly see a professional photographer ad a party, just 100 guys with digital cameras shooting at anyting that moves (or doesn't)
You don't see pictures sold for advertising at high prices... I had to close my studio because they weren't willing to pay my asking prices, since they pretended to pay lower prices just because it was digital. My friends in italy had to close their studios because there were hundreds of novice photographers that would work for much less.... and it is understandable, you don't need to be a genious to make a digital picture, you don't even need to know how to take it.
About one year ago I asisted at a photoshooting of a local rock band, they rented my old VW westfalia to make the pictures, well the photographer took about 800 pictures that day... YOU BET that out of that many pictures 5 or 6 were good... but in my days when you went to a photoshooting with film cameras you might have taken 200 pictures TOPS, and that is if you were really looking for that special moment, otherwise it would have to work with one roll of film.

I just think that digital cameras are great. But not for the professional who needed to live out of the photograph.

Ok..we're thread-jacking over here.

So, OP....did you or didn't you??

I have not tried it yet. This would be a good exercise for high speed since the subject will get so bright!