I want to use flashbulbs, where to begin?

<p>I have a pile of old flashbulbs that i purchased from a camera store that was going out of business. Mostly AG1s and AG1Bs, with some Press 25s and M3s mixed in. Now that I think about it, I bought them over 5 years ago...</p>

<p>Anyway, I'd love to use them instead of just letting them sit. Can anyone recommend a good flash holder? I'd like to own several eventually, both handle and shoe mount. I'm planning to use them mainly with my Nikon F and perhaps my Hassy 500c.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Honeywell Tilt-a-Mite is a good, compact shoe mount gun that, well, tilts for bounce effects. Many camera makers had their own brand guns of various designs.</p>

<p>Free to good home: Honeywell Tilt-a-Mite (or the Japanese branded one without the Honeywell name). e-mail me.</p>

<p>My favorite is a Ikoblitz 4 i use with M2 bulbs.</p>

<p>the ag-1 bulbs are likely more usable as the light output is less and more compatible .<br>

with today's fast films . There were several interesting flash units for the ag-1 bulb.<br>

Olympus had a tiny shoe mounted unit that took one ag-i.<br>

Canon made a "Quint". that fired the bulbs on at a time. It resebbld a small<br>

electronic flash. IT held 5 ag-1 bulbs on a tray. It enabled me to take pictures rapidly<br>

without waiting for my old EF to recycle.<br>

If you have a large quantity, you should consider selling than .. Some want a few for the display cameras.<br>

I looked i inspected but it is hard to see if there are spelling errors here.</p>

<p>Any battery-capacitor flash gun, like the Tilt-a-Mite, you have to plan on replacing the electrolytic capacitor. If you don't, you'll get weak flash, and burn out the expensive 22.5 volt battery in a day.<br>

Note also that all of those flashbulbs have limited compatibility with cameras with focal-plane shutters. They are all "short peak" bulbs, intended for leaf shutters. Some focal plane cameras can use short-peak bulbs at or below their X-sync speed, but that's it.<br>

You really want FP6B or 26B bulbs for a focal plane shutter camera. Presuming the camera has flash sync for bulbs at all! (FP sync.)</p>

 

<p>If you decide to sell the AG-1 bulbs don't overlook offering them to amateur and model rocket enthusiasts who use them to ignite their solid fuel engines.</p>

<p>I've been sitting on 8 12-packs of M3 bulbs (6 GE, 2 Sylvania), plus a few loose M3B bulbs and about a dozen Press 25. I used to get bags of flashbulbs from thrift stores in the 1990s. This is all that's left. I also had a carton of flash cubes but gave them to someone years ago. </p>

<p>Honestly, I should sell what I've got but I haven't thought about them for a long while.</p>

<p>Tom, thanks for the offer. Email sent!</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone else as well for the advice. I'm not really wanting to get rid of these, I'd rather use them as they were intended. </p>

<p>I'll do some research and see what other flash units I can find.</p>

<p>The flash sync on the Nikon F can be set to work with many flash bulb: <a href="http://www.mir.com.my/michaeliu/cameras/shared/ff2flash/index.htm">http://www.mir.com.my/michaeliu/cameras/shared/ff2flash/index.htm</a>.</p>

<p>Jim, excellent info. I had no idea what that setting was for on my F's, and I never thought to try to find out its purpose.</p>

<p>I have many flash bulb guns for my Kodak cameras. My favorite camera to use is the Signet 40. I have 3 of them. Unfortunately Only ever had AG-1 bulbs that could be used for a Kodak Supermite Flasholder that came with one of the Signets I found. I never quite got the hang of using them within the 4 attempts, well 3 really, one was accidentally fired off. It was fun tho. I tried to take 2 shots outside at night but they didn't come out well, and the one interior shot i took did but it was not a great shot (slightly out of focus).<br>

But I liked the Kodak Supermite Flasholder because it was so nice and compact and fits almost all my Kodak cameras.</p>

<p>And if anyone wants to donate me some AG-1 bulbs or other types it would be appreciated; between having to go back to school and relocating after sandy I won't have a budget for camera items for long time. I do however use the film stocks that I have, and just put the color rolls in the fridge till I can afford to have them processed.</p>

<p>Remember the Blue bulbs are for color film, the clear ones are for black and white. <br>

I have a few flashbulbs, the Press 25 and the AG1s get the most use. AG stands for "All Glass" btw. The AG1s usually get used in the little Kodak FlashFun Hawkeye and FlashFun II cameras. They are 127 cameras that usually get reloaded with 35mm film.<br>

The Press 25s fit a myriad of Argus cameras that I have like the C3, 75, Super 75 and Argus 40.</p>