canon f or a or t and canon j-3 flash unit.

Good evening.

Just quickly before I do damage to my cameras...

I have bought canon j3 flash unit along with flash bulbs. It should arrive tomorrow and I have received battery for it already.

I want to try it as soon as it arrives, however after some research I have discovered that it is designed for canonet camera which I don't have yet. I do have ftb, F1(n), AT-1, AE-1 Program and T-90 all working and in excellent condition.

Is there any risk of damaging camera by using flash bulbs?

I understand that sync time is 1/30 s or lower, is that correct?

 

How do I dispose of spent bulb, can I just dump it into household rubbish?

 

Thank you

Never heard of a J-3 flash unit until I looked it up. Can you still get flashbulbs? To answer your question, it looks like it connects to the PC contact. Just slide it into the camera’s shoe, connect the PC cord, and it should work fine. As for what to do with the spent flashbulbs, probably throw them in the flash. I doubt they can be recycled.

Hello Jim and thanks for your reply.

Canon j3 flash unit has a cold shoe and a pc connection. However it is powered by 15 v battery and I am not sure if any of those 15v will not be transferred to my camera. It cannot be good for camera, can it? Except for T-90, which I remembered doesn't have a Pc socket.

And flash unit along with 40 bulbs has costed me less than a pack of smokes. Or 4 pints. Even if I can not get hold of bulbs ever again. I have seen them in old movies only.

Flash bulbs are fine with the Ftb, F1n, AE1, and AE1P. T90? I would pass on trying it with that.

(I used Press 25s with both the Ftb and F1n. )

Sync speeds depend on the type of bulb. Press 26 will sync much faster.

Hello again.

So it has arrived...

Loaded battery, installed light bulb, mounted unit onto AT-1 and I got scared. It says to use flash shield on top of bulbs box, j3 flash unit doesn't have one, so rather than firing it into someone's face I made great photo of inside of my bathtub, just in case bulb would explode. It has not fortunately, just bulged and distorted.

Flash unit itself is nice and very compact, I think it is smaller than 133d

39 flasbulbs to go...

In all the years I used bulbs of all types, I never had one explode. That goes back to my first camera way back in the 50s. Of course that's not to say it couldn't happen.

 

Don't ya love the smell!

ROFLMAO

Yes Chuck, they sure do smell terrific!! I still use them.

No Dominik, they will not ever explode. With age they can only get weaker. As they grow old, the vacuum seal at the metal base can leak and cause the bub to fire dimly or not at all.

It has been a long time since I smelled one, but every once in a while when I think of Christmas past, the smell comes back. To get the full dose, a press 25 size was needed, or better yet those screw based bulbs.

 

I will admit that as much as I liked the smell (and their power), what a relief when I switch to a strobe for weddings.

I now have a good supply of flashbulbs, but haven't used many of them yet.

 

Many of the Canon digital cameras specify a 6 volt limit, and also a polarity for the flash connection.

 

The T90 is an interesting question. Do they use mechanical contacts on the moving parts, or electronic switch?

 

At that time, though, flashbulbs were still popular enough, that I would be surprised if they didn't allow for them.

 

I have a T80, no T90. Maybe I should try sometime.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canon_t90.pdf

 

doesn't have any warnings about flash voltage or current. It seems that the T90 has only a hot shoe, so you need an adaptor for non-hot shoe flashes.

 

They mention large studio flashes with that adaptor. I think it is X only, so you need a slow enough shutter speed that enough of the flash is while the shutter is open, probably 1/30.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/canon_pdf/canon_t80.pdf

 

The T80 recommends the Canon 277T or 244T, and suggests that other maker's flash units might damage the camera. No more detail, though.

I wouldn't be overly concerned about 15V on an A series camera. The old Vivitars with 200+V are different story. The T series might be a bit more iffy.

 

As for the bulging bulb-I've never seen that happen aside from sometimes the lacquer covering bubbling up a bit. Most bulbs(although admittedly not the GE #5s in my desk drawer) have a dot of cobalt chloride in the envelope. If it's blue, the bulb should be safe. If it's pink, toss the bulb. Sylvania always advertised this as a prominent feature of their "Blue Dot" bulbs.

 

As far as disposal goes, there's nothing harmful in the things. Just don't spit a bulb that has just been fired right out of the camera into a plastic trashcan or plastic trash bag. If I'm going to be using a more than a couple of bulbs, I usually keep an old metal coffee can or similar nearby and pop the bulbs out of the camera into that. By the time I've finished, they're usually cool enough to handle.

 

BTW, after I set off the fire alarm burning magnesium ribbon in one of the lecture halls I use, I've switched to using flash bulbs to demonstrate that reaction :) . It may not be AS dramatic as the ribbon, but at least it still shows magnesium burning in oxygen. I actually picked up a couple of packs of Fuji FP100C recently, so I'm going to be using my Polaroid 250 the next couple of times I do that demo. I just wish someone still made 4x5 instant film, as the Speed Graphic always gets a wow.

 

1/30 is usually a safe speed with a #5 or M3 type bulb for a focal plane shutter without M sync. You could PROBABLY safely do 1/60 or even 1/125 on a T90, but that's something that you need to experiment with. With a focal plane type bulb(GE #6 comes to mind) you can usually go above the flash sync speed as these bulbs are designed for a longer duration full power burn. I have the dedicated flash unit for my Canon IVSb and the shutter speed/bulb type combos listed in the manual can make your head spin.

 

One last thing for the OP-if you're going to use these, don't stick bare, unfired bulbs in your pocket. Static can set them off, and bulbs that are touching each other will also light.

Hello again,

Thank you to all of you for your input.

Since last post I have shoot several photos with flashbulb, none has exploded. There is no PC connection on T90, hence flashbulb use is limited to F1, Ftb and AE-1 Program. None has been fried, so canon electronics can support 15V ( plus capacitor) on PC socket.

Photo below ( or above, I am not sure how this will be posted) was taken with ftb on B shutter speed with 35-105 canon fd lense ( hence the glare, sorry about that) and shows F1(n) with flash unit j-3 firing a flashbulb.