Uneven flash lighting

[kenneth_bruno]

Greetings,

 

Have recently noticed uneven lighting with stobe unit. The flash head is a

Novatron and is approachig 17 years old. The flash (with diffusion) is square

to the background which is usually evenly illuminated by the flash. Now there

is more light to one side. Can flash tubes begin to fail and fire unevenly

over time?

 

My best,

Ken

[brucecahn]

Right before the end they can get erratic. Get a new tube right away.

[kenneth_bruno]

Bruce...

 

I was hoping that was the case.

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

My best,

Ken

[craig_shearman1]

Yes they can ger erratic but the flash tube in a Novatron is circular, as is the reflector. It's not one of the units that has maybe four separate straight tubes around the modeling light. Even if it became erratic I don't see that could produce uneven flash. Underexposure maybe but not a difference from side to side or top to bottom in the lighting pattern. Even if it were somehow firing in part of the lenth of the tube and petering out at the other end (which I doubt) I think the reflector would compensate. Mabye if the tube is weak and you have the unit pointed at an angle across the background where maybe the distance from the near edge of the backdrop and the far edge of the backdrop to the flash is significantly different, there could be enough light falloff just on the distance that you could see a difference. But even with that you should have seen a diffeence even with a brand new flash.