information on powder flash?

[Discoman]

You probably have your heart set on using flash powder, but don't be too quick to dismiss flashbulbs.

I just shot a large group with dual Graflex flashes on a Crown Graphic. Each of the Press 50 bulbs have a guide number of 440(!). Look into NOS (New Old Stock) flashbulbs on ebay. They run $1-2 USD each and the flash handles are available for reasonable prices now that all the Jedi Knights are refraining from turning every last one of them into a light saber.

I assume the press 50 is similar to the #5?
or are they more like the #5 focal plane?

and the star wars fans have stopped turning them into sabers? that is GREAT news.

heart set, not really. I mostly wanted to try something new and unusual, that would be reasonably cost effective over the medium screw bulbs.
besides, it just seemed to fit in well with slow speed art films. camera is going to be on the tripod for a while for each photo, might as well have a flash that I can hand-hold and move to where the light is best for the image without having cords running around.

[Frank Petronio]

Garrett - That was the best video I've seen in years, thank you!

Better Sense - Saw the flash tube question a few days back. If I cover the payments can I please be named a beneficiary on your life insurance?

[Roger Cole]

Come on, let him have his fun!

What's the worse that could happen? This?

Garrett - That was the best video I've seen in years, thank you!

Better Sense - Saw the flash tube question a few days back. If I cover the payments can I please be named a beneficiary on your life insurance?

Funny but obviously staged. The splice is obvious, and see the comments - among the usual inane ones on YouTube are the real observations about how the explosion changes his shirt, turns the lights back on, and leaves no black residue inside the aluminum foil, among other things.

I don't know if flash powder can be made and used safely or not, but it's an interesting thread. I HAVE shot black powder muzzle loaders, flintlocks using real black powder not Pyrodex, and am pretty comfortable doing that, though. I have a lot of friends in the steampunk community. I've thought about doing some portraits with just a "looks old" outfit of a modern wooden camera, tripod etc. Flash powder would be really cool, but I'm sure they'd accept bulbs as authentic enough.

[BrianShaw]

Flash powder would be really cool, but I'm sure they'd accept bulbs as authentic enough.

If you don't tell them they might not even question the authenticity of flash bulbs.

[Nathan Potter]

I used flash powder years ago in a home-made reflector in my back yard to photograph wild critters at night. Don't know why - just the challenge of doing something different. I used an aluminum kids snow saucer as a reflector and set off the charge electrically. Truly a brilliant flash with about 20 to 50 grams of powder if I recall correctly. Worked using a trip wire sometimes but mostly just a patient wait.

Here's the deal:

The powder is poured around a heater filament. The hot filament is a strand of galvanized window screening and actuated to glowing using a 45 volt small battery. Less than a half second or so to actuate.

Various powders were used, some as mentioned above. Most commonly I used Potassium permanganate (KMnO3) as the oxidizer and aluminum dust as the fuel. The aluminum dust was purified out of aluminum paint using gasoline as a solvent in a sort of allutriation (sp) column. The KMnO3 is finely ground in morter and pestle then mixed (with extreme care) due to the percussive nature of the mixture. I commonly stored the mixture til used.

Also used Ammonium nitrate with aluminum (I think this is a high explosive called Amitol) but flashes very quickly and is percussive also.

Using Potassium Nitrate yields a slower burn with aluminum dust but the mixture is not percussive as long as sulpher is not present.

However, as mentioned, these flash powders are potentially very dangerous, especially in larger quantities. Fanatical attention to safety needs to be maintained. I was raised on a farm where we employed black blasting powder for stump removal so had a history of safety in using explosive powders. Back then all these chemicals could be obtained from a local drugstore in Framingham MA. with no signature required.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Discoman]

here are the prices for new meggaflash bulbs:
Meggaflash PF300 case 48 bulbs $600.00 Screw Base
Meggaflash PF310 case 48 bulbs $740.00 Screw Base
Meggaflash PF330 case 24 bulbs $1,350.00 Screw Base

I heard my budget actually scream in agony as I saw these.

[BetterSense]

I just finished my first test with flash powder. My final 'dose' was 21g potassium perchlorate and 9g german dark fine aluminum powder, mixed by shaking in an ESD bag, and poured out in a pile on an old piece of floor tile. I set the pile off with a piece of homemade fuse. I don't have a flash meter, so I used a 35mm camera and tested it in the dark backyard compared to my SB-28 flash and old Novatron system. With a 10s bulb exposure in the mostly-dark, open-flash with the SB-28 lit my live oak tree up, barely. The novatron lit the tree up ok, but the background was still well, dark. Kind of what you'd expect of flash in the complete dark. Under the same conditions, the flash powder negative is so dense that in ordinary room light, it appears completely black. The flash powder is many stops brighter than my novatron, in other words. It also gives off a nice "WHOOMPH" sound and a mushroom cloud of smoke, and made my neighbors come out of their house wondering what was going on, but I was already mostly packed up by then. This is very interesting, because for things like spelunking, or some theoretical other need for a very bright flash, far from electricity, flash powder appears to totally work, and work well, and be very lightweight and fairly easy to aquire and mix up. Fiddly in the wind and rain, to be sure, but in an era without cheap flashbulbs, it's definitely a good option to have.


Oh, and never do this. It's dangerous.

[Nathan Potter]

Bettersense, good deal! Rather than the flash powder being brighter on the subject (mW/sq. cm.) is it not likely that the duration of the flash is longer (t) so it appears brighter than the SB-28? Using less powder or a bit of confinement, (careful), will shorten the time and so reduce the dose of light.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[BetterSense]

I wasn't comparing the intensities; I have no way to do that. I was comparing the total flash. In other words, in the situations where I would use flash powder "appearing brighter on film" is equivalent to "being brighter". I can't see powder flash being the tool of choice in situations where you need to stop action. My next trick is rigging up a type of shutter sync, but I can't imaging being able to sync powder flash to a shutter unless you ran the shutter for at least 1/4s or something.

[holmbāgu]

This book gives an excellent account of the development of flash powders, and everything "flashy".

http://www.amazon.com/Photograph-Dar...1159356&sr=1-5

BetterSense, it'd be really cool to see the negs you speak of.