Can a Brownie camera use an external flash unit?

What About Bob

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I was just thinking.... Would it be possible to rig a Vivitar 283 flash unit to a Brownie Holiday Flash camera? I searched around the net and didn't find anything.

Thanks
 

Mr Flibble

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It's a basically a case of forming a closed circuit when the release is pressed, with some creative soldering I'm sure you could hook the flash connectors up to those on camera.
If an electronic flash can be properly synchronized with a shutter designed for bulb flash synchronisation is another matter.
 
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neilt3

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It seems to me the only way to use an electronic flash on a camera designed to use bulbs is to make an electronic delay if the correct milliseconds.
A little box that goes between the flash and the camera , so when the bulb flash synch is reached , the flash fires just after once the shutter is fully open .
If you know electronics , I imagine it should be quite easy .
I don't do YMMV !

Alternatively, as suggested above, modification of the contacts in the camera to alter the timing .
Don't know if that's possible to do without lots of trial and error .
But sounds simple enough to do .
If you can solder....
 

RalphLambrecht

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possible with some expert tinkering, but it may be more practical and a lot easier to use an LED panel!
 

Chan Tran

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I think there are a lot of different Brownies. I wonder which one the OP was talking about?
 

Chan Tran

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Don_ih said:
Likely this one:

View attachment 382370
since he said it was a Holiday Flash (photo borrowed from an ebay listing)
Click to expand...

Of course I don't have the camera but reading the manual the flash for it is an external unit. So whatever electrical contacts that are there on the camera would fire a flash. So first I would need to find a way to connect to it as although I don't see the connection I would assume it's not a standard connection where you would be able to buy a connector for. If you have the flash unit you can take it apart and use the connection. Now I am sure this would fire an electronic flash like the Vivitar 283 but the timing can be wrong. So I can build a delay unit to do that. It doesn't have to be precise as the shutter time of the Brownie isn't very fast.
 

MattKing

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As mentioned above, the flash synch for the bulbs that the Holiday Flash was matched with is different - in most cases it closes the circuit early in order to take into account the relatively slow response time of bulbs, which means it triggers too early for use with much more instantaneous electronic flash.
It is the difference between X synch ( electronic flash) and most likely M synch (most bulbs).
You may actually have cameras that have switches or other means of choosing between the two synch options - but not on that Brownie.
You would have to wire in some sort of delay circuit to ensure the electronic flash goes off at the time when the shutter is most open.
 

wiltw

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The M-sync bulb is fired with an M sync camera with about 20ms lead time, to permit its output to peak while the shutter is open, even with use of a faster shutter speed.
The Kodak Brownie shutter speed is somewhere in the range of 1/30 to 1/60...open about 17ms to 33ms and catching the illuimination of the M-sync bulb, even without a complex shutter flash sync mechanism!

The problem is if the X-sync electronic flash is triggered by shutter opening, its very brief peak MIGHT be occurring before the shutter has opened fully...so the exposure might not be sufficiently illuminated. But there might not be much of an issue, with a simple blade-type shutter.

It is simple enough to have a pair of pins that insert into the contacts on the body, connected to wires that are attached to the trigger pins of an external flash unit, and include a flash test shot or two in a roll of other usable pictures shot with daylight, and see the test results after processing the film.
 

Donald Qualls

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What About Bob said:
Would it be possible to rig a Vivitar 283 flash unit to a Brownie Holiday Flash camera?
Click to expand...

I installed an external sync on a Holiday Flash (or similar bulb flash 127 camera) (I used an audio jack and plug, but a PC sync socket would be better if you can find one) back around 1975, and used it to fire the flash on my Keystone Everflash 126. Mounted both on a bracket via added tripod sockets, and used the combination for several rolls.

If the camera had a fast shutter, the M vs. X sync would cause problems, but it doesn't; firing the flash 20 ms before peak shutter opening makes almost no difference with a 1/60 rotary shutter, just needs a minor adjustment to the guide number.
 
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What About Bob

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Thanks for all of the responses. I was in electronics class back in high school but that was a very long time ago. I believe the shutter on the Brownie is 1/30th. I have the information somewhere.

So would M type bulbs work with focal plane shutters as well as leaf?
 

wiltw

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M bulbs would work with shutters that stay fully open for somewhat longer durations, like 1/30...the bulb output peaks while the shutter is fully open.
 

BrianShaw

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There are also F-type bulbs specifically for focal plane shutters. Longer burn time than M bulbs.
 

Donald Qualls

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Aaah. The one I added an external sync to in order to fire the flash on a 126 camera (for the cost of two jacks and a patch cord), plus a couple 1/4-20 blind nuts for the tripod sockets) was a later model than that, with a built-in flash.
 
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