The Honeywell Strobo Eye Spotmatic IIa was in the same sales brochure at the time with the Strobonar 772 and 882 which were 1971-1972 technology before thyristor circuitry came along I know this because I slept with that brochure practically under my pillow every night. Actually the first I remember about ever seeing "Auto Thristor" was the Vivitar 283 line. That was I guess about 1974-75 or so. No later.
But that already was the case with the preceeding technology.
Yes it was. And I might add that electronic flash used in auto mode will always have you bumping your nose against the stone wall of reciprocity. Flat lifeless photos compared with flashbulbs, which had their own problem of forcing you to lose all control of both depth of field and fill light.. Long ago I found that a flash like my Sunpak Auto 611 was best used with the stobo-eye attachment sitting at home in the junk drawer. Used in manual mode and choosing from the power ratio dial, I can meter a scene and shoot by ambient light standards, and throw in just enough light to fill as needed. Only when it is too dark to do that, do I let the flash become the main source, or only source of light. That way you avoid reciprocity problems, and the dull lifeless photos that come with it. I don't know of any of the older non-thyristor units that had manual variable power capability. Of course many of the auto thristor flashes don't give you a dial for manual variable power either. A good Sunpak flash spoiled me forever. And here it is 43 years from the day I bought it, and it's still the cat's pajamas.
Could you go into detail on this issue?
I can't, because there was a lot of plain opinion and speculation in what I said. I always thought that color photos shot with portable electronic flashes were often bluish and dull compared to how I remember with flashbuulbs. It was years before I thought if a reason to explain it. Reciprocity comes into play, I reasoned. Might be a load of baloney, but is as good as any other reason I ever thought of.
Modern flashes today remove the Auto Thyristor feature (only TTL is available) but most have the variable manual power.
Not so sure about that, Lumedyne has an electric eye for their flashes. It is called the HAHM ( Autoexposure Handle Module ) probably still made and used with modern lights. I have had one since it was first released ( early/mid 2000s? ). It allows you to do asymetrical lighting if you have 2 flashes plugged into the same pack ( other wise it splits it in half ) and it allows you to trim your lights from 2WS to full power. Lumedyne still makes great lights, and this feature might be incorporated into their new systems.
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