Very fast flashlights

[RalphLambrecht]

I'm looking for a very fast flashlight to stop fast action. My flashlights have burning times from 1/800 s to 1/2,000 s, which is too long for what I want to do. I once hadaVivitar capable of 1/25,000 s but it had to high of a trigger voltage so, I got rid of it. Who is aware of a low-cost ultra-fast flashlight on the market right now? preferably up to 1/50,000 s

 

[Pieter12]

I believe Hensel with the Cito 500 (1/100,00th sec flash duration) and maybe Broncolor made dedicated high-speed units. Neither could be considered low-cost, though.

 

[blee1996]

Or find a trigger voltage converter for the Vivtar? Might be a cheaper route. I know Wein and Vello make those hot shoe to hot shoe adapter with safe voltage or safe sync features.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Or find a trigger voltage converter for the Vivtar? Might be a cheaper route. I know Wein and Vello make those hot shoe to hot shoe adapter with safe voltage or safe sync features.

thankyou for all replies. The Vivitar is long gone but I found(I just got too much stuff) a Nikon SB-26 that goes down to 1/23,000 s; that will do.

 

[Bill Burk]

I'm looking for a very fast flashlight to stop fast action. My flashlights have burning times from 1/800 s to 1/2,000 s, which is too long for what I want to do. I once hadaVivitar capable of 1/25,000 s but it had to high of a trigger voltage so, I got rid of it. Who is aware of a low-cost ultra-fast flashlight on the market right now? preferably up to 1/50,000 s

The Vivitar 285 - or - Vivitar 283 + VP-1 Varipower module is the right flash for the job. Add a Wein SafeSync HSHSB to bring the 278 volt trigger voltage down to 6.7 volts. (Measured my voltages just now).

Or you can use a strobo slave to fire any flash without electrical connection

For example, I use the above setup (Wein SafeSync on hotshoe, to the extension cord on the Vivitar) aimed at a cheap strobe slave to create an optical trigger to fire my Photogenic flash.

The caution is to disable any “red-eye reduction” pre-fire on the camera. And put the flash/slave in a box or something to keep the trigger light off the set.

 

[gordrob]

Anytime that I have an issue with a flash with a voltage output that would damage my camera I do the same as Bill Burk and use a slave to trigger the flash off camera. I normally use the Vivitar slaves to trigger the flash units. No problems so far.

 

[bernard_L]

I'm looking for a very fast flashlight to stop fast action. My flashlights have burning times from 1/800 s to 1/2,000 s, which is too long for what I want to do. I once hadaVivitar capable of 1/25,000 s but it had to high of a trigger voltage so, I got rid of it. Who is aware of a low-cost ultra-fast flashlight on the market right now? preferably up to 1/50,000 s

Edgerton was pioneer in very high speed flash photography. The kind that can show a bullet smashing a lightbulb.

Hobby Robotics » High Speed Air-gap Flash

In my quest to capture amazing high speed photographs I notice that when photographing shooting bullets the bullets were blurred. I found that standard xenon tube, which standard flashes use, is very bright for the energy put into it because of glowing xenon gas. The book Electronic Flash Strobe by Harold Edgerton explains all the calculations, but in practice this means all the flashes from Nikon, Canon and others that use xenon flash tubes have a minimum duration of 1/40,000th of a second. That’s fast enough for most things, but not for a shooting bullet travels around 1000 feet/second. In 1/40,000th of a second that bullet can travel about 1/3rd of an inch leading to blurry photographs of bullets.

To solve this I had to make a faster flash. I’m certainly not the first to do this. I think that was Harold Edgerton. He actually created a company called EG&G to sell a product called the 549 Microflash, but that company has been dissolved and the product discontinued. Sometimes you can still find these flash units on ebay, but the ones I saw were selling for $8K+. There is also a company called Prism Science Works making a modern version of these for researchers, but you’ll need really deep pockets to afford one of those. I saw directions on how to build one in the August 1974 issue of Scientific America and emailed Alan who had already built a few. After this research I realized I could build a sub-microsecond flash for just a few hundred dollars. A sub-microsecond flash means the flash duration is less than 1/1,000,000th of a second or about 25 times faster than a xenon flash.

 

[eli griggs]

I don't know if you ever saw the beautiful shot of a chameleon shooting his tongue out to catch a flying bug, a black, unlit background, but, as I recall, the photographers took and set up a flash unit, like the Vivitar 283 or 285, at the distance they wanted, and controlled the amount of flash duration by making a device(s?) to hold both ends of a fairly thick, strand of fiber optics cable from a position on the flash window and the opposite end fitted onto the Auto flash Thyristor eye on the same flash unit.

The cable was very short, calculated too only provide enough ("fast" flash) to the distance from the lizard and flying prey, no more.

Obviously, the custom cut optic cable, I think measured from the flash window to the target and back to the marked film plain, which only allowed a super short, direct path of the flash cycle to reach the controller Auto Vivitar Thyristor eye and start, ending the cycle with just enough light to travel the preset (speed of light volume) measured distance, at the speed of light back into the electrical relay, also at the speed of light.

I believe I have this remembered correctly, I only read the article once several decades ago, but if it'll help, give it a shot and let us know your method and formula calculations, please.

Cheers

PS: I believe that if you shoot this bullet (or series of bullets) in a dark enough set, even outdoors in skylight, with a properly lengthened optic cable, only the actual brief flash will illuminate your bullet, as the super short cutoff will prevent the light from traveling long enough and far enough to see and record the movement of the bullet and background.

Excess illumination from the burning cartridge propellent might be well controlled by shooting through a pair or more of light absorbing, black Vanta type, painted sheets of card stock, I believe, as well.

 

[ic-racer]

Metz 54MZ manual indicates short duration of 1/20,000. Its trigger voltage should be safe for most film cameras.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

The Vivitar 285 - or - Vivitar 283 + VP-1 Varipower module is the right flash for the job. Add a Wein SafeSync HSHSB to bring the 278 volt trigger voltage down to 6.7 volts. (Measured my voltages just now).

Or you can use a strobo slave to fire any flash without electrical connection

For example, I use the above setup (Wein SafeSync on hotshoe, to the extension cord on the Vivitar) aimed at a cheap strobe slave to create an optical trigger to fire my Photogenic flash.

The caution is to disable any “red-eye reduction” pre-fire on the camera. And put the flash/slave in a box or something to keep the trigger light off the set.

my Vivitar is gone! ditched for a NikonSB-26, which has a very low trigger voltage without extra help. The Vivitar is a current monster; But yes; your proposed setup would certainly work. thanks

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Metz 54MZ manual indicates short duration of 1/20,000. Its trigger voltage should be safe for most film cameras.

over time, any trigger voltage above 5V will damage camera connections.

 

[eli griggs]

I forgot to mention that, as I recall, the photographers I referred to earlier, used an unseen beam or other sensor to trigger the set-up automatically.

 

[Bill Burk]

my Vivitar is gone! ditched for a NikonSB-26, which has a very low trigger voltage without extra help. The Vivitar is a current monster; But yes; your proposed setup would certainly work. thanks

I tried reading the manual for your flash. It’s certainly a capable unit!

 

[wiltw]

over time, any trigger voltage above 5V will damage camera connections.

The 54MZ various sub-models are all reported to be 5V or less (tested as low as 2.8V), per Botzilla

 

[ic-racer]

Never heard of it, never seen it. I’m calling fake news that voltage over 5 can damage flash contacts.

This is one of the funniest things I have read on the internet.

Please show one cameras contacts burned by ISO 24v and accompanying spoiled negatives when the contacts failed.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I tried reading the manual for your flash. It’s certainly a capable unit!

Yes,bu, I'm looking for a faster one yet.

 

[MattKing]

Never heard of it, never seen it. I’m calling fake news that voltage over 5 can damage flash contacts.

This is one of the funniest things I have read on the internet.

Please show one cameras contacts burned by ISO 24v and accompanying spoiled negatives when the contacts failed.

Mamiya RB67 shutters are well known for requiring service to the synch circuits due to a build-up of trigger voltage/current damage from studio strobes.
There appears to be a build-up over time of resistance.

 

[Loose Gravel]

https://www.edmundoptics.com/p/strobed-white-high-intensity-led-spot-light-7f903f7e/28891?gad_source=4&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5rGuBhCnARIsAN11vgST3942NP972g0lI7YHKg5fyJDdfKfWF9iZLG5sUvG4fFf77_c8kFMaAnQhEALw_wcB

This one is 30 micro second minimum. You might look around on a scientific type site for faster. Pure colors will be faster than white because of turn-off time (phosphor decay). Try some of the specialty rental shops in Burbank for specialty lighting.

Some LEDs will be in the nanosecond region, but the output will not be great. I should think a deep search will turn up a microsecond LED strobe. Won't come cheap.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Never heard of it, never seen it. I’m calling fake news that voltage over 5 can damage flash contacts.

This is one of the funniest things I have read on the internet.

Please show one cameras contacts burned by ISO 24v and accompanying spoiled negatives when the contacts failed.

You can just go away and see but don't complain. Just to let you know, you've been told. According to the ISO standard, strobes should not have a trigger voltage above 5V and cameras should be able to live with up to 5 V, So, 5 V is the standard but, many strobes go well above 5V and thereby damage camera contacts over time.

 

[wiltw]

Never heard of it, never seen it. I’m calling fake news that voltage over 5 can damage flash contacts.

This is one of the funniest things I have read on the internet.

Please show one cameras contacts burned by ISO 24v and accompanying spoiled negatives when the contacts failed.

When electronic flash circuits first came out during the film days (e.g. EOS launch) they were sensitive to Voltage

Per Botzilla https://www.botzilla.com/page/strobeVolts.html​

"Canon US has verified (to me, and here) that the Powershot G doesn’t like voltages over 6V.​

Similarly, Nikon has specified 12V for their speedlight circuits.​

Olympus too recommends strobe triggering in the 3V to 6V range.​

The ISO 10330 specification (“Photography – Synchronizers, ignition circuits and connectors for cameras and photoflash units – Electrical characteristics and test methods,” 1992) says that all ISO-compliant cameras should be able to accept trigger voltages up to 24V. Though a Canon engineer is the nominal head of the ISO workgroup, for some reason Canon continues to insist that their cameras tolerate no more than 6V (make that Canon USA — an email from Canon Canada says: “There is not a maximum voltage requirement for the hot shoe terminal on the PowerShot G1.” Go fig!). For that reason I’ve tagged strobes that trigger at voltages between 6V and 24V as “Your Call.”​

​

It was with the launch of the Canon 20D that Canon finally made their EOS electronic flash circuits tolerate up to 250V. Chuck Westfall of Canon USA confirmed Canon sync Voltages in an article in 2007

Tech Tips by Chuck Westfall - The Digital Journalist (March 2007)

Dirck Halstead presents The Digital Journalist: A Multimedia Magazine for Photojournalism in the Digital Age

digitaljournalist.org

That is the reason that previously the Wein Safe Sync came about.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

https://www.edmundoptics.com/p/strobed-white-high-intensity-led-spot-light-7f903f7e/28891?gad_source=4&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5rGuBhCnARIsAN11vgST3942NP972g0lI7YHKg5fyJDdfKfWF9iZLG5sUvG4fFf77_c8kFMaAnQhEALw_wcB

This one is 30 micro second minimum. You might look around on a scientific type site for faster. Pure colors will be faster than white because of turn-off time (phosphor decay). Try some of the specialty rental shops in Burbank for specialty lighting.

Some LEDs will be in the nanosecond region, but the output will not be great. I should think a deep search will turn up a microsecond LED strobe. Won't come cheap.

thanks for the link. I'll check it out. Burbank is a bit of a commute from Cologne. I'll haveto passon that. For now, I'm happy with my Nikon SB-26 but grateful for all the replies.

 

[koraks]

Never heard of it, never seen it. I’m calling fake news that voltage over 5 can damage flash contacts.

I think it's a misunderstanding, and a misformulation.

Voltage doesn't damage contacts. Current does. Voltage can fry the hot shoe trigger circuit if that involves components (esp. transistors, mosfets) that have a low-ish voltage rating. If the flash contact is an open-drain contact, for instance, it will be fried if a voltage is applied to it that exceeds the ratings of the triggering FET. Of course, nobody in their right mind would ever, or has ever, used any component in a hot shoe circuit that can't withstand 5V. So this part of the reasoning is really only about flash units that apply a high voltage to the hot shoe contacts.

So stepping over that concern for a bit, I can see how a flash trigger circuit can be damaged in the long run if if involves discharging an unfortunately large capacitance through the contact, resulting in a brief but potentially strong current peak. It's a well-known problem with e.g. microswitches that involve a debounce capacitor, where the charged capacitor (usually not more than a few uF) will instantaneously discharge through the contacts of the switch. This is why a more sensible debounce circuit will always involve a low-value current limiting resistor. A similar argument could be made for a flash/hot shoe contact - but it depends really on the capacitance and hence peak currents experienced by the flash contact, and it also relies on the assumption that the flash contact is itself prone to burning in. For the latter, I can see two possibilities: (1) a transistor type that's sensitive to peak currents / has a low peak current rating or (2) a mechanical flash contact (old cameras or leaf shutters) that is sensitive to physically burned contacts.

Hence, the whole argument relies on not voltage, but current, and furthermore involves a couple of crucial assumptions that may or may not hold true in practice, depending on the precise combination of devices used.

The statement as such that 5V contact voltage on a hot shoe as such will degrade the trigger circuit over time is technically not quite correct. It's far more nuanced.