SPS100 Slave Flash Unit - Anyone Familiar?

[Fred588]

This is only partly off topic and I think its more in line with being a request, so I am posting it here.

I wonder if anyone here is familiar with a device known as an SPS100 AC strobe light. Familiar enough, that is, to answer a question about unorthodox use. Specifically, I am looking for a way to disable the slave flash function so as to use the device as an ordinary flash. The intensity of the actual output does not matter - what matters is that it be a momentary flash of light. What I wish to do is to use several of the devices - I have three of them - to simulate bursts of lightning. Ideally there will be at least three flashes in quick succession, of different intensity and with the sequence of relative intensities more or less random.

[Duncan Edwards]

Yeah because those things have been around in various versions forever. I mean really because I was selling them in the mid-80's. They were inexpensive, relatively powerful, hard to break and easy to fix. Back in the day the only way was to remove the lens and put black tape over the "eyeball". Then you could trip them with a sync cord in whatever sequence you wanted.

[Fred588]

Yeah because those things have been around in various versions forever. I mean really because I was selling them in the mid-80's. They were inexpensive, relatively powerful, hard to break and easy to fix. Back in the day the only way was to remove the lens and put black tape over the "eyeball". Then you could trip them with a sync cord in whatever sequence you wanted.

I have arrived at a rather similar but not identical solution by experimentation. There does not seem to be an "eyeball" that I can recognize. However, by inserting some card stock over about half of the flash and under the lens, I have something that seems to work most of the time. In practice they will all be aimed in different directions from a central spot and trigger using the manual buttons on the back of the units.

For what its worth, they are now listed as no longer available at B&H.

[Duncan Edwards]

...by inserting some card stock over about half of the flash and under the lens, I have something that seems to work most of the time. In practice they will all be aimed in different directions from a central spot and trigger using the manual buttons on the back of the units.

That's the idea. Bet it works fine. I borrowed two of those things in college to photograph a girl swinging on a rope using the slow sync speed of a view camera lens. She was frozen perfectly at the end of her swing. The big drawback was that I had to process 5x7" film and contact print the negatives to see if it worked. There were some advantages in the good ol' days but I'll take what we have now.

For what its worth, they are now listed as no longer available at B&H.

Not surprising I guess. Too easy to use all the neat little gadgets that cameras and computers can do today.

[Fred588]

It might be just that particular model that is no longer available. Certainly there are still uses for AC powered flash units. I've only used slave flashes for two things; quicksand photo shoots and cave photography. Obviously an AC powered device is not much good in a wild cave, and now I prefer continuous light for almost everything related to quicksand. Hence the non-standard, flash in a video, application mentioned here.

...by inserting some card stock over about half of the flash and under the lens, I have something that seems to work most of the time. In practice they will all be aimed in different directions from a central spot and trigger using the manual buttons on the back of the units.

That's the idea. Bet it works fine. I borrowed two of those things in college to photograph a girl swinging on a rope using the slow sync speed of a view camera lens. She was frozen perfectly at the end of her swing. The big drawback was that I had to process 5x7" film and contact print the negatives to see if it worked. There were some advantages in the good ol' days but I'll take what we have now.

For what its worth, they are now listed as no longer available at B&H.

Not surprising I guess. Too easy to use all the neat little gadgets that cameras and computers can do today.