1920's Camera With Working "Graflex" Flash
The camera part was easy, it just had to look like one of these, The flash was the hard part...
So I had already made the Cinderella flash prop so I kinda knew what went on inside of camera flashes but nothing like what ended up doing. I Hacked a DSLR speedlight (external flash) into a bulb graflex style camera flash like the one pictured below.
So I had already made the Cinderella flash prop so I kinda knew what went on inside of camera flashes but nothing like what ended up doing. I Hacked a DSLR speedlight (external flash) into a bulb graflex style camera flash like the one pictured below.
After ripping apart the DSLR speedlight and only saving the electrical components I realized I had a problem, I had nearly no idea how this thing worked. DSLRs use TTL(transistor transistor logic) to control the flash and they do way more than just turn it on or off, they control the brightness, time, and FOV of the flash. Fortunately most speedlights, including this one have a manual mode and a test button built into the the user interface of the flash. This meant that I was able to manually set the flash to full brightness and trigger it all with the flash's settings/user interface. After some soldering some wire extensions, and a bit of hot glue the flashes controls were isolated and wired up to a new 4 cell AAA (6v) battery holder (okay so I used a 9v battery, but you can’t argue with results). I then had to mount the xenon bulb inside of a bowl I cut open with the wires routed through a cardboard tube the held paper towels. Hot glue, if you're desperate, and have the the patience, can in fact be used as a handheld 3D printer. I used the hot glue to mount the xenon bulb to the bowl and the bowl to the paper towel tube.
I know what you're thinking, Since when did technical props consist of hot glue and a is actually a plastic bowl and cardboard tube. Well, it gets better. The next step was to layer the inside of the bowl with thermal reflective aluminum duct tape. This gave the inside of the flash the shiny reflective properties we wanted. Remember, not just does it have to work, it has to look the part too. The last step was to carefully tape the outside of the device with black gaff tape and tuck the rest of the electronics into the inside of the 4x5 camera. The results were fantastic, the flash lit up half of the stage!
Fun fact: the graflex camera flash handle, similar to the one pictured above (the tube that connects the reflective dish to the camera body) is what was used to make the original lightsaber handle in the original Star Wars.
I know what you're thinking, Since when did technical props consist of hot glue and a is actually a plastic bowl and cardboard tube. Well, it gets better. The next step was to layer the inside of the bowl with thermal reflective aluminum duct tape. This gave the inside of the flash the shiny reflective properties we wanted. Remember, not just does it have to work, it has to look the part too. The last step was to carefully tape the outside of the device with black gaff tape and tuck the rest of the electronics into the inside of the 4x5 camera. The results were fantastic, the flash lit up half of the stage!
Fun fact: the graflex camera flash handle, similar to the one pictured above (the tube that connects the reflective dish to the camera body) is what was used to make the original lightsaber handle in the original Star Wars.