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Westinghouse 5Bs

 
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Jim23



Joined: 08 Sep 2001
Posts: 129
Location: US/Greater Cincinnati, Ohio

PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

About 15 years ago, I bought a case of Westinghouse 5B's "on-the-cheap." These bulbs were of the last vintage produced. I recently took some test shots on Poloroid film and discovered that the bulbs have about a stop-an-a-half less light than the advertised guide number, and are not that consistent from bulb-to-bulb (4 shots). The bulbs also emit a foul odor when fired and a part of the lacquer turns completely black (as well as lots of smoke)!

On the other hand, the 2 GE's I tried worked fine. And the exposure was close to the advertised guide number.

I am wanting to use the 5Bs for color open-flash night shots (trains) and I am wondering if the Westinghouse bulbs were indeed this way from the beginning? I hate to waste the color sheet film with the unpredictable bulbs....
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alecj



Joined: 09 May 2001
Posts: 853
Location: Alabama

PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 3:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The odor and blackening are routine. The variation in light output is not. Blue bulbs do produce less light than clear, and guide numbers are only a start.

Since your outside shots will most likely be open flash, nothing much you can do to alter the light output. Either you trust the bulbs or throw them out. Hopefully there was just difference in use you perhaps forgot?
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Les



Joined: 09 May 2001
Posts: 2682
Location: Detroit, MI

PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's the smoke part that concerns me. Flash bulbs have a unique odor to them, which I don't find all that noxious, but I've never had any of them smoke, (well except for the two that went off in my polyester double knit pants, and then it wasn't the bulbs that were smoking, it was me!) and most of my bulbs, blue or white don't really look "black" but more grey with black spots. My daughter said it looks like the surface of the moon.

the fact that your getting smoke might mean there's a leak in there somewhere are you're not getting complete combustion. Also if the bulbs are really blackened, as in sooty black, that might account for the light fall off......the early part of the burn fouls the glass and the rest of the light can't get out. This is the same reason foil filled bulbs weren't as bright as wire fill ones.....the outside foil kept the light from the inside foil from getting out.

Les


Les
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Baker



Joined: 08 Apr 2002
Posts: 85
Location: Texas

PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's always a single black spot (a burned spot, not the moonscape look that they all have) and big bubble in the lacquer on my Sylvania P25s. I've had no other problems in the two boxes I've gone through, and they all performed as advertised. It's always on the low side of the bulb, so I assume it's just where bits of magnesium land when it burns away at the connection and some falls off.
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