Unfortunately for those of us that are absent minded or thinking too far ahead and have not established a set routine the automatic darkslide remover never made it off the drawing board. It was deemed too costly and would have added too much weight to a press camera.

Now a trick that does work. Connect the flash, set the aperture to wide open, and while looking at the rear of the lens or at the ground glass point the shutter at a light colored wall and trip the shutter.

If you see the shutter blades then the flash sync is incorrect for the type of flash in use. If you see a bright illuminated ground glass or the wall brightly lit through the lens then the sync is working properly.

With your shutter flash sync set to 5 you will see the edges of the shutter blades in the lens when an electronic flash is fired by the shutter but the resulting exposure will be less than 1 stop off but with the flash sync set to 20 the resulting exposure will be 1 1/2 to 3 stops off depending on the flash used.

Oh I'll have to try that when I get back from helping a friend who is still working for a living, and doesn't own a speed, (poor soul) put up a retail sign... I'm retarded, so he can call me on a day's notice, as evidenced pulling out the dark slide, not the forward, one, but the back one, that was facing me. Da,,,

I assembled the modern flash all together this morning, using 1-1/4" EMT for the holder of a Nikon AS-1 hot shoe connector which I had. The outside diameter of the EMT, is just the same as inside diameter of the old attachment bracket of the original speed flash, so it can hang on the range finder as it always had.

The inside diameter of the 1-1/4" EMT pipe is just a little less than the outside diameter of the Nikon AS-1. Two slots in the top of the EMT, allowed the AS-1 to be fitted within it. The old speed connector shoe, via Phillips head screw, then was tightened around it, making it snug.

A 1/2" PVC threaded pipe connector, with plastic treads cut off, outside diameter slid nicely, as a friction fit down the EMT to keep the AS-1 from slipping future down down the EMT when in use.

Ya got all dat?

I also took another test shot and will develop it when we get back.

What crazy fun!

It's always great to discover non-photographic, off-the-shelf items that work with our gear. My only question is, what's an EMT?

Vivitar flash was mentioned a few posts ago, and I should say here that I've used my Vivitar 2800 on Graphex shutters with a cable from Paramount, Vivitar-to-bipost (#9 to #13, in their numbers). See http://www.paramountcords.com/categories.asp?cat=26

Quote:

My only question is, what's an EMT?

Emergency Medical Technician, but I doubt he found one to hold the flash for him so its the base grade of electrical conduit.

Yeah, I figured it wasn't the human version, but what do the letters stand for? Electrical--something-something, I guess? Just curious....

EMT = Electrical Metallic Tubing

Thank you, dave.

YWH (You're Welcome Henry)