My Old Braun Hobby flashes

[pentaxpete]

Though I would show you my 'Braun Hobby' unit from the late 1950's-'60's that I use to take many of my ;Indoor Photos' . They came out in the 1950's and were used by all the newspaper photographers -- when you see the Beatles coming down the steps of the Aircraft in USA there are all the news snappers with their ROLLEIS and the black Braun Hobby units with the strap over their shoulders ! My FIRST Braun was bought in the Canadian Maple Leaf Store in Iserlohn, Germany in 1957 when I was there in the British Military Hospital as a Path Lab Technician-- it cost £ 14-00 when in England with all the taxes it cost £ 39-00 ! It had 'lead-acid ' wet-cell accumulators and could also be run off the mains .. I wore out the cells then they were all discontinued BUT I could still run it off the mains indoors. Then many years later I got a second flash head , then I was GIVEN some more Braun units and saved some from being DUMPED by a Photographer I was visiting. There are differences in all the power packs I have when they are opened up -- small improvements by the Germans. The flash duration is 1/1000th second and when more than one head is plugged in of course the power is shared

Braun-Unit by pentaxpete, on Flickr

 

[Steve Smith]

One of my earliest memories of my father's photographic equipment is the Braun flash he used for weddings. It took four (I think) 90 volt portable valve radio batteries in a power supply carried in a leather case.


Steve.

 

[G.K.Jnr.]

Hi, I used to use one of these when I first started out in wedding work. It had a twin wet cell battery with a built in hydrometer so you could keep an eye on the charge you had left, and If my memory serves me correctly they had a Full & Half Power setting and you could turn the reflector through 180 degrees for a wider angle which effectively reduced the the light output by about one stop. So if you were shooting with a standard focal length lens (which most of us did in those days on 5x4) you could use the various combinations of power & reflector to give you four different light outputs. "Great memories".

George.

 

[vetonbike]

Hi, I used to use one of these when I first started out in wedding work. It had a twin wet cell battery with a built in hydrometer so you could keep an eye on the charge you had left, and If my memory serves me correctly they had a Full & Half Power setting and you could turn the reflector through 180 degrees for a wider angle which effectively reduced the the light output by about one stop. So if you were shooting with a standard focal length lens (which most of us did in those days on 5x4) you could use the various combinations of power & reflector to give you four different light outputs. "Great memories".

George.

I second that.

 

[pentaxpete]

Yes-- the half power switch is the middle one -- Braun supplied a small plastic 'dropper ' to put in distilled water if the wet acid cells got too dry ! There is still the 'vibrator' fitted inside which was used in charging up the capacitors when the wet acid cells were used but of course it is not used when plugged into the mains -- I would set the mains voltage switch to 220 V and run it on the British 230-240 V and it would charge up quicker if I was in a hurry -- now I am NOT in a hurry I set it to British Voltage ! The WHITE wire is where I had the heads re=wired many years ago by a Camera Club member ( the internal wiring is very delicate and the black insulation breaks down over so many years)