I don't do much flash photography at all but I was testing some equipment prior to a social event where I might want to do some and ended up with a blank frame. I'm hoping that some kind soul can confirm what I suspect is the cause.
I only took the one test shot, indoors at night. The flash gun was a National PE-387S automatic unit recently given to me. The camera was an Olympus OM1 with accessory shoe 1, through which the electrical connection was made (i.e no PC cord). The gun fired OK and the settings on the camera which matched what the gun instructed me to use were 1/60th at f8. The gun was set to the right ASA film speed. I think that the little toggle switch by the PC socket that selects X or FP had moved to FP, which I believe is the setting for old fashioned bulbs full of wire. I'm guessing that the shutter opens much later on FP, giving the magnesium in the bulb time to ignite and that by the time it did light up, my shutter had already closed. Is this theory consistent with a completely clear negative?
(This implies that the switch by the PC socket also controls the timing at the hot shoe. I didn't think that old style bulb flash guns ever connected through a hot shoe.)
I only took the one test shot, indoors at night. The flash gun was a National PE-387S automatic unit recently given to me. The camera was an Olympus OM1 with accessory shoe 1, through which the electrical connection was made (i.e no PC cord). The gun fired OK and the settings on the camera which matched what the gun instructed me to use were 1/60th at f8. The gun was set to the right ASA film speed. I think that the little toggle switch by the PC socket that selects X or FP had moved to FP, which I believe is the setting for old fashioned bulbs full of wire. I'm guessing that the shutter opens much later on FP, giving the magnesium in the bulb time to ignite and that by the time it did light up, my shutter had already closed. Is this theory consistent with a completely clear negative?
(This implies that the switch by the PC socket also controls the timing at the hot shoe. I didn't think that old style bulb flash guns ever connected through a hot shoe.)