I was pretty excited last weekend to pick up this old Yashica Pro-50DX flash at a junk store that I visit frequently for only $2.00. I didn't know at the time if it would work, but it was certainly worth the risk. Luckily, it does!
It will make a great off-camera flash for putting a splash of light in places. I'll put velcro on the sides, so I can attach my flash gels to it (
See the Rosco Cinegel post.) and use it on portraits, product shots and still-lifes, etc. It's always nice to have more small lights to add in here or there. This little guy packs a punch too!
The flash doesn't have any power settings, but that is easily controlled with some neutral density gels. It has a sync cable that I could tap into, but first I'm going to try an optical slave off of eBay. There are some that ship out of Hong Kong for $10 including shipping which should fire it whenever my other flashes go off.
This next find is a piece of plastic trash. It's an all-plastic 35mm film camera. My mom actually got one almost just like this free in the mail once when I was kid. I shot a roll or two with it, but it was useless. The film didn't advance correctly.
However, it's actually what I had mind when I went to this junk store recently. I'd seen them there before, and I picked this one up for 50 cents. It's worth less. I offered 25 and they countered at 50. The place actually sells donated items to raise money for charity, so I didn't complain.
So what am I going to do with it? Well, I bought it for this one little piece right on the top, the flash shoe:
Notice that it unscrews. Not immediately, but someday when I need it, I'll take the flash shoe off and mount it on something so I can place a light where I want it. If I pick up another one someday, I might build my own bracket for mounting two flashes within a softbox.
If you have any old flash equipment in your closet that you want to get rid of contact me!
