This is an article in Popular Photography covering the Original Lightsphere 1.
 
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Back in "The Good Old Days" of photography, from the era when cigar-chomping Weegee filled the daily papers with his amazing flash photos of city life and drama, right up to the '70s, when Braun introduced the first Thyristor-controlled electronic flash, the guide number was king. You remember guide numbers, don't you?
As a refresher, a flash guide number, when divided by the distance from your flash to your subject, yields the aperture setting to use for a particular film. Practically all guide numbers given by flash makers are based on ISO 100 film, and those published in the U.S. are calculated for footage distances.
Since most portable electronic flash units have automatic-exposure circuitry built in, few photographers today-particularly amateurs-use guide numbers for determining exposure. Consequently, guide numbers have been demoted to the humdrum task of primarily being used only to compare the light output of different flashes before choosing one to buy.
This is not entirely the case, though. Many hard-working professionals, such as those who photograph weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, still rely on high-powered, fast-recycling, non-automatic flash for the bulk of their work. Unlike autoexposure flash, guide numbers are never fooled by large white dresses or a group of men dressed in black tuxedos.
Historically, when autoexposure flash first became available, color film wasn't nearly as refined as it is today. As the photographer went from far to near subjects, the flash's thyristor-controlled autoexposure system varied the length of the flash's duration to as short as 1/40,000 of a second to keep the exposure constant. This worked well enough with black-and-white film, but color film was another matter. Once the flash duration dropped below 1/2000 second, reciprocity failure caused the color shots to shift toward blue. Modern color films perform far better with autoexposure flash units because reciprocity effects now are much less of a problem.
In the bad old days, the blue shift was a real pain to professional processing labs. Some of them even offered reduced prices to clients who used manual flash because printing their negatives required fewer filter corrections or remakes. One of my friends always used his Honeywell Strobonar set on manual when doing weddings because of the money he saved on processing. Partially as a result of the blue shift problem, nonautomatic flash units, particularly fast-recycling types, continue to be used and manufactured. In fact, a respectable market persists for powerful, fast-recycling manual flash units. Let's look at a recent unit and see what it offers.
Norman Enterprises, Inc. has been manufacturing portable and studio flash equipment for decades and is well-known in professional circles. Most recently, Norman, in cooperation with West Coast photographer and lecturer Gary Fong, has released the Gary Fong Lightsphere. This unit is a variation of Norman's familiar 200C flash (see pictures above and left).
The part that mounts on your camera may look cute, but this two-piece unit is no toy! It's a workhorse flash that lists for $975, though it sells for somewhat less. It is intended for working photographers who are willing to shell out for the performance that a flash like this offers.
The separate belt-carried power pack contains the battery, the power conversion circuitry, and the storage capacitors. The lightweight flashhead merely holds the flashtube, the ready light, and some minor circuitry. The power pack is compatible with any of the other Norman 200C flashheads.
The pack is powered by a quickly replaceable nickel-cadmium battery assembly. A sophisticated charger is included with the flash. It can charge a fully rundown battery in 3.5 hours. The charger detects the battery's end-of-charge by measuring its small, but distinctive, voltage drop when fully charged. An optional accessory cable and holder permits charging of a spare battery while the flash is in use. A dual charger that will charge two batteries at a time is also available.
On top of the power pack is a switch that lets you select flash energy settings of 50, 100, or 200 watt-seconds. A switch on the flashhead cuts the flash output in half-giving you an effective 25 watt-second setting as well. By way of comparison, the familiar Vivitar 283 shoe-mount flash can supply 60 watt-seconds of energy to its flashtube.
The recycling time of this flash is amazing compared with ordinary shoe-mount flashes. At the 200 watt-second setting, the flash recycles in less than two seconds; at 50 watt-seconds, the flash recycles in less than a half second. These times are based on 70 percent of full recycle, which is when the ready light comes on. The capacitors are fully recycled shortly thereafter. More on the recycling time in a moment.
The most novel feature of the Gary Fong Lightsphere version of the Norman 200C is its flashhead. It is strictly a baretube flash: that is, it has no reflector. Light is sent in all directions from the flashtube, which is slightly larger than a 35mm film canister. While lack of a reflector severely lowers the flash's guide number compared with a conventional flash, a baretube gives a very flattering light.
Baretube flashes are nothing new. I own and use several, including a vintage Graflex unit I received from Pop Photo's former "Phototronics" editor, Ed Farber.
Since light radiates in all directions from the flashtube, it bounces from every nearby surface creating one really big reflector. The baretube itself produces crisp primary lighting while the light reflected from surrounding surfaces brightens the shadows and gives an open, less harsh look to your photographs.
In rooms with very high ceilings, you'll get a lot less fill light and the results will be harsher, unless you're photographing in a corner with two light-colored walls.
Another feature of a baretube flash is that since the light spreads evenly in all directions, there is no need to point it carefully at your subject. The light is smoothly distributed with none of the irregularities you might get using a reflector or lensed flash. The baretube's light will cover a medium wide-angle lens' angle of view with acceptable evenness.
Will it fit your camera?
The Lightsphere comes with Velcro strips that allow you to attach it directly to the sloping front surface of a Hasselblad prism. I tried the Lightsphere on a Kiev prism, which also fits Hasselblad cameras. It works, but the flashhead doesn't fit this prism very well! Norman says that they plan to add a 1/4x20 tripod thread socket to the flashhead by the time you read this. This will allow tripod or handle mounting of the flashhead.
The specifications claim that the flash will deliver up to 200 full-power flashes per battery charge. In our automated test-shown on the graph here-we got 133 flashes at a rate of one flash per minute. Shooting faster would give more flashes per charge, of course. Bill Norman says that they based the 200-flash rating on one flash every ten seconds. By the way, the flashtube is robust enough to use continually at this rate for 200 shots, even faster for short bursts.
Also note on the graph that the recycle time stayed below two seconds throughout the test! This is what a busy, special-event photographer needs to avoid missing important shots. The flash shut off automatically at 133 flashes in our test.
Since the recycling time doesn't slow down you can't use it to estimate how much charge is left in the battery. To warn you that you're nearing the end of the charge, the pack has a red light on top that comes on when only enough charge remains for about ten shots.
You can see the Gary Fong Lightsphere at dealers supplying professional photographers or you can contact the manufacturer for more information: Norman Enterprises, Inc., 2601 Empire Ave., Burbank, CA 91504; 818-843-6811.
The full package: The Lightsphere system includes the power pack, the battery and charger, and the baretube flash head seen here mounted on a Hasselblad pentaprism.
 
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