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UltravioletPhotography

my first full spectrum flash


Fandyus

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As you all might know, quality UV sources with a continuous spectrum can be hard to come by (if we exclude the sun), especially if your finances are limited. That's where I got lucky.

Ulf W was very generous to me, and he donated to me one of this Speedlite 199As, that he no longer uses, so that I could convert it. I'm very thankful for that.

I own a Nissin Di866 Mark II as well, but my father would never let me convert it. It might be way too complicated with that one anyway.

 

On the other hand, my father helped me very much with the conversion. We took the flash to his workplace, where he had a screwdriver small enough to open the head so that we could see what next.

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We took out the Fresnel window, and cut everything but the edges with a rotating file.

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Here's the cut out piece, the plastic created weird hard clumps.

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We then further smoothed the edges.

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Here's the finished hollowed out window.

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And here's the result. A full spectrum flash with the discharge tube fully exposed.

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Here's two pictures I took with the help of this new gadget.

converted Canon 1100D, Industar 50-2, QB39+ZWB1. For the dried flowers in a cup I used a fluorescent 40W blacklight as a supporting lightsource to help me focus and decrease the amount of flashings I had to do.

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A full-spectrum flash is something I never had/used. I never used a flash in general. It may be worth to get one someday.
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It's pretty good, the output is similar to the sun, so if you need artificial UV, this might be it. Fluorescent blacklights work too but their spectrum is less continuous. The Speedlite 199A is notorious for the conversion being easy I believe. Others might have more experience with that.

Ulf has a nice duo of posts about this.

https://www.ultravio...__fromsearch__1

https://www.ultravio...__fromsearch__1

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Good conversion Frandyus

If the flash tube has a light gold or straw colour it is not suitable for conversion as it blocks UVA & below.

The flash needs something clear to prevent any injury if in the case the flash tube explodes.

I have used clear polyester / mylar film in place of the fresnel lens you removed.

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Good conversion Frandyus

If the flash tube has a light gold or straw colour it is not suitable for conversion as it blocks UVA & below.

The flash needs something clear to prevent any injury if in the case the flash tube explodes.

I have used clear polyester / mylar film in place of the fresnel lens you removed.

Thank you, how does it happen that a flash tube explodes? Is it common?

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No, not that I have seen, but it is a warning that I have seen.

You will want to keep dust out of the flash & reflector.

By-the-way, don't put your fingers on the flash tube as the oil from your skin will cause the tube to blow as well.

If you have touched the tube it needs to be cleaned with alcohol.

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I would expect it to be very rare that a 199A flash tube will explode as it is a mass market product that is very well designed and tested.

As long as the tube is not contaminated like Col is mentioning, above, it would be quite safe to use.

 

One thing that can make flash tubes explode is when they are overheated and thermally stressed due to very many fast discharges.

My Godox AD200 is four times as powerful as the 199A and can fully recharge in less than 4s.

That is one of the reasons for me to have a Sun-bed grade perspex as protection on that flash.

 

I would not worry much about the 199A, except for not touching the Xenon tube.

 

When I tried the same xenon tube-type that Enrico experimented with on his AD200, my tube did develop tiny cracks inside, all over.

I think it was kept from exploding by that the glass tube's internal surface also started to melt, making the tube locally less brittle.

After a while the tube stopped working completely.

I think it developed a leak, destroying the low pressure xenon environment, needed for it to fire.

 

That was expected, as the tube-rating was 40Ws and Godox is a 200Ws-flash.

A fourfold overload is seldom leading to anything good.

 

The conversion is very well performed. It looks good.

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Yes they can explode, it happens. Don't expect the tube not to explode. I purchased a 199A for parts of the bay for $2 and it had that problem.

 

I purchase cheap clear 1mm thick PMMA (100x100mm) to cut and place in front of the housing.

I just took one of my flashes and wrapped a layer of plumbing tape around that PMMA insert to test diffusion. Still need to test that.

 

 

 

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