| Author |
Message |
    
Fizzy
Tinkerer
Username: Fizzy
Post Number: 1
Registered: 05-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 29, 2010 - 09:40 pm: | 
|
Does anyone know the type of capacitor used on a minolta 360px flash. I bought a fresh pair of batteries, but there is no life left in the old girl. No surprise, I haven't used her in many years. I tried looking around on the net for a potential cause, and came upon one thread that said the capacitor might be the cause (common among old flash units). So, since I have a capacitor problem I am about to fix on my X-700, I might order the 360px capacitor at the same time as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Oh, anyone know where to buy these capacitors? (Besides Micro tools). I am in Montreal, and visiting Addisons (a great place for electronic parts), I cam up short (the closes fit they had was MFD 220 15 v). |
Ron_g
Tinkerer
Username: Ron_g
Post Number: 24
Registered: 07-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2010 - 04:37 am: |
|
The best place to buy them is ebay and look around,there is a big variation in prices.
Remove the capacitor that you want to replace,at least remove it enough to read the specs on it so that you will know what to order to replace it with.Voltage,capacity and physical size are the parameters that you need to observe.
Sometimes the price of the replacement exceeds the value of the strobe within reason and sometimes there is no replacement available.
I have found that due to advanced technology the physical size of the replacements have changed and the replacements are often much smaller than the originals which can work to our advantage.
I am rebuilding an old Metz Mecablitz 106 for sentimental reasons and the space I gained is going to hold the battery pack which is no longer available from Varta or any where else.Good luck in your search.Ron G |
Mareklew
Tinkerer
Username: Mareklew
Post Number: 84
Registered: 03-2010
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2010 - 02:04 pm: |
|
You have, however, to look for a flash-spec capacitor. Not all common electrolytic capacitors will survive the regime of a flash (rapid discharge) and keep up to their spec - even if they don't get physically damaged, they may not deliver the full flash power and/or may lead to wrong colour temp of flash. For a xenon discharge bulb the effective flash colour temperature depends on the voltage during discharge, and if the capacitor isn't good enough for flash, the voltage will drop faster than expected (due to dynamic ESR) leading to slight colour cast.
Before you jump at me: the colour thing is not really a problem unless you shoot transparencies. But not getting the full blast out of your gun can be annoying.
If you can't get capacitors rated for flash, do at least look for some meant to be used in switching mode power supplies (they will be marketed as Low-ESR and will never have 85°C as working temp, however 105°C alone does not mean a cap is low-ESR type).
Marek |
Ron_g
Tinkerer
Username: Ron_g
Post Number: 25
Registered: 07-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 31, 2010 - 05:15 am: |
|
Good info,as to be expected from Marek.Ron G |
|
