Slave Flash from a Discarded Disposible Camera

Step 3 Step 2: Test Flash

There's no guarantee that the flash unit is still good or that the battery still has a charge (chances are good though).   There should be a button on the front to activate the flash charging circuit. Go ahead and press that. You should hear the whine of the capacitor charging and after a bit you should see the indicator LED light up on the back.  You should NOT have to hold the front button down.  If the capacitor won't charge without the button being held down, toss the camera and find another.  With the back off, you should see a small sprocket just under the view hole and above the rectangular cavity. The film advance wheel should spin easily since there is no film inside. When there is film in the camera and you advance the film with the wheel, the teeth on the edge of the film spin the small sprocket. This action resets the release button.   Since there’s no film in the camera now, go ahead and spin the small sprocket towards the right. You should feel the tension build and then the sprocket should lock once the release button is set. Now press the release button. You should see a flash. 

If you didn’t hear the whine, it’s most likely a bad battery. Replace the battery with a fresh one and repeat. If the flash doesn’t fire, toss the camera and get another one.

Comments

[etw]

don't be too quick to toss the camera if it won't fire. Sometimes when the photoshop removes the film, they do it crudely and destroy the push button mechanism that then will not press the flash switch anymore.

I got 12 camera's from the store. Only one fired and then only one time after pressing the shutter. In the end, all of them worked, if I just pressed the flash contact (the switch that should be pressed by the shutter release).

Ofcourse one can only do that after opening the camera.

If you open the camera without rubber gloves, chances you will get shocked are 99%. Do yourself a favor, wear rubber gloves