HISTORY OF THIS FLASH GUN
My professional and private background is all about electronics, audio and 'The Arts' but NOT photography! My photographs on this website will atest to that (it's the best I can do with the equipment I have!)
Recently I have been asked by an associate/friend to 'look after' their collection of photographic equipment and small format film projectors and stock due to their serious ill health and his inability to look after this gear any longer. Most of the gear is original Japanese marketplace equipment, his country of birth. This is one of the accessories, a very dated Toshiba flash gun with hot shoe mount.
I do not pretend to know a lot about this gear, in my younger days I had a 'box brownie' and I think later a 'super ubeaut' Pentax of some sort with a flash gun but nothing as ugly as this flash gun! Definitely not designed to be pleasing to the eye, simply functional only.
I am not a photography or video enthusiast (audio was my 'bag') and this flash gun is offered as-is (but tested and described as best I can)
PLEASE read the description below completely and decide if this flash gun may be of interest to you, perhaps it is fully functional or perhaps it may be a 'parts only' unit ... read on
TOSHIBA Flash Gun
Technology: Xenon flash tube
Model: 7025
Serial #F02450 (to some this is important as it can help narrow down the year of manufacture)
Mount: hot shoe (typically found on the older SLR cameras)
Released to the consumer market in the 1990's
NO user manual supplied, this is a shame as I would have loved to know the function and setting of the front slide switch in particular!
Front slide switch has three settings, each has a different coloured indicator showing the switch position. In the central position, a small 'window' is exposed and I assume this is some sort of feedback sensor for flash intensity ... guesswork only because I have no manual and none could be found online (in fact Google AI thinks this is a cassette radio! Dumb ass AI gets it all wrong once again ...)
Japanese market model, this was purchased retail in Japan by the owner and is not an Australian import model
Designed and made in Japan
NO batteries supplied (uses 4x AA size, Alkaline is assumed due to the current requirements of the unit)
Weight: 175g (no batteries fitted)
Dimensions: 120mm tall x 75mm front to back and 32mm wide (like a tall brick on top of the camera!)
Xenon tube window is 40mm high x 20mm wide
TESTING:
Testing limitations: I have no SLR cameras here, testing was made as a 'standalone' unit ...
Inserted 4x AA Alkaline batteries, orientation is easy to determine as there are 'marker strips' down the side of the battery compartment.
Turned the rear slide switch to ON and after around two seconds, an Orange light can be seen in the window next to the switch - I am pretty sure this is a neon based lamp, indicating the high voltage for the Xenon tube is all OK. No high pitched sound from the internal voltage inverter though (my old Pentax flash unit used to 'sing' when it was charging the capacitor to fire the Xenon tube)
I then attempted to make the gun "fire" but nothing I did seemed to work, even pushing the Red button on the shoe mount did nothing. So this means that I have not managed to get this unit to actually 'flash'
When the rear power switch is moved to OFF position, the Orange lamp stays lit up for a few minutes (even with the batteries removed) which indicates that the stored charge is not leaking away excessively fast.
The battery terminals are clean with no rust observed
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Clean
NO physical flash gun body damage at all, but of course there are various LIGHT scuff or handling marks but none of these are of any significance (in my opinion)
Labelling is unworn but this doesn't help with the front slide switch (function unknown) as it has never had any labelling.
Both slide switches operate smoothly, as does the sliding battery compartment door on the top of the gun.
I noticed that the mount doesn't look quite horizontal but this seems to be the way it was manufactured as the connection between the gun and the mount is thick metal with plastic on the outside - if an attempt was made to straighten this connection, I believe the plastic would crack. The result of this connection is that the gun tends to point slightly 'down' on the subject being photographed, not horizontally.
The Xenon tube window and reflector are undamaged and clean.
Battery compartment lid works fine and inside it is nice and clean with no signs of previous battery leakage.
In summary, this flash gun is probably a good example of dated technology with functionality in mind, not visual aesthetics!
I have now packed this flash gun into a sealed clear plastic package to maintain the present condition and keep out airborne dust.
The flash gun is supplied WITHOUT batteries as Australia Post is very adverse to sending equipment with batteries installed.
