So, I’m using my good only SLR camera flash, Pentax AF200T, on my Pentax DSLR camera just as normal, but then as I am in the middle of a shooting session, I notice the flash won’t fire. Batteries low? I check the flash charge status, it says its ready. But the camera won’t fire it. Camera fuse disabled it? I try restarting the camera. No dice. I look at the flash box, it was facing away from me on a separate tripod stand. The ready light is on, so I press the test button. Nothing happens. Maybe it needs new batteries because firing requires a certain voltage threshold?
Okay, so I change the batteries, and okay, it’s working again. I take several more photos, but then it stops working.
Okay, so it’s real, the flash can wear out like this, and that’s part of the reason for the test button. Dang, or maybe it’s just stressed this one time?
Here, they say the bulb is broken, send it in to the manufacturer for repairs. Okay, dang, no can do with a vintage flash box then.
DuckDuckGo slr flash ready but test button won’t fire
https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Speedlites/My-speedlite-600-ex-rt-will-turn-on-but-it-won-t-fire-Any/td-p/114765
But really, I think it is the thyristor. That would make for a really good explanation. The voltage ready circuit triggers but the flash won’t fire unless that switch operates properly. No, actually, thinking about this further after studying the Wikipedia article on flash tubes, yeah, I agree, it could be the bulb for this problem too. The gas needs to be ionized before it can conduct, wear and tear on the bulb from extensive use could decrease the efficiency of ionizing the gas, to the point that it fails to conduct and therefore can’t fire as it should.
Okay, okay, fine, let’s buy a new Pentax AF200T flash, they’re cheap, $25 to $0.93.
20200919/DuckDuckGo pentax af200t
20200919/https://www.ebay.com/p/110955930
20200919/https://www.keh.com/shop/pentax-af200t-flash-gn60-679440.html
How long should flashes generally last? Apparently they can last for millions of cycles if well-designed. Well bummer for me, it hasn’t been a million cycles.
But in practice, it’s more like tens of thousands of cycles. Uh, okay, fine, I think I just hit the limit.
20200919/DuckDuckGo how long does dslr camera flash last cycles
20200919/https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/35135/how-long-will-the-bulb-last-in-the-flash-of-a-compact-or-dslr
20200919/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashtube#Lifetime
20200919/https://strobist.blogspot.com/2013/02/will-your-flash-last-forever.html