A Flash in the Pan.

I can hear the groans and imagine the rolling of eyes...  This is what happens to hardened Blippers desperately patrolling the house looking for material late on a cold Sunday afternoon.  I bought this Sunpak Auto 260 before setting off to my studies in Boston in August 1983.  It still works just fine and has followed me on my travels around the world.  At the time, a flash that had the ability to instantly measure how much light bounced off the subject and adjust the flash intensity accordingly, was pretty high-tech.  That little green circle at the bottom is the "eye".  It plugs into the camera's flash circuitry by means of a PC plug.  The first generation of flash-synched Leicas appeared long before the days of "hot shoes".  The highest synch speed of an M Leica was, and until the advent of the digital Ms, is 1/50th of a second.  At the 1984 M6, the accessory shoe became "hot" but there was still a PC plug.  1/50th of a second seems so slow in the modern digital world and yet it freezes most motion with a 35 or 50mm lens.  The flash works perfectly for filling in shadows outdoors.  And best of all, the head swivels both up and down and sideways so one can bounce the light when the camera is held either horizontally or vertically.  Leitz made a special flash bracket, the CTOOM, which allows the flash tube to be mounted to the side of the camera and free up the accessory shoe if necessary.  Amazing what low-tech can do.