2026-10-22 Optina Bulb Flash Gun

This Optina Bulb Flash Gun came to me from the estate of Bob Gillard, an Edmonton Photographic Historical Society member.
It is a two C-size battery flash that takes bayonet base bulbs.

The machining and casting is wonderful to examine closely. Although there seems to be a hot-shoe connection in the foot, I suspect it is just a means to increase the friction on the camera’s accessory shoe. Testing with a voltmeter was inconclusive for several reasons. Just for starters the PC-sync cable has a loose center pin, so making positive connection is intermittent.

Moving to the flash bulb end, the bayonet is pushed down into the handle against the center fitting of the C-cell battery. The two batteries are spring loaded from the other end, so the bulb would have to be pushed down into the receptacle and then turned sideways to latch it in place. Then—when fired—the outside tab would be rotated to eject the bulb.

The reflector is attached to a clamp that can be slid up and down the handle to center the bulb. If the base of the handle is removed the reflector can be removed for “bare-bulb” lighting.

Initially the printing of the flash gun’s name caused a bit of confusion. It doesn’t help the engraving mixes capitals and lower case letters. I assume the “O” and “P” are capitals, while the “t”, “i”, “n” and “a” are lower case. That bit of concentric circles in the middle could be an “O”, but Optonia doesn’t seem as likely as Optina.

I had just acquired a 1954-57 Retina IIIc. Needless to say I had hopes this Optina flash would have been designed for this style of camera.

That style being—

an accessory shoe—not hotshoe sync connection
a long enough sync cable to reach the camera’s PC fitting
a bulb position far enough from the lens axis to lessen the chance of red-eye

I would say the flash gun and camera are of a time they might have existed together. There is one serious caveat. The Retina IIIc shutter’s sync contacts stay closed when the shutter fires. This means if you try inserting a new flash-bulb into the flashgun without winding the shutter/film advance lever, the bulb will fire in your fingers.

Take it from someone who has had this happen (twice in a row!), you do not want to have this happen.

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