Strobonar

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Strobonar was the brand used by Honeywell for a long-lasting series of electronic flash units.

In 1958, the Heiland division of Honeywell, based in Denver, Colorado, introduced one of the earliest self-contained electronic flashes which did not require a separate power pack to operate, the Futuramic Strobonar. (It could also use AC household power.) This was still an imposingly-large "potato masher" design, and the original list price of USD $59.95 would equate to roughly $470 current (2011) dollars[1]. Many of the subsequent large bracket-mount Strobonar models had a recognizable oval shape to their reflector.

The Strobonar name was reused over the following decades for successive models, eventually shrinking to more compact shoe-mount flash units. Honewell was a pioneer in flashes which used a photocell measuring light reflected back from the subject to control the duration of the flash pulse, thus offering autoexposure for flash shots—these models carried the Auto/Strobonar name. Later versions of the "potato masher" models, such as the Strobonar 882, could use a separate Strobo-Eye mounted in the camera's accessory shoe to achieve this control even with off-camera flash (and the Pentax Spotmatic SP IIa included this sensor in the camera body, just below the rewind crank).

As electronic flash units increasingly became a built-in feature of many cameras, and with inexpensive Asian imports undercutting the remaining marketplace, Honeywell ultimately retired the Strobonar line.

Notes

  1. Inflation calculator from the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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