Lot of 60 Sylvania M3 Blue Dot flash bulbs, $1
You probably think I'm joking around, putting a bunch of old flashbulbs here in the Gallery, suggesting that people actually have a use for these relics from the days of photography past. Never forget - in this business, things are often not what they seem!
Back in the heyday of flash bulbs - up until the 1970s, numerous companies all around the world were pumping out hundreds of millions of these bulbs every year. But today, as nearly every camera uses the electronic 'strobe' type of flash, the only company still producing these old style flash bulbs is Meggaflash Technologies of Ireland. And they're using the same old equipment that Sylvania was using to make the bulbs back in the 1960s. But... why in the heck do they even bother? Great question!
The answer is that for many hardcore photographers, the issue boils down to light quality and quantity. First of all, the flash bulb imparts a different, noticeable and very desirable quality of lighting to the photography subject than a strobe flash does. One reason for this difference is because the bulb flash is longer and slower-burning than a strobe, which allows more detail to be revealed in the subject.
A second advantage to flash bulbs is that it is very hard to beat the volume of light put out by a flash bulb in any reasonably-sized package. Read the reviews on the newer digital cameras with their built-in electronic flash, and a common thread of discontentment is how the anemic flash can't even light up the room enough to take a decent photo. But a little M3 bulb will easily light up a room of pretty much any size, for a great, well lighted photo.
Back when I was really small, my grandmother used to come over to the house and take pictures of us kids with her ancient Kodak Brownie that took bulbs exactly like these. After each shot, she had to 'eject' the red-hot spent bulb on the floor and jack another one into the bulb holder for the next photo. This was obviously long before 'child safe' was a consumer issue!
Now, if you choose to buy the newly-produced versions of these M3 bulbs, you can expect to pay $25 to $30 per dozen. But a bit of research on eBay will reveal that these old stock bulbs may only bring a fraction of that amount. The opportunity here is that these old bulbs are literally all over the place, and you can pick them up for virtually nothing. If you buy them when you see them, soon enough you'll have a bunch of them that you can unload to your very appreciative eBay bidders.
A final thing to mention here is the colors of the bulbs themselves. In the photo below, you'll notice that some bulbs are clear and some are tinted blue. Simply, the clear bulbs are intended for black and white photography and the blue bulbs for color film. And with this final tidbit of information, you know more than most everyone else who will ever lay their eyes on these relics of the past, which are still sought today!
This little lot of five dozen Sylvania M3 Blue Dot bulbs sold on eBay for $29. A nice little snack.
