M2 to M3 bulb adapters

Cholentpot · Friday at 12:42 PM

I have a handful of M2 bulbs but a bag of M3 bulbs. I saw digging around there's a way to adapt a flashgun to different bulbs. I have a working Argus C3 flashgun but it's for M2 and when those run out I'd like to shoot out the rest of my M3 collection of bulbs. Can someone point me in the right direction? And before I'm given advice to get another flash gun, first off this one works. Getting another one doesn't guarantee that it'll work. Second this item uses commonly available C cell batteries and I don't have to get some obscure batter and capacitor.

Thanks.

Hunter_Compton · Friday at 12:48 PM

Both M2 and M3 flashbulbs use the same miniature base, with M2 putting out half the light of M3.

Most Argus flash holders I've seen for the C3 are setup for bayonet base #5 or #25 bulbs. I have not seen Bayonet to Miniature base adapters, but they may exist. More common are adapters from bayonet base to baseless like AG-1.

Donald Qualls · Friday at 12:56 PM

I've seen adapters from screw base to bayonet base, and from bayonet to miniature, but the latter are relatively scarce.

Cholentpot · Friday at 1:18 PM

Hunter_Compton said:
Both M2 and M3 flashbulbs use the same miniature base, with M2 putting out half the light of M3.

Most Argus flash holders I've seen for the C3 are setup for bayonet base #5 or #25 bulbs. I have not seen Bayonet to Miniature base adapters, but they may exist. More common are adapters from bayonet base to baseless like AG-1.

Ok, so I have a #5 sized flashgun. I have about a dozen of #5 bulbs and about 50 M3 sized bulbs. I guess #5 to M3 might not be a thing.

Donald Qualls · Friday at 1:35 PM

Cholentpot said:
I guess #5 to M3 might not be a thing.

I'm pretty sure I have one, somewhere, but it's in one of the boxes of camera stuff that hasn't been unpacked since I moved ten years ago, mounted in a screw-base flash along with the screw-to-bayonet adapter.

Cholentpot · Friday at 2:17 PM

Donald Qualls said:
I'm pretty sure I have one, somewhere, but it's in one of the boxes of camera stuff that hasn't been unpacked since I moved ten years ago, mounted in a screw-base flash along with the screw-to-bayonet adapter.

What would I even look for online? #5 to M3 adapter? What's the M3 style bulb technically called?

gordrob · Friday at 2:23 PM

I think this is what you are looking for.

Cholentpot · Friday at 2:49 PM

gordrob said:
I think this is what you are looking for.

I believe so, what's it called in a search engine?

Donald Qualls · Friday at 3:05 PM

#5 to Miniature (M2 and M3 are "miniature #2" and "miniature #3") or #5 to M2 or bayonet to miniature/M2.

gordrob · Friday at 3:14 PM

This one is picture I took of one of the adapters I have. You could try to search for
Flash Bulb to m3 Type Adapter
and this should get you some information.

hsandler · Monday at 9:02 AM

The adaptor you want often comes with flashguns that have the larger bayonet base for #5 bulbs. You can tell it's a removeable adaptor from the long metal tab for ejecting the miniature bulb. I have one that came with a folding Walz flash gun. It may be cheaper to buy an old "parts" flashgun than to buy the adaptor by itself. Some flashguns like the Tilt-a-mite have a 3-way base socket that accepts #5, miniature as well as the all-glass AG-1 bulbs.

Cholentpot · Monday at 2:11 PM

hsandler said:
The adaptor you want often comes with flashguns that have the larger bayonet base for #5 bulbs. You can tell it's a removeable adaptor from the long metal tab for ejecting the miniature bulb. I have one that came with a folding Walz flash gun. It may be cheaper to buy an old "parts" flashgun than to buy the adaptor by itself. Some flashguns like the Tilt-a-mite have a 3-way base socket that accepts #5, miniature as well as the all-glass AG-1 bulbs.

I had a tilt-a-mite. Just got rid of it as it took hard to find batteries and a compacter. Which is why I'm sticking with the Argus. 2 C batteries can't be beat.

Kino · Monday at 3:20 PM

Try an Ebay search for

"VINTAGE LOT OF 3 BAYONET FLASH BULB TO SCREW BASE ADAPTER"

and you'll see a couple of good photos.

I just searched for "flash bulb adapter" and there are more than a handful on the site right now; just keep scrolling!

Cholentpot · Monday at 4:18 PM

Kino said:
Try an Ebay search for

"VINTAGE LOT OF 3 BAYONET FLASH BULB TO SCREW BASE ADAPTER"
and you'll see a couple of good photos.

I just searched for "flash bulb adapter" and there are more than a handful on the site right now; just keep scrolling!

Thanks

M2 to M3 bulb adapters

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