How to resurrect an AGFA Blitzlampe and (start to) save your soul

I have increasingly too many cameras. Not “too many” too many – you can never REALLY have TOO many cameras – but I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am a “hoarder”.

Hoarding Disorder (HD) is recognised “by the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).” 

Src: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarding_disorder 

It is an actual mental health disease now. Well, that’s reassuring! So, in order to accommodate my increased interest in old cameras, as well as to be able to SEE the floor in at least some of my rooms, I am going to acknowledge I have a problem. 

Part of the issue with HD is that sufferers don’t (initially at least) see it as a problem; this is why it has been separated from OCD in the above tomes. Previously, it was defined as a type of O… wait… C.D.O. (there, that’s better, it’s now in alphabetical order!), but the two are quite different. OCD hoarders do it out of fear. Hoarders do it out of love. Every thing has a uniqueness, a (potential) purpose, a value. But enough is enough. There’s barely room for me and my long suffering cats, let alone the possibility of visitors.

So, out with the old – games, books, consoles, etc – and in with the (not so) new – cameras and related film equipment. I will pay for acquisitions by selling stuff; eBay mostly, but Gex, Vinted, and even (shudder) FaceBook Marketplace are being explored. Oh, and Board Game Geek for the more specialist collectibles. And, to motivate me to let go as well as get go, I’ll be recording it all here, on my blog, and on YouTube; see https://youtube.com/@drmikehoarder and https://doctormikereddy.com/hoard/ for further details of my progress.

Now, to the new (?) shiny shown above. This is an AGFA Amateur Flashlight for Flash Powder, probably from around 1909 when the patent 230110 – embossed on the cover – was issued.

It is a clockwork powered flash gun – you can hear me winding it in the short Slowmo video – that used magnesium flash powder with flash paper to create large flashes to illuminate photographs. Like this:

Timed sequence over 1/40th second (in five 1/200th s jumps)

This was (and still is!) a potentially very dangerous thing. However, I have several old cameras; the oldest dates to 1893, a KW Cycle Poco No.3

It is for this that I’ve done some acquisition. One of the biggest issues with HD is acquiring stuff; the other main one is not getting rid of stuff. That’s how ‘clutter’ becomes catastrophe! So, what did I let go, to get it (and the camera, in fact)? This:

This Halo 3 Legendary Edition (complete in box) I’ve had since the launch event; I reviewed Halo 3 – it got a 10/10 BTW – for “Games Night”, a show I guested on then presented for Portland TV’s XLeague channel years ago. I also scored the Grand Theft Auto 4 limited edition, but that is in storage somewhere, and will be sold separately.

So, now I’m just waiting for the flash powder and flash paper to try the flash out “for real”. While I am waiting I will have to decide what to sell next to make space. It will be an MB Vectrex and multicast I’ve had since it was released in 1983; I still have the original receipt!