The Nikon EM camera was introduced in 1979 with two accessories—the winder and the SB-E flash. I acquired the camera weeks earlier but the SB-E flash, that had been with it, was missing. Then it reappeared and the thrift store was nice enough to simply give the SB-E to me.
The SB-E flash is almost exactly the size of modern point-and-shoot digital cameras.
And almost the same thickness.
Unlike most other electronic flash using double AA batteries, the SB-E has the cutest battery door that accepts four triple A batteries.
The accessory shoe on the Nikon EM has an extra dedicated pin as it has a Through-The-Lens metering as well as another pin indicating flash ready, correct exposure and enabling automatically setting the camera to its flash sync speed (90 sec).
It is a cute little flash that appears a lot more complicated than it is. If you switch the power to the “EM” side the flash will expose correctly at all the f/stops set on the camera within the ranges shown. As an example at ASA 100 the auto flash range is—
Green Dot (f/2.8) 0.6-6 m (2-20 feet)
Red Dot (f/4) 0.6-4.25 m (2-14 feet)
Yellow Dot (f/5.6) 0.6-3 m (2-10 feet)
You can use all the f/stops, but then you have to estimate the ranges. For example opening the f/stop to f/2 you should reach out to 28 feet. Using f/16 you would be reaching out to only 1.75 feet.
If you use the Nikon FE or the Nikon FM the flash uses its sensor on the front to control the exposure.
You would switch the on/off button to the FE-FM position. You have one aperture setting for the ASA film you are using. Staying with ASA 100 you would have to set the camera lens to f/5.6 and your auto exposure range is from 0.6-3 m or 2-10 feet (the same range as the yellow dot setting on the EM camera).
For those who notice the smallest details, the flash is missing a plate on the front.
The plate said “Nikon SB-E”.
Notice behind the three holes to the right of the sensor the FE and FM require there are electronic adjustment “Pots”.
I have seen the same arrangement in repair manuals for other flash. They adjust the flash sensor for maximum and minimum output points to comply with the camera’s f/stop range, and maybe adjust the TTL system too.
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