A computer controlled apparatus for laser flash spectroscopy has been constructed. Nitrogen laser (energy 1 mJ, pulse width 1 ns) is used both for excitation of the sample and for pumping a tunable dye laser which serves as a source of monitoring light. Two different scan modes are possible: (i) a scan with a fixed wavelength of the monitoring light: the temporal evolution of the transient absorption in the range from −2 up to 100 ns can be observed by changing the length of the variable self‐compensating optical delay line, or (ii) a scan with a fixed time delay: the corresponding transient absorption in the range 380–800 nm can be measured. For illustration, the transient absorption spectrum of benzophenone in methylcyclohexane, decay curves of the singlet state of benzanthracene in ethanol in the presence of a quencher, and a ‘‘negative absorption’’ of rhodamine B in nitriles are reported. ©1994 American Institute of Physics.