How bright is a typical camera's flashlight?

[Spango]

How bright is a typical camera\'s flashlight?

How bright is a typical camera's flashlight? I noticed that they are usually very bright, and produce a very nice flood. Wonder why doesn't someone make a version that can stay lit longer..... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

 

[iddibhai]

Re: How bright is a typical camera\'s flashlight?

you mean the flash? they are arcs, which is why they are short lived. what whiiiiiiiiine sound is the charging circuit (oscillator). basilly, stores a whole lotta juice, and then WHAM lets it all out at once. all that voltage is needed to cause complete the circuit. a flash tube is nothing but a tube (duh), filled with inert gas, with an electrode at either end. it takes a lotta volts to make an arc jump from one end to the other.

they can live slightly longer, but at lower outputs. instead of a big WHOOMP flash, there are lots of tiny whopwhopwhopwho flashes, which to our eyes still appear as one burst. etc etc.

if you had the arc going continously, well, it would cease to be a flash, and become something like the HID lamps found in stadiums and cars /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif or the kumkang or maxabeam in flashlight lingo.

 

[RevDavid]

Re: How bright is a typical camera\'s flashlight?

Nice explanation iddibhai.

The other reason they would make a lousy flashlight is that they will devour a set of battery in anywhere from 60 to 120 full power flashes on most units. At about 1/1000 of a second duration on a typical flash at full power, that would be the equivalent of 60 to 120 MILLISECONDS of light.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gifNow that makes all of our flashlights cheap to run.
David <><