Eli5: Why does a camera have to flash and time it perfectly when it takes a picture? Can’t the light just stay on?
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Yes, there’s a pretty large one somewhere outside right now. Powered by fusion, even. Has a bad habit of wandering out of frame every single day, but seems to do so on a regular schedule.
Our puny Earth lights can’t sustain similar levels of power all across our orbit. We can, however, either get a light to shine very bright for a split-second, or pretty bright continuously. Continuous lighting can be very expensive, and pretty uncomfortable if aimed directly at someone, so we don’t always use it.
The lamps we often buy for our homes are even punier, and often don’t provide enough light for a camera to snap a photo without blurring or creating lots of image noise.
The battery in your camera or smartphone can maybe take thousands of images in one charge, run the light for a few minutes, or some combination in between. Some smartphones cannot run the light at the same time as the camera. Maybe there isn’t enough power available, or maybe they’re enforcing use of flash or external lighting.
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