Eli5: Why does a camera have to flash and time it perfectly when it takes a picture? Can’t the light just stay on?
In: 4956
You absolutely can! Many professional studios do this but a bit of context on the “why” it exists and on why it’s not a feature on my devices or cameras now.
So traditionally you know how you fill a bathtub with the tap? It can take a while and there isn’t a lot of flow. One way to mitigate this is to fill a second vessel up (let’s say a barrel) slowly but when needed just yeet all that water into the tub at once.
Same thing happens with the electronics in a camera, the battery can provide low power so you need to fill up a “barrel” in this case a capacitor. When you hit the button that power is dissipated very fast into the flash at once. Now with more modern devices and lower power LEDs it much more able to keep a light on (you see it with the flashlight on your phone) but its still VERY power hungry and will take lots of power which could better be used elsewhere. If you have ever accidentily turned the flashlight on you phone by accident and found it hot and with 50% battery after 10m that’s what’s happening.
The priority for devices (and cameras) are not specifically the flash as it provides less benefit to the user so a “flash” is good enough and something people are used to.
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