When using a flash on a camera, the more I use it in a single setting, the longer it takes to recharge even though the battery reads full. Why does it take progressively longer to charge the flash?
In: Engineering
It’s about how it uses the energy. In flashes, the batteries don’t go to the flash directly but instead power capacitors. Then you fire off some of that energy when you take a picture. Using an analogy, you’ve got a big tub. The battery would be the faucet supplying water to the tub. While this tub is filling, imagine taking a bucket, scooping out a bucket of water and throwing it out of the tub. Once the tub is full, it might have 5 or 10 buckets worth of water. If you scoop one bucket out once in awhile, you wouldn’t even notice and the tub would fill back up quickly. But if you too a bunch of scoops out in fast succession, it drains the tub and then you have to wait for the faucet to slowly fill it back up. The tub is your capacitor where the electricity is stored while it’s waiting to fire.
The time will depend on the charge of the battery as recharge will slow down as the battery drains.
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