This topic might be just stupid.
I wondered about this thing since I was a young kid. Everytime when taking pictures the camera flash almost blinded me. The camera flash does really puts out a lot of lumens.
So, why there is no one who try to mod a camera flash into a flashlight? Considering the flash itself is so much cheaper than a HID flashlight/spotlight.
Is it because the xenon flash consumes too much of current? What exactly make it impractical to do so?
I can't say for sure but I don't think it can be done. First the flash bulb can't sustain that kind of juice for more than a flash. They get crazy hot. Takes a couple seconds for the capacitors to store the juice required plus I don't think anything but a capacitor could deliver the juice needed to make that amount of light and due to it's nature it is quite brief.
I have often thought that a camera flash light that would make a terrific self defense tool at night.
That is not possible.
A camera flash can not burn constant. The flash-capacitor needs to be charged, and it deliveres the power to the flash tube in a very short time (the time needed to expose the photo). If the flash is used at 100% it will take a few seconds before the flash-capacitor is charged again.
If the flash tube would get enough power to burn constant, it would get very hot, and drain the battery extremely fast because it would need very much power to do that. It is not designed to be used that way, i think it will explode...
A typical external camera flash tube is rated for 50Ws (i.e. 50 Joule of energy), and that energy is delivered in a 1/1000s blast. That mean that if it were to be driven constantly, you would need 50kW. Also, even assuming a 20% efficiency, you would have to move away 40kW of heat.
Aloha and welcome to BLF italianboy!
Thank you!
I had been lurking around for such a long time here that I didn't even remember to say hello to everybody in my first post. Sorry... 
Power can't be the problem, OK portable power maybe but a big old SLA battery will be able to supply far more than the ickle capacitors in a camera. I assume the bulb will simply burn out tho, simples.
I can use my Nikon SB800 camera flash as flashlight, but it has some PWM. It does it by doing by strobing the flash at low power.
The bulb in a flash is something like a HID bulb, but overdriven for a fraction of a second (Usual around 0.001 second at full power). Running it much longer would probably make it explode.
It's pretty easy to kill a flashgun by firing it too fast for too long. A friend of mine did it to a very expensive high-powered studio unit.
Overvolting the battery pack helps to shorten their life. They do have rather a lot of heat to get rid of. And it has to go somewhere.
It's good to have you here, italianboy.
It will definitely explode, especially if it's cold where you're using it, I blew my Metz 58 AF-1 two ears ago during new year's eve, when I was playing with the 'strobe' (multiple exposure) option outside, at somewhere around 0 C, the lamp just popped, but I think it will also blow, even if the room temperature si higher , because there is just to much heat to dissipate for such a small lamp, for example if I put my Metz at maximum capacity, place it near the skin and fire it , it burns the skin :D
Welcome Italian boy. Have fun here I do ;-)
I had heard that you can use a phone as a light and yesterday saw a contractor using the flash on his smartphone as a low power light.
That flash from the smartphone, is not really a flashgun with a discharge lamp , it's just a LED ;) , I remember that the Sony Ericsson K800 had an actual discharge flash :)
Even when used as a flash, they are nowhere near as bright as the real thing.
Late to the party but welcome italianboy.
