Comments on: ‘Cause splosions are cool.

By: Magnet Schmuck

Magnet Schmuck — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:49:26 +0000

This could also be done in a manual camera using a slow shutter speed. I like the effects on the photos. at first glance, it looked like a firecracker.

By: blog on blog » Blog Archive » Capacitor Discharge in Action

blog on blog » Blog Archive » Capacitor Discharge in Action — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:18:58 +0000

[...] ‘Cause splosions are cool – Link [...]

By: When You Take Apart Cameras - Discharge the Capacitor to Avoid Injury! at I Make Things

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:05:39 +0000

[...] Some people like to take photos of the sparks, Link. [...]

By: Ben Holt

Ben Holt — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:39:04 +0000

I’d be very curious to learn how stress it does put on them, some measure of life expectancy and whether these are all that much worse than the normal stresses it goes through driving the flash…

FWIW: I have never had one fail, but I’ve only driven any single one something on the order of dozens of cycles and I’ve never yet hooked one up to the charger backward. Also, because the charging circuits from the cameras are slow, I generally batch up a half-dozen or so charged caps, so that distributes the load as well…

By: bbum

bbum — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:50:43 +0000

It puts a hell of a lot of stress on the capacitor. I’m sure it will eventually fail, possibly catastrophically, probably just by no longer holding a charge because of an internal short.

Given that used disposable cameras are free by the dozen (seriously — go ask any one hour photo place for cameras… tell ‘em you are doing a science fair project with the flashes) and there is one good sized capacitor per camera, you’ll likely run out of things to zap before you run out of capacitors to zap with.

By: Skazz

Skazz — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:46:00 +0000

Out of curiosity, what does this do to the capacitor? Can you do this forever with the same one?

By: bbum’s weblog-o-mat » Blog Archive » Digicams with five second exposures?

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:04:46 +0000

[...] the spark post, K asked: Are digital cameras with five second exposure times really that [...]

By: bbum

bbum — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:52:31 +0000

Yes, quite common. Any basic Digital SLR camera — many of which can be had for less than $600 — can do multi-second exposures.

If that is still too pricy for you, a quick search of DPReview’s buying guide (http://www.dpreview.com — link on left) reveals more than a dozen sub-$200 cameras that can do 15+ second exposures. All are 4MP or greater, too.

By: K

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:44:42 +0000

Are digital cameras with five second exposure times really that common?

It always pays to have lots of cash and expensive gadgets when you’re making all these money-saving Make projects…

By: Techzi » Blog Archive » Capacitor Discharge in Action

Techzi » Blog Archive » Capacitor Discharge in Action — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:19:31 +0000

[...] ‘Cause splosions are cool – Link [...]