[photo-3d] re: turning your flash into a flash grenade

[Robert Monaghan <rmonagha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

um, I would be pretty hesitant to recommend adding a parallel capacitor to
an existing flashtube circuit. The main reason to be worried is that you
could potentially dump too much energy into your flash tube, causing it to
be damaged, and in some cases, fracture and "explode".  You could also 
damage and destroy the electronics by overly rapid recycling and firing. 
Flash tubes are rated by how many watt-seconds they can handle, and 
adding another capacitor can easily provide and dump enough current to 
fry the tube and circuitry. Caps are only a few $$ and are not the power 
limiting element in the flash - the flash tube is. Having high voltage 
caps mounted outboard of a flash is also asking for trouble with getting 
fried yourself without lots of care (e.g. heat shrink tubing) in setup etc.

HTH bobm

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