Talk:Strobe light

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No merge!!!! I'll flesh it out into a propper article.--Pypex 20:46, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Flash Duration

Wikipedia article 1 E-6 s about durations of time between 1 and 10 microseconds states that the duration of flashes for a professional strobe are about 1 microsecond. This article refers to strobe duration being several milliseconds. Either one of them is incorrect, or the other is refering to a different type of strobe. I'd do some research if I had time, but in the meantime I thought I'd point that out. --Tsuji 05:01, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Simple answer: strobe lights vary in flash duration. For tachometer applications (where the strobe is trying to make a rapidly-moving object "stand still"), a short flash is obviously very important; these strobes are optimized for a short flash (and rapid recycling) by using a small-valued capacitor for the energy storage and a microsecond flash sounds about right to me. For photographic applications where you're trying to capture a moving object without blur, short duration is still important, but it's obviously less important for, say, human subjects posing it is than for speeding bullets flying. But where light output must be maximized, relatively huge capacitor banks are used and it's likely that the strobe "fires" for a longer period of time. I don't have an actual number to quote or cite, though. Perhaps someone else does? A millisecond sounds long, but hundreds of microseconds may well be in the ballpark.

If I get a chance, I'll measure my medium-sized strobe, but that, of course, is WP:OR ;-).

Atlant 13:59, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image questions

While I happen to agree that the lightbulb photo is striking, isn't the caption calling it such not NPOV?

Also, does the strobe animation pose a seizure risk? Should we change the timing?

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pypex (talk • contribs) .

I suspect the image caption is a pun. I don't know (without looking at the history) whether I'm responsible for it or not, but if I didn't do it, I would have ;-) .

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure that the animated GIF is flashing much too slowly to induce an epileptic seizure; it also occupies a very small portion of the reader's visual field and the aggregate intensity change is small. But I'm no expert...

Atlant 00:14, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I looked (at the history). I did it. It's a pun, not PoV.

Atlant 00:16, 11 October 2006 (UTC)