Power = 300 joules \/ 0.01 seconds = 30,000 watts! Which, by-the-way, is why studio flash is so much brighter than continuous lighting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nNow the key thing here is that this huge burst of light output is only happening for a tiny fraction of a second! Rest of the time the flash emits no light at all. Which means that in theory, it needs just 300 watts for one second, i.e. another 300 joules to recharge its capacitors. After which it needs nothing.<\/p>\n
In practice, things are a little more complex. One has to allow for internal power losses, electronic components get warm etc. Using conservative estimates, every time a real-world studio flash is fired, it will require a burst of power of around 500 watts for around two seconds (around 1000 joules) in order to recharge its capacitors – assuming it is fired at full power. After that, it needs a tiny amount of power, perhaps just a few watts to keep the electronics going.<\/p>\n
Don’t forget the modelling light<\/h3>\n
Meantime the modelling light is consuming power all the time it is switched on. I’ll return to this shortly.<\/p>\n
Totting it up<\/h2>\n
Okay, so let’s tot that all up and see what our overall power consumption is likely to be. Now, you must bear in mind that with studio flash, its overall power consumption depends on how frequently you fire it.<\/strong> Just reflect upon that for a minute before proceeding please. And just for now we’ll ignore the modelling lamp.<\/p>\nFlash fired once a minute<\/h3>\n
We estimate, allowing for losses, and assuming the it is fired at full-power, this studio flash unit require 1000 joules (500 watts for two seconds) to recharge it, every time it is triggered. Let’s see what its average<\/em> power in joules per second (watts) is in this instance…<\/p>\n\n- 1000 joules \/ 60 seconds = 16.7 watts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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