>> I have some 3W LEDs, I'll experiment to see how much light I can  
>> get out of them. Dumping 30-40 amps into a group of them is  
>> certainly easy enough.

A disposable camera has about 8J worth of capacitance in it.  Assuming  
that you can live with a 1/100 s flash (instead of the millisecond or  
so typical of a flash tube), that's about 500W worth of LEDs (also  
assuming similar overall efficiencies for LEDs vs flash tubes) to get  
a similar amount of light...

> I think that's becoming common with various cell phones lately...

People don't expect much from cell phone cameras...

I have heard that "only Nikon" has an automatic flash system worth  
much, implying that it's difficult to get right (and the pro-level  
flash systems are very expensive too, considering that basic  
technology is "disposable.")  I certainly haven't been terribly happy  
with the way flashes on my assorted cameras behave; when I'm being  
fussy I usually end up in manual exposure modes and bracketing things  
till they look right...

BillW

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