Bright led to use as camera flash - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Yaro
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2015, 12:47:10 pm
content: Hi all,I need to create a small board with 1 or 2 high brightness leds to use as flash with a camera module. I've found a lot of products with very different characteristics but I don't which is suitable to my purposes.Where I can find or someone can advice me characteristics that should have a LED to be used as flash? Like CCT, mCD(CD) and Angle?Thank you!

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2015, 01:01:39 pm
content: White LEDs are not very good in providing much more than the nominal light intensity. So one can not gain very much from higher pulse currents. So you may need quite powerfull leds (e.g. 10 W types) and possibly more than 2.If you are lucky you find a curve intensity versus peak current. Better LEDs usually also have a more complete datasheet including the optical angle and optical output rating. The angel depends on the application.

author: DanielS
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2015, 01:58:46 pm
content: Phillips-Lumileds has a few options for LED-based flash:http://www.lumileds.com/products/flash-leds/luxeon-flashLEDs designed specifically for flash applications should give you a reasonable idea of what manufacturers think is important in flash-specific LEDs.

author: Yaro
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2015, 04:50:11 pm
content: I've forgot to specify that it's not for a professional application. I've a camera sensor without lens, just a module like in the smartphones. I need to add a flash light when environment have a low lighting.For example something like this:As you can see it's very small but produce enough light for my application, also, since I've not battery or size limitation, I prefer to add 2-3 of them instead of using a big one. Led is small, have a very small angle with integrated cone and color seems white. But I can't find technical details.

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2015, 06:20:09 pm
content: About a year ago there was a kickstarter for a high speed camera flash using like 36 LED. The LED were pumped with a thousand times normal current for a very short time. For a short period I experimented with pumping LED in strobe application but didn't get too far before being diverted on other projects.

author: georges80
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2015, 06:23:17 pm
content: How can anyone provide any insight if you don't provide (or have) any information on your actual needs?Without knowing what kind of colour temp/CRI you need or how many lumens at the source or destination or distance or duration of the 'flash' or beam pattern/shape or ??Why not just go buy yourself a few HB white LEDs (Cree etc) and experiment?LEDs can of course be overdriven (most manufactures have pulse specs) to get more light before the LED overheats.You then have the whole autobrightness issue of the camera sensor and how long it takes to focus/autobright adjust and then take the picture. There's more to this puzzle than just a 'flash' LED...cheers,george.

author: Yaro
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2015, 10:53:24 am
content: Quote from: georges80 on November 03, 2015, 06:23:17 pmNo, wait.Maybe my first question was not correct,Quotethat's right that I need to provide more informations, so the question was not right.Now, my question is, since all smartphones flashes are similar(in values, angle and dimensions) and little changes are made to adapt them to cameras they use, where I can find values of this led OR where I can find model or datasheet of a specific led used in a smartphone OR someone know values of this leds?I can't just buy and try, becouse there is hundreds of different leds and different configurations and this would be expensive, that's why I did this question, to have an aproximative answer to know from where to start.QuoteI've checked their datasheets, that is a good start. But I've checked from distributors and they have only 1 model aviable. I'd like to see more datasheet from different brands but can't find.

author: alsetalokin4017
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2015, 03:35:47 pm
content: Philips LumiLeds. Not the specific flash ones, just the "ordinary" MXA series. Try them, you'll like them.http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/MXA8-PW50-0000/1416-1096-1-ND/4031760and similar. Note the different color temps available.No, I'm not associated with the manufacturers or retailers, I just happen to be testing some of them on my bench. They are amazingly bright and super-efficient. Even at 20 mA they are brilliant, and at 100 mA they are blinding. Some can be driven at 200 mA but then you'll need a heatsink mounting arrangement. If I were making a small LED strobe or flash or adjustable ringlight, these are what I'd use.I can't attach the full datasheet because it's too large, but you can download it from the DigiKey link.