Using the camera flash as a flashlight - anyone ever burn it out?

GotNoRice

GotNoRice

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Being able to use one of the many apps that can use the camera flash as a flashlight is very handy. Seems to be a very different than intended use though, especially in the sense that you are keeping a light that is meant to be on for a very short period of time instead on for a fairly long period of time.

Has anyone here ever burnt out the camera flash on their phone by using it as a flashlight, or had other related issues?
 
Well I worked for apple doing ios support (iphones, ipads, and ipods). I can tell you it was more common to have the led stuck on, even with the phone powered off, than it was to have the led burn out.

After working for apple for a little over a year, I had 2 calls with the led stuck on and 0 with it burnt out. One of the calls they admitted water damage.

I don't really think you'll have to worry about it.
 
Likewise. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Hell, at least in apples case (I'm sure others as well), the flashlight is built into the os itself. If there was cause for concern I'm sure it would of been addressed by now (or flashlight functionality removed)
 
Awesome. I'm still using my Note 2, but I have a huge aftermarket battery that often lasts me over a week without charging, so it should have lots of potential as a flashlight.

The app I'm using now is a Motorola app that I downloaded back when I had an old Motorola Droid 2, and transferred with all my other apps when I got my Samsung Note 2. It turns the flashlight off automatically after 60 seconds or so, which I always assumed was to protect the LED. I'm sure it won't be hard to find an app that doesn't have that restriction.
 
LEDs used for this purpose are not "fragile". They would survive being on for a decade most likely.
 
According to this site, and several others, many LEDs last about 50,000 hours. If you left it on 24 hours a day, every day, it would last almost 6 years. Even if your phone has a low quality LED it would still last at least 2 years if on 24/7. You have nothing to worry about, use the camera flash in your phone as a flashlight as often as you want.
 
I hope the OP means Xenon flash. That's real flash.

That LED on your phone is not flash but a cheap and inferior alternative to flash.
 
Cerulean said:
I hope the OP means Xenon flash. That's real flash.

That LED on your phone is not flash but a cheap and inferior alternative to flash.
Click to expand...

Since this is on the smart phone sub-forum I think it's safe to say we all know what he meant and how it compares to a real camera set-up ;)

OP I use my phone as a flash light daily, sometimes for hours at a time, and have never had anything happen.
 
A propos the Xenon flash. I have seen some amazingly bright little lamps on smartphones (I don't have one, can't check) that didn't look like LEDs. I mean, crazy bright white light.
Are they capable of constant operation? are they LEDs or something other?
I'd like to get some busted up phones and salvage a few for a compact powerful flashlight.
Doable?
 
Cerulean said:
I hope the OP means Xenon flash. That's real flash.

That LED on your phone is not flash but a cheap and inferior alternative to flash.
Click to expand...

You might want to read up on current tech. BMW switched from Xenon to LED for headlights and now to laser for long range.
 
mi7chy said:
You might want to read up on current tech. BMW switched from Xenon to LED for headlights and now to laser for long range.
Click to expand...
um, OK? We are talking photography tech here. LED still has some ways to go before it takes over xenon in the flash world.

I have a very high lumen LED bulb in one of my fixtures that is comparable or higher lumen to a bright cfl, but it has a fan built in to cool it. Would buy again. I also have a Fenix RC40; the body doubles up as a heatsink. LED generates a lot of heat per lumen.

Crazy bright LED on phone doesn't mean high lumens. Compared to xenon flash on a compact camera / Nokia Lumia 1020, LED can't compete on this level of portability and lumen output (yet??)
 
It's an LED, so the failure mode is unlikely to be "burn out" and more likely to be "progressive dimming".
 
LED’s last for many thousands of hours – I’d wager you could leave it on 24/7 for years and it’d still outlast most other electronic components of the phone.

Also, the LED’s on phones are not strobes like normal camera flashes. They’re pretty-much designed to double as flashlights. Samsung even includes a widget by default to switch it on & off as a flashlight.
 
The only thing I would actually be concerned about is heat dissipation during extended use...With the LED flash + Screen + Battery all generating heat you might run into issues after a few minutes, probably depends on the phone.
 
michalrz said:
A propos the Xenon flash. I have seen some amazingly bright little lamps on smartphones (I don't have one, can't check) that didn't look like LEDs. I mean, crazy bright white light.
Are they capable of constant operation? are they LEDs or something other?
I'd like to get some busted up phones and salvage a few for a compact powerful flashlight.
Doable?
Click to expand...

mi7chy said:
You might want to read up on current tech. BMW switched from Xenon to LED for headlights and now to laser for long range.
Click to expand...

There is a big difference between what the LED on a smartphone can do and a Xenon flash. You have to keep in mind the use case to understand why one works better than the other in each scenario. A flash is a burst of light designed to dissipate a high amount of energy in a very short amount of time. A headlight or a flashlight is designed to illuminate an area for a long period of time. LEDs work well for long periods of time because they have good output per watt and long life. They do not scale well when it comes to higher current inputs. A Xenon on the other hand can be driven to a very high output but won't last as long in extended use conditions.

So back to the original point yes if you see a Xenon like in some of the lumias, they are true flashes which have incredible light output which can offer much more benefit than a typical LED which is simply turned on and off. None of those bulbs can be used as flashlights as they are not designed to do so. They simply wouldn't be able to stay on for long because of the amount of current that needs to run through them to function. (And power and heat issues that go along with that)
 
There is some danger of the LED burning itself out, but it's probably negligible. Higher power LED units need considerable cooling because they're so small and relatively heat-intolerant.
 
i liked the Xenon flash on my 928 as well, made for great shots... BUT it was only used for flash. a separate LED was used for focus and flashlight duties. No reason to bring it up, outside of trying to brag about how your phone has one.
 
Nimisys said:
i liked the Xenon flash on my 928 as well, made for great shots... BUT it was only used for flash. a separate LED was used for focus and flashlight duties. No reason to bring it up, outside of trying to brag about how your phone has one.
Click to expand...
My Nokia Lumia 1020 can freeze time by being capable of taking photos at 1 / 16,000th of a second speed due to the Xenon flash and other technology involved. :D
 
I don't use flash since it ruins the ambiance so it serves primarily as a flashlight.
 
Cerulean said:
My Nokia Lumia 1020 can freeze time by being capable of taking photos at 1 / 16,000th of a second speed due to the Xenon flash and other technology involved. :D
Click to expand...

And that was pretty much the one trick pony of the phone realm. :p
 
It's an LED... everyone here uses a computer... which is loaded with them. When was the last time you've had an LED on your computer burn out?

You could leave your computer on 24/7 for 10 years and not have that issue. Or 40 years really (thinks about machines from the 70's). Really any device with an LED in it will be completely obsolete by the time it has a chance to fail. So feel free to leave the light on your phone on all the time without issue... except for perhaps battery life.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
It's an LED... everyone here uses a computer... which is loaded with them. When was the last time you've had an LED on your computer burn out?

You could leave your computer on 24/7 for 10 years and not have that issue. Or 40 years really (thinks about machines from the 70's). Really any device with an LED in it will be completely obsolete by the time it has a chance to fail. So feel free to leave the light on your phone on all the time without issue... except for perhaps battery life.
Click to expand...

Computer LEDs are very low current, as they're not designed to illuminate an object 15 feet away. Phone LEDs aren't high power, but they're much higher power than computer LEDs. A computer LED will generally be about 20-50 mA, while the phone LEDs are going to be 200-500 mA. Plus they're a lot smaller. Check out a high-power LED headlight or household bulb - they're heavy because they have enough cooling to compensate for continuous use, which isn't really found on a phone.

That said, it's unlikely that the heat would be enough of a problem to kill the LED. If you consistently use it for long periods of time then maybe.
 
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