Anker Debuts First Made for iPhone Certified Flash Accessory Designed for iPhone 11
Anker today debuted a new Made for iPhone (MFi) certified LED flash accessory that's designed to connect to the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max through the Lightning port.
Though a product link is not yet available, The Verge says that the new accessory is launching next month and is priced at $49.99.
The flash accessory will be recognized by the new iPhones and can be triggered by the default Camera app and third-party camera apps. It will last for approximately 10,000 shots per charge and comes with a detachable diffuser option.
Compared to the built-in iPhone flash, Anker says that the flash can achieve twice the range and four times the brightness.
Anker's new flash option is the first Made for iPhone flash accessory that's been designed, but as Apple has now opened up its Made for iPhone program to these kind of camera accessories, we can expect additional Lightning-based flashes to be released in the future.
iPhone flashes are not new and there have been other options available in the past, but this is the only one that is Apple certified and able to be synced with the iPhone's camera through Lightning.
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Top Rated Comments
It's hard to say how this flash works without more details, but my guess as to why it is LED is because of limitations due to the iPhone cameras using a "rolling shutter". Because of this, the lighting source has to be more "continuous", so to say, than what a Xenon flash can provide (at least without severely limiting the shutter speed as what the Godox A1 does -- hence requiring a dedicated app).
Please see my previous post. My guess it is probably due to sync speed with the rolling shutter.
However, what you say does have some merit. In theory, you can "strobe" a Xenon flash in a similar way to what is used for high-speed-sync with camera systems using a "focal plane" shutter. This then simulates a "continuous" stream of light. As you alluded to, this would require substantially more power and large capacitors. At the same time, power output would be greatly reduced to a point where a continuous LED would be just a good in most cases.