Are there strobes that can double as video lighting?

[wonbok]

Hi!

I'm considering buying an external strobe for my SONY DSC-P10 camera.
What I'd like to have, if possible, is an external strobe that can double as a video lighting, so that I can have external light source when I decide to take a short movie clip with my digital camera.
Are there strobes that can do that?
(I'm pretty ignorant in this field and have a hunch that this dual purpose is mechanically impossible.)

 

[jcclink]

You got it - no way. A video light can be used to take stills, but light output is a lot less than a regular strobe. In a strobe, energy is stored in a capacitor. When the strobe fires, the capacitor discharges to produce light via the flash tube. This all happens super quickly - light is only produced for a small fraction of a second. Video basically requires continuous lighting.

 

[pipedope]

Short answer - No, the strobe cannot be used for video.

Long answer - Would it be possible to make a strobe system for video lighting? Yes, but (don't you hate that , but???) it would take nearly as much power as a standard video light, would be far more electroncially complex and would be very expensive.

A video strobe could also be very disorienting to the divers. Think of the strobe at '70s parties, everything looks jerky and disjointed.

The strobes that you can buy today for diving are only for still photography.
The video lights are great for video and ok for stills.