Strobes extend the reach of phone camera's flash.

Strobes for Phone Cams

Heaven knows, we'll all be grateful for any camera improvement that produces a higher-quality photograph of us with food between our teeth at family picnics. And here it is. Look for strobe flash in your cell phone's camera soon, based on a design from Linear Technology. Jim Williams, Linear's staff scientist, says that most current camera cell phones use LED-based lighting, which gives "not a lot of light over not a lot of distance." His company's LT3468 photoflash capacitor charger system can efficiently recharge a very small xenon flash lamp in as little as 1 second, producing "light hundreds of times brighter than LEDs," Williams says. Similar to larger systems now used in film and digital cameras, strobe also provides lighting much closer to the natural spectrum. Any help in getting better photos from these devices will be most welcome. By 2008, 85 percent of all mobile phones sold are expected to feature an embedded camera. Linear expects its system to be in consumers' camera phones within 3 to 12 months.