Canon Patent: Hybrid Speedlite with active cooling

Canon News discovered yet another patent, this one discussing what appears to be a high powered flash that also includes continuous LED lighting.
As Canon News notes;
The mechanical design of the speedlite is quite developed in the patent application leading me to believe that the development is quite far along for this flash.  This speedlite is also a hybrid speedlite that contains a LED portion for continuous lighting.

From the patent application we can tell that the patent is about keeping the flash cooler and thus protecting the flash discharge tube (and also LED longevity).
An object of the present invention is to provide a lighting device capable of protecting a member related to light emission from heat associated with light emission.  A light source, a first optical member that transmits light emitted from the light source, and a light source that transmits light emitted from...

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Don Haines

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Jun 4, 2012
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I don't have any Canon flash anymore. I got tired of having to use AA batteries. I wish Canon would go to a lithium ion rechargeable design. I also wish Canon would start making strobes.
I wish that they would make a flash that took the LP-6 batteries!
 
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Anyone got any ideas why a hot shoe mounted flash would need active cooling?

In what situation would it create enough heat as to worry about the flash tube or LED damage?

LEDs for continuous video lighting gets very hot. Cluster of many small LED chips doesn't get that hot , but not powerful. So Canon might use high watt big LED chip which gets pretty hot. When I experimented, 12v 10W chip gets very very hot even when lighted for a minute, but very bright.
 
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Sep 3, 2018
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LEDs for continuous video lighting gets very hot. Cluster of many small LED chips doesn't get that hot , but not powerful. So Canon might use high watt big LED chip which gets pretty hot. When I experimented, 12v 10W chip gets very very hot even when lighted for a minute, but very bright.
My first thought also but I ask as these type of flash guns run on AA batteries and running LED’s powerful enough (bright) to get hot for any duration of time plus run a fan powerful enough to cool them sounds at odds with each other?
 
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Ozarker

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And a six way electrical outlet splitter would do better? Or maybe a charger that accepts six LP-E6s at a time?
Everyone has their preferences for their gear. I know mine. You know yours. I don't need a 6 way splitter, I no longer have to gang 3 or more speedlights together, and I have more power in one light with a single lion battery than all 7 of my canon speedlites for far less money. I have one hotshoe speedlite that I never use on camera. I use it when I want a rim light. It also has a single lion battery. So yes, the setup I have now is far superior to lugging around 7 speedlights and all the batteries. In my OP, I also said I wish Canon made strobes. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't.

My present setup was a total of $1,700 (4 total batteries and chargers that came with them.). My Canon Speedlites cost $3,800 + 75 rechargeable AA batteries and a charger, + the Westcott gang them up things. Canon's flashes are very very nice. They just don't have the power I need and the batteries are a PITA. So is mounting them on the gang thing (can't remember what it is called). ;)

The charger below comes with 3 batteries for the AD200. The charger handles 6. $247
 

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Everyone has their preferences for their gear. I know mine. You know yours. I don't need a 6 way splitter, I no longer have to gang 3 or more speedlights together, and I have more power in one light with a single lion battery than all 7 of my canon speedlites for far less money.

My impression was you had seven speedlites, so you would need a six way splitter to charge six speedlites at the same time.

The charger below comes with 3 batteries for the AD200. The charger handles 6. $247

So you do use a six-way battery charger. As you said, whatever works for you.
 
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Everyone has their preferences for their gear. I know mine. You know yours. I don't need a 6 way splitter, I no longer have to gang 3 or more speedlights together, and I have more power in one light with a single lion battery than all 7 of my canon speedlites for far less money. I have one hotshoe speedlite that I never use on camera. I use it when I want a rim light. It also has a single lion battery. So yes, the setup I have now is far superior to lugging around 7 speedlights and all the batteries.
We’re all different and with different needs.

I personally love speedlites for some situations as you can just about hide them anywhere. No bulky battery packs or attached generators to deal with can be bliss.
 
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Ozarker

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We’re all different and with different needs.

I personally love speedlites for some situations as you can just about hide them anywhere. No bulky battery packs or attached generators to deal with can be bliss.
That's why I have one. I usually hide it behind the model when I use it. When I say strobe, I actually mean monolight. No bulky batteries.
 
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BLFPhoto

Canon EOS user since '91...
This is a good development. But as others have noted, they need to move beyond AA batteries. I love my 600EX-RTs (12 of them)...but I get tired of having to manage heat when I’m using them to shoot athletic events. For that I now use a pair of Profoto A1s and a B10x. Cross the 600EX-RT with the Profoto A1 and you’ll have my current desired product. Active cooling would be nice for my purposes even if it costs a bit of power.
 
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Flashes are like lenses, there is a bewildering array of them out there that all serve somebody a purpose, but that person probably isn’t us.

I have six 600-EX-RT’s and four PCB Einstein’s along with a variety of ways of triggering them. I will not infrequently use all of them combined if that is what is needed, both types have their advantages and uses and like lenses I have favorites but demand flexibility so have more than I use regularly.

And whoever works in the Canon flash skunkworks is nothing short of a genius, first the RT system, which just works, and second the 430-EX-III AI, that thing is a killer little flash. Stick a 600 tube in an active cooled head with Ai bounce that is an RT Master and every event shooter worth a darn would need one on each body to control the remotes.
 
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