I've been following this for some time now:

Very High Speed Flash on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

It's just plain dangerous in my opinion. I was taking a different route where I was going to try to modify the circuit boards on the flashes from disposable cameras to get a much shorter duration. Perhaps 2 to 4 milliseconds. I figure that I would need to have 20-50 modified units on a common trigger to get enough light for a photograph at ISO 100.

The reason that I'm reconsidering the monster flash is a new paticipant in this project. He makes his living testing HV capacitors in quality control for a manufacturer here in Reno. I showed him this project and he said "your right. It's dangerous. Let me help." He then proceeded to explain the precautions that he follows with capacitors. It really sounds like he knows how to keep this in a safe zone.

My hope is to build something similar to this using more accessible parts. We don't have a large budget. It's just a hobby for us. If I can construct 3 or 4 of these things with the same design then we can do some multiple exposure stuff with balistics. I was considering an electonic ignition coil from some common junk-yard car. The capacitors may be a problem.

I like the direction that this guy took:
Techie Crap - a set on Flickr

His design is more understandable to me but I will need a more affordable capacitor bank.

I'll keep posting our progress. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions.

Thanks,
Jon