Invisible wrote:

> 
> Hmm. I thought that was the design goal of a capacitor?
> 

In the case of the capacitor storing the energy for a flash, flash 
discharges are actually rather finely timed. Something to the effect of 
1 millisecond for a full-power flash, this discharges the capacitor 
quickly, but not instantly. Lower power strobes only allow a partial 
discharge at the same rate, which is why recycle time is much quicker 
when using a flash at a lower power, because the cap isn't empty. 
Shorting a capacitor without a resistor allows high amounts of current 
to flow, which can cause an arc across the dielectric, thus destroying 
the capacitor. At least that's how I understand it.

In other applications, discharge is much slower, such as when they are 
used to smooth ripple current from a DC power supply.

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