Smoke came out of my flash

[BrentGambrell]

This worries me.

Why did smoke come out of it?
I have the Rokinon D870AF-N Ultra Blitz. I got it two weeks ago and I've used it on four shoots.

I shot a wedding last Saturday and I didn't see smoke (because I wasn't paying attention) but I did smell an electrical scent. The same smell is coming from my flash right now.

I read on Yahoo Answers that I should never use it again because it can cause an electrical fire or explosion since the voltage is so high. Is this true?

After reading it, I quickly took out my batteries (just in case).

Help! My cousins wedding is in 10 hours!

[Cypher]

Any form of electrical smells or that burning plastic scent can indicate short ciruiting in any electrical device. I would really recommend getting a new one even if it means renting one just for this one time. Good luck

From someone who works with electrical circuits all the time, you're flash is about to die. Either a heatsync got bumped off, a wire crossed, or something else is happening to allow too much current to flow through your flash circuitry.

Is it dangerous? Probably not, as long as you don't open the thing up. Most flashes have a ~400 volt capacitor in them that would give you quite a jolt if you touched it (potentially fatal, but unlikely). For something to explode, you'd either have to put too much voltage in the capacitor or to much power across the flash tube, both of which are very unlikely.

So yes, buy a new flash. Is your current one safe? Probably, but I wouldn't take any chances, especially during a wedding.