For my studio photography I have a set of Prolinca strobes rated at 500 Ws. They fire in 1/2000 of a second, meaning that they deliver \$\frac{500 J}{1/2000 s}=1MW\$ for a jiffy. (No wonder that this causes a rather loud "clac" sound.)
I've always wondered how the capacitors can survive this. Are there electrolytic capacitors which allow repeated shorting?
(If the caps work at rectified 230V they must be 10 000\$\mu\$F to store 500J)