Abstract Nanostructured materials exhibit peculiar and unique properties unseen at the bulk level. One such behavior is the observed ignition of SWCNTs and others such as silicon nanowires and iron nanoparticles with an ordinary camera flash. In this paper, minimum ignition energy (MIE) of SWCNTs with an ordinary low-energy camera flash is reported. Experiments are focused on effects of incident pulsed-light exposure duration and wavelength on minimum ignition energy. Results indicate that lower energy/pulse is needed to initiate ignition when shorter flash duration is used. For example, at flash duration of ∼0.2 ms, it required 30–35 mJ/pulse to initiate ignition of as-produced fluffy samples in standard air, whereas at 7 ms duration, it needed 80–90 mJ/pulse to achieve the same result. Averaged intensities between 10 and 150 W/cm2 are needed to bring about ignition of SWCNTs, being a factor of 80 lower than cases where laser (pulsed and cw) is used in coal particles.