I'm very concerned that I may have just done something incredibly stupid by accident...I was outside taking pictures and had my glove in front of the flash, and the flash went off, and a tendril of smoke rose up and now my glove and camera smell sort of burnt. I haven't tried to use it again because I don't want to make anything worse.
before you do anything..
go to a shop...
more than likely you have only burned out a bulb.. BUT!!! you do not want to take that chances.
and I do the same thing all the time.. so IMHO you didn't do anything wrong.
This reminds me of when I first started photography....
My brother actually convinced me that it would fry my camera if I covered up the flash when taking a picture. I've since done it several times and nothing happened.
Anyway, does your camera still take pictures? If it does you probably just need a new bulb.
Also, what kind of camera is it?
I just tested it, before I saw your post, actually, and the flash seems to be working fine, though I can still smell it a bit when I put my nose right next to it. It's a Nikon D40.
It's possible you caused the flash to reflect and singed the inside.
As long as the flash works, I wouldn't worry about it. :)
could you have possible just burnt the glove and just have the residue of smell on the camera? Cause until i bought a defuser i was using sheets of white paper for a difuser and never had it do that.