Never had any luck with lightning pics until this evening with violent thunderstorm and lightning in SW London - captured with Fuji digicam in movie-mode left on window cill - got 4 strikes totalling <1 second of video in nearly 20min which I'll spare you
Here's the 1st flash in realtime and slowed-dowm 30 times at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amKlD9GdFvM