Reinvent the wheel - make it rounder! :: /highspeed.php :: last change: 9.03.08
Highspeed photography
Updated: 12th dec. 2006
Highspeed photography (or stroboscope photography) is a way of capturing highspeed events on film, such as melons shot by a shotgun, balloons at the exact time of burst, etc. It is not so hard to do, but for the time being, I will not try to reinvent the wheel and tell you how. Please visit www.hiviz.com for information.
My equipment consists of:
-a Vivitar 283 flash unit (bought on ebay for 20$)
-an Olympus c4000 digital camera (has manual settings, which is the important part)
-a sound trigger for the flash, with attached delay circuit
-a tripod for the flash (you'll survive without..)
Put shortly, whatever you intend to photograph, it probably makes a sound. Use the soundtrigger to trigger the flash unit, while the camera is taking a picture, in a completely dark environment. This way you can even capture bullets in flight.
As of writing this, I do not have any good photos, only a few ones from my initial tests.
 Potato 2 |  Potato |  Lightbulb |
 Burst balloon |  Bursting egg |  Balloonburst 2 |
 Balloonburst 1 |
demanding more explosions!