[Ben_Edict]

The highest speed I ever shot at was with video at 12000 frames per second on cameras capable of 400 000 frames per second.

Not bad at all. I never went beyond the 200 fps on an old Arri 16ST with the variable motor… At your video speeds the film would have burnt to ash inside the magazine.

Ben

[redrockcoulee]

Not bad at all. I never went beyond the 200 fps on an old Arri 16ST with the variable motor… At your video speeds the film would have burnt to ash inside the magazine.

Ben

Actually before digital video cameras were developed film was used and we still use an X-ray film camera capable of high speed photography. Our 'scenes' were short, sometimes recorded 300 milliseconds but had to edit out half of that as boring before and after stuff. The film was developed in-house do to classified materials but that was before my time and I moved to a non-photographic section so do not even do the digital high speed anymore.

[newarts]

In the 1960's I did ballistics research for the Army. One of our interesting cameras took 16 frames at more than a million frames a second. The film was stationary, polaroid x-ray film size, and the images were directed to the film by a very high speed rotating prism.

The flash had two capacitors about the size of a VW bug & was brighter than the sun. After the flash tube was on for about 10 microseconds, the remaining current was dumped through an arc to quench the light. It was so fast you couldn't see it.

This setup was used to watch cracks propagating inside ceramic armor in front of a hard 1000 m/s penetrator.

[Workingdog]

In the 1960's I did ballistics research for the Army. One of our interesting cameras took 16 frames at more than a million frames a second. The film was stationary, polaroid x-ray film size, and the images were directed to the film by a very high speed rotating prism.

The flash had two capacitors about the size of a VW bug & was brighter than the sun. After the flash tube was on for about 10 microseconds, the remaining current was dumped through an arc to quench the light. It was so fast you couldn't see it.

This setup was used to watch cracks propagating inside ceramic armor in front of a hard 1000 m/s penetrator.

Cool stuff. Did you work at Rock Island? Anyway here (Schmitt trigger photogate kits) is a kit using an IR interrupter to trigger the flash. Fire the bullet through the gate and it fires the flash. The gate is small though and the shot would require some precision. Here is a kit for a sound trigger Sound Trigger-Delay Unit Package

I have a closed outoor range that I can use at night for this. Safety will be the first priority. Unfortunately it's too darn cold to consider right now so I'll just have to practice with more mundane things like balloons an water drops until the weather warms up. I'll be sure to post the results.

[newarts]

Cool stuff. Did you work at Rock Island? Anyway here (Schmitt trigger photogate kits) is a kit using an IR interrupter to trigger the flash. Fire the bullet through the gate and it fires the flash. The gate is small though and the shot would require some precision. Here is a kit for a sound trigger Sound Trigger-Delay Unit Package

I have a closed outoor range that I can use at night for this. Safety will be the first priority. Unfortunately it's too darn cold to consider right now so I'll just have to practice with more mundane things like balloons an water drops until the weather warms up. I'll be sure to post the results.

I was stationed at the US Army Natick Labs and spent a bit of time at the Watertown Arsenal.

We mostly used a foil/paper/foil sandwich to close a circuit when the projectile penetrated it. This was followed by an adjustable time delay that triggered the flash.

What will you use for a fast flash? It isn't hard to make a fast spark gap (but they are dangerous if you aren't careful - any DIY high speed flash is dangerous.)

[redrockcoulee]

In the 1960's I did ballistics research for the Army. One of our interesting cameras took 16 frames at more than a million frames a second. The film was stationary, polaroid x-ray film size, and the images were directed to the film by a very high speed rotating prism.

Yes I think that is the set up for our high speed Xray but not the normal film cameras.

[Ben_Edict]

Yes I think that is the set up for our high speed Xray but not the normal film cameras.

The rotating prism set-up was, to my knowledge, applied also for standard visible light high-speed camera, because these high speeds can never be achieved with movement of the film, even if you would use a camera without the stepping mechanism of an Arri.

Ben

[Fishbait]

Have any of you done high speed photography that goes beyond the ubiquitous drops of water? I'm interested in capturing bullets in flight and similar high speed events.

How about water drops shot by bullets?

[Fishbait]

[Ex Finn.]

Nice. What muzzle velocity are you getting from that .177?

[Fishbait]

Nice. What muzzle velocity are you getting from that .177?

These were shot with a .22 caliber pellet with muzzle velocity estimated at 450fps.

[Ex Finn.]

These were shot with a .22 caliber pellet with muzzle velocity estimated at 450fps.

I was wondering if it was bigger than .177. I have an old Sheridan blue streak .20 cal. floating around somewhere in the house. Nasty little thing, 600+ fps.
Nice captures you have.

[Fishbait]

Water drop rebound column in 3 teaspoons of water shot with .22 caliber pellet. Camera mounted above gun barrel





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