is the stamp fast as a flash of lightning???

propwash

this may sound a little out there?? i have been takeing lightning pictures and use a canon elan 7e and a remote shutter release to take the pictures and the % of good pictures(lightning bolts in the picture)is about 1-3% for 5 rolls of film.if i shoot about 100 shots than im doing good if i get 3-6 pictures with lightning and out· of 6 only 1-2 may be very clear and good. what im looking to build is a electronic shutter release that works off the very bright flash of the bolt itself??i dont know if a photo eye would be quick to pick up the flash and cause it to close a circut to cause the camera to take the picture??it can be set on different fireing modes like the brightness of the flash or the length of the flash far as how long it is in time wise. the delay between it picking up the flash to closeing the shutter would have to be very fast .25ms or faster.. if you have any ideas or know something that could help let me know and i also have t basic stamps that are ready to build on.. Thanks for any help or ideas.Steven
· you can e-mail me at· propwash79@aol.com······ p.s when i get my scanner up and running i will post some of the best pictures for you all to enjoy!!!

Robert Kubichek

propwash said...
this may sound a little out there?? i have been takeing lightning pictures and use a canon elan 7e and a remote shutter release to take the pictures and the % of good pictures(lightning bolts in the picture)is about 1-3% for 5 rolls of film.if i shoot about 100 shots than im doing good if i get 3-6 pictures with lightning and out of 6 only 1-2 may be very clear and good. what im looking to build is a electronic shutter release that works off the very bright flash of the bolt itself??i dont know if a photo eye would be quick to pick up the flash and cause it to close a circut to cause the camera to take the picture??it can be set on different fireing modes like the brightness of the flash or the length of the flash far as how long it is in time wise. the delay between it picking up the flash to closeing the shutter would have to be very fast .25ms or faster.. if you have any ideas or know something that could help let me know and i also have t basic stamps that are ready to build on.. Thanks for any help or ideas.Steven
you can e-mail me at propwash79@aol.com p.s when i get my scanner up and running i will post some of the best pictures for you all to enjoy!!!

Some of the best lightning pics I have seen are taken by time-lapse photograpy ...


You might try it...

Bob

propwash

thanks for the help . the only problem is that im useing a 35mm camera and it has a bulb setting and in that setting as long as you hold down the shutter release the camera is takine the picture. the problem is depending on the light in the area it will"cloud or fog" the film make the whole picture turn white. so the darker it is the longer you can hold the shutter open. as for the time lapse picture its done with a video camera and its something i will try in the future. thanks again

metron9

http://www.lightningphotography.com/tips.html

Darn cool shots of lighting on this site and how to take the pictures as well.

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Think outside the BOX!

T Chap

your question cant really be answered since a bolt of lightening may last for too short of a period to get captured even for the cameras reflexes alone. Some lightening strikes last for longer periods, in which case you might be able to capture the image, but it is too variable to say. My guess is a fast Stamp could respond in a few microseconds to the sensor, and respond in under a millisecond with a high to your camera.

steve_b

I think you'll miss the lightning if you are trying to trigger on its first flash.
This may work for you if there are more than one strike after another....

If you have an ion detector you could detect when it's most likely for a strike to occur! I think the only problem with this is that it's a location thing....so if you set it beside you and it detects a potential strike...HIT THE GROUND!

Nevertheless, I have a feeling that others go through a lot of film to get those "really cool" pics of lightning!

On a side note: do you use any filters for the flash? I'd read that some ppl use "tropical" filters to reduce the amount of glare! I've also seen guys take off their sunglasses and put one lens over the camera lens!

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Steve

"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."

LoopyByteloose

The BasicStamp2p will accept PULSEIN as short at .8uS.


The SX28 will do this much faster in Assembler [noparse][[/noparse]25-50 times, I guess] because it can detect just the leading edge of the pulse AND it does NOT have to convert the code to PBasic.

Regardless of using the BS2p or the SX28, you would likely have to use a really goood quality photo diode for quick response over the visual range: One that is intended for 'light meter' type use. And since it outputs mere microamps, that would require some amplification via an OP AMP, possibly some filtering via another OP AMP stage, and finally conversion to a digital trigger pulse. It might be best to put your 'trigger' at the bottom of a tube so that it could be aimed to trigger only within the field of the camera lens.

Having gotten all that to trigger your shutter in a wink, you still have to consider the local light polution, the mechanical delay involved, the speed of the film, the appperture, and the length of the exposure to get it right. After all, it isn't just electronics - it is photography. And with photography, a truly superb shoot may be a matter of just dumb luck.

It would be nice to automate everything. While I love the photos, I have my doubts about standing atop high places in lightning storms. It reminds me too much of the German couple that photographed active volcanos. They became world famous. And then, they managed to get blown up.

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"If you want more fiber, eat the package.· Not enough?· Eat the manual."········

···················· Tropical regards,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Post Edited (Kramer) : 8/3/2006 3:19:50 PM GMT

propwash

thank alot for all of your help and it points me in the right way. i take great care when takeing the pictures and it the thunder can be heard 30 sec after seeing the flsah the i run to the truck and call it a nite and enjoy the lite show.what i do is set the camera on a tripod and set it to bulb and the ampture setting to 6.7 -8.9 when far away and 8.9 -11.0 when close. i use fuji 100 iso film and have run a bunch of roll and found the best settings and the kodak web site and other lightning nuts have helped with it to.what im looking for is something to help me a little faster and not to take the fun out of it. i have been takeing picture on the beach and turned my eyes to look at another storm and missed a very good shot.where would be a good starting point to look for a good phot doide?also i dont know what the light spectrum os far as color wise is (I R) and is it possable to use a I R sensor to pick up the very bright flashes?? also the lightning does not always have to stike the groung for a good shot .i have one picture where it is comeing out the side of the cloud into mid air and that look coooool.. thanks for the help and any brain stormingis welcome.steven

willthiswork89

you best bet would be to get a video camera and you can photo edit them right through the pc, just take it frame by frame.

propwash

the other thing is i use no filter and use a 35-80mm lense and if you play around with the settings like the aperture and time of the shutter holding open you can change the sky color. i have one picture where on one side the cloud look like its day lite and the other side it is dark and the cause is the lightning came from with in the cloud and out the other side.the other thing in north east fla that some of the storm produce very strong bolt the flash very fast and are very very bright and those are the bolt i sometimes get?what is a ion detector and where can i get on or do i need to win the lottery to get one? just and idea?

propwash

i have not tried the video camera and the only reason would be if it is clear for the frame by frame of the pictures.the film i use is a 100iso grade cause the lower the iso the lower the grain and the clearer the pictuer is and you can go lower in the iso but you are in the slide flim.i will check that out about the video camera and see if anyone in town will transfer the video to stll pictures. thanks for your help. p.s i have taken the basic and advance storm spotter class by the N.W.S and that helped out a lot and just useing your to know when to get to safety.thanks steven

DaveG

Steven,

Direct photography of cloud-ground lightning strokes is difficult because the first stroke is so fast, typically less than
200 microseconds. However, you may be able to catch one of the subsequent strokes. Typically there are 3-4 subsequent
strokes, at 40 millisecond intervals.

In practice, a photodiode could be used to catch the first stroke and trigger the camera. Your Canon Elan 7e has a shutter
lag of about 160 milliseconds, which means that you just might catch some of the old-channel stroke(s).

Actually, time lapse photography is much easier and produces spectacular results. It just wastes a little film.

Good luck.

Dave G

T Chap

the video wont give as good a resolution as 35mm film, but it will record a long time. if you were to possibly consider video, you'd be better off getting a good digital camera and shoot in long exposure(bulb) over and over again till you capture a strike. just delete the non strike shots. i have a high def sony video camera, and pulling a still shot out of it will never be anywhere near as good as 35mm or digital, not even close.


of course some people are just die hard film guys!

propwash

thanks again for all of your help and from what im reading it seem possable to buid it? not saying that im very fast at the shutter relese but im fast enough to catch some lightning bolts but not all of them.the other question is would a I R sensor or pyro senseor work for it to. also where would a starting place be good to start getting the parts and how to wire the unit up?the other thing is the camera release i think just closes a switch in the camera. i need to take apart the shutter relese to see what it looks like on the inside. thanks again for the help steven

RickB

Have you considered the cost of the wasted film and processing against the cost of a remote control digital camera?

Rick

propwash

yea i considered the cost and a $7.95 a roll for 36 exp and a average of 4 -6 rolls for each night out that adds up quick.if you think about it it wont be remote controled it would only have a light sensing shutter release. this would help with the great shot ratio of catching a lightning bolt in the picture.just something to make the work a little better.. if we did dont try to improve on what we have we would not be as far as we are??quote for the day

T Chap

Propwash

What about the idea of having the Stamp watch for a strike via some light sense circuit, then telling the camera shoot to X number of bulb exposures in a row via the PC sync. If no more strikes during that "round" it stops at a specified number of shots until it sees another strike at some point, then, it initiates another round (2 or 3 shots in a row per round?). At best you would capture a second or third strike, but not likely the first one unless it is a long one. What I am wondering is, what about overlapping strikes? Is that a bad thing for a shot to have multiples in a frame? If there was a method to remotely cancel the bulb shot in progress, you could count strikes in the Stamp from the sensor, and start a new shot at X subsequesnt strike while in a current exposure. Some experimentation with this method might allow for less overlapping of strikes in one shot, if desired that is.

I "think" the PC sync is a logic high 5V, which would make the Stamp easily suitable for triggering. You could have the program count to 30 or 60 seconds after a start trigger to the camera, with the Stamp looking for new strikes in the background and making decisions from there.


Just a thougt.

DaveG

Steven,

You might take a look at this link. Your camera is listed.

http://www.lightningtrigger.com/

Dave G

propwash

thanks for all of your help i checked out the web site for the lightning trigger and thats cool and its what im looking for but it "does not see the lightning but works off the lightning frequency and picks up all activity" this means if your shooting towards the north and storms are to the east and the east storm is a heavy striker the camera will run through the film. good web site and thanks again.the idea above from originator99 is a good idea and how and where would i start. if it can be done is have the photo eye pointing in the same direction of the camera so it sees the same as the camera andonly takes the pictures when the lightning is bright enough or use the lightning bolt brightness as a trigger? and ideas or plans are very helpfull and would a photo eye be able to pick up the flash and quick to pick it up to?? thanks steven