KK_20070520_161651_mkfair07, originally uploaded by kenji.kato.

Kenji Kato visited the Quaketronics booth at the 2007 Bay Area Maker Faire. He brought his Nikon 10.5mm fisheye lens and Kenji took more great pictures which he uploaded to flickr.

There is a great video podcast about using the Quaketronics flash controller:

Make Video Podcast: High Speed Photography. Things were harmed in the making of this podcast!

Photo by Steven Noreyko

This high-speed photo is unusual because it wasn’t taken in the dark. While it is an homage to Doc Edgerton, unlike Doc, Steven was able to take this picture in a well-lit room. Usually high speed photographs are taken by triggering a strobe with the camera set to a long exposure time. Instead, Steven was able to capture the moment by electronically triggering the camera shutter. Here is Steven’s description of his setup:

Equipment:

• Nikon D200 camera with 60mm Micro lens
• 10-pin to 2-pin remote cable adapter (MC-25) and a custom Nikon 2-pin to 1/8 inch phono cable (same as Pocket Wizard adapter for remote firing camera)
• 1 Pocket Wizard Plus reciever
• 1 Pocket Wizard Plus Transmitter
• Nikon SB-800 strobe on manual
• Quaketronics FlashKit Trigger
• Laser Pointer

The laser pointer was set with a clamp above the drop surface with the FlashKit trigger opposite, with the laser pointing directly into the photosensor (”eye”) of the trigger. The trigger was cabled to the Pocket Wizard Plus transmitter.

The camera is mounted on a tripod, pre-focused based on a test drop. The SB-800 strobe is hard wired to the camera using a PC sync-cord and set off to the frame on a stand. The remote trigger cable is connected between the camera and the Pocket Wizard receiver. You can and use a hard cable connection from the trigger to the camera if you don’t have Pocket Wizards. The flash output was metered manually with a flash meter. It’s set pretty low on the strobe - perhaps 1/16th of full power.

The milk is being dropped using a rube-goldberg setup with a small piece of rubber tubing, a stand and a clamp. I didn’t have a proper eye-dropper in the house at the time.

Since we are triggering the camera instead of the strobe, I was able to work with the lights on (exposure was f/11 @ 1/200 at 100 ISO). A few test drops helped me to place the camera focus point and position the laser. Ideally the milk drop would break the laser beam each time and trigger the camera (although this was not precise since my drop system was not so great). Adjusting the height of the laser from the surface and changing the delay settings on the FlashKit trigger would vary the results of the splash. I don’t have specifics on how high the laser was from the surface or the delay setting on the FlashKit trigger. At that point it was trial and error, and checking the capture on the camera display.

Steven Noreyko is a professional photographer in Austin, TX. His professional site is www.stevennoreyko.com and his photoblog is at www.zoneix.org.

XenonFlashTubes, originally uploaded by Quaketronics Tom.

I tried kalimistuk’s technique for speeding up his strobe light. Kalimistuk modified the UK equivalent of the SnapShotII. He replaced the flash tube with a smaller tube to speed up the flash. I used a Radio Shack 272-1145 Xenon Strobe Tube, which is available for $4.75 from www.radioshack.com. I made some measurements and found that I also got a speedup.

This simple modification sped up my SnapShotII from a flash duration of about 70uS to about 40uS. That is equivalent to a speedup from 1/14,000 of a second to 1/25,000 of a second. The new tube turns off more quickly, which will help reduce the high-speed smearing even more.

The SnapShotII has a clear plastic cover on the end. This cover protects the bulb and probably also acts as a UV filter, blocking out the UV light that a bare xenon strobe tube produces.

The cover comes off easily. The bulb pulls out of a socket at the bottom of the reflector. Unplug the strobe first! After unplugging, wait at least 72 seconds before replacing the tube. This allows enough time for the high-voltage capacitors inside the SnapShotII to discharge to a safe voltage. Replace the cover after changing the flash tube.

The pins for this socket are the same as the pins used in an 8-pin vacuum tube. My junk box has plenty of old tubes, so I sacrificed one to get some pins. I soldered a Radio Shack 272-1145 Xenon Strobe Tube ($4.29 at www.radioshack.com) to three pins. The result is shown in the picture above. The original tube is on the left and my replacement tube is on the right. I plugged the replacement tube into the SnapShotII and measured the optical output with a photodiode and an oscilloscope.

This new tube does gets a hotter than the larger tube in the SnapShotII. This shouldn’t be a problem as long as you don’t run the strobe at too fast a flash repetition rate. At a high flash rate of many flashes per second, the tube may melt the solder joints, or I suppose something could potentially catch fire, which would be very bad! This overheating problem is worse with smaller tubes. In my first attempt I melted a small tube from a disposable camera! Be careful!

MilkyWay, originally uploaded by kalimistuk.

The speed of this strobe is amazing. This appears to be the fastest capture that I have seen so far using the Quaketronics flash controller. The lack of mottion blur shows that the flash duration is a short amount of time.

I didn’t know that you could get .22 pellets in green! Kalimistuk says that they come from Prometheus Pellets.

The Quaketronics flash controller can control a Snap Shot II strobe light. This strobe is faster than the flash that comes in the Quaketronics kit. I measured the duration of both flashes. The SnapshotII provides a flash about 1/8300 of a second, and the flash in the kit provides a flash of about 1/1700 of a second.

Similar strobes (except for 220V operation) are sold under different names in the UK. Look for the familiar shape, and two 6.32mm connectors (that fits a 1/4″ guitar cable) in the back.

Sometimes you can get a lower price on these strobes - today the price is low at amazon.com. I ordered a spare so that I can try the modification suggested by Kalimistuk: use a smaller flash tube. The Snap Shot II strobe is also available at musiciansfriend.com and other online suppliers.

hard boiled egg, originally uploaded by kalimistuk.

This photograph called “hard boiled egg” by kalimistuk is one of my favorites. His whole High Speed series is excellent. He shows what can be done with nerves of steel, a low-power sidearm, and willingness to clean up some spectacular messes!

Kalimistuk has also measured the speed of various flashes, and successfully modified a flash to make it faster. I will try out his mod, and if I can get it to work I will post it on the Quaketronics web site.

Balloon Waves, originally uploaded by Exocentric.

In this balloon popping photograph posted by Exocentric on the Flickr MAKE: Strobe Photography group there is a small amount of fine powder inside the balloon. I don’t know what powder was used in this picture, but others have reported good (but messy!) results with corn starch.

From the cleanliness of the red background, I would guess that this picture worked perfectly the first time!

This is a picture with a balloon in mid-pop. In high-speed photography, popping a balloon like the the ‘Hello, world!’ program in software. It is the first thing that you should try. It almost always works, and you get something that you can’t see with the naked eye.

Having taken many balloon popping photographs, I have come to appreciate the faces of the people popping the balloons. They are all unique and the pictures are not ordinary portrait poses. They are much more interesting, often capturing an intense expression.

This picture was taken at the Maker Faire in 2006 by someone who walked into our booth and used his own camera. You can do the same - we’ll be at the Maker Faire on May 19 and 20, 2007 at the San Mateo, California Fairgrounds. Bring your camera and give it a try!

wine glass in 3D, originally uploaded by espressobuzz.

If you cross your eyes, this picture pops into 3D! Click on the picture above to get to this Flickr MAKE: Strobe Photography group photograph for more instructions if you have trouble seeing the 3D picture.

Here is how it works:
High-speed pictures are taken in the dark, and sound triggers the flash. The camera is set to a long exposure time, but since the room is dark, the only light available is from the flash. If there is more than one camera, both cameras use the light from the same flash. In this picture, two cameras at slightly different angles share the light from a single flash, and capture the moment in 3D!

In a previous posting Espressobuzz tips off viewers to the StereoPhoto Maker software.